Border of Barbed Wire

Kajal Bandyopadhyay

Haripada Datta

Translated by: Kajal Bandyopadhyay

There was light in only one of the rooms of the first floor of the three-storied hotel in the border-region town. Javed could hear faint sounds of running night-coaches from a distance in that lonely town of midnight hours. He was standing, leaning against the wall. He then looked at his own naked body. He felt himself to be a naked boy who had climbed to the bank of the river in a wet body in imaginary fear of crocodiles. At a certain time his gaze walked like a cockroach to the bed. Popy was lying naked there facing the opposite direction. What rectangular lines on her back caught and fixated his gaze was the result of a long wear, impress of brassieres. Yet, Javed thought it to be wooden frames of painted doors. It occurred more to him that moving out of the room through that door would involve no barrier. It was one such door that was needed then. 

He then proceeded and stretched Popy that was lying in a curve to her full length. The girl was still then in so deep a sleep. His gaze was fixed on the bare body of the sleeping girl for a moment only. Next moment, like the black-coloured body of a mongoose, what surfaced before his eyes was the body of the newly-wed adolescent wife of his elder brother who had drowned four years back in the pond of their village-home. The place from where the body of the girl who did not know how to swim and who thus got drowned was recovered was a long distance from where her saree was found.

Then he spread the bedcover that was wound like a coil at a corner of the bed over the dead body of the girl who had died by drowning in the pond. He remembered that they two had decided on going to bed to lie in a naked condition, though they also knew that it was unnecessary. Then it occurred to Javed that he had covered the dead body of the drowned person in a coffin. Right on thinking that he picked up the lungi that was lying in a disorderly shape on the bed, and covered his body; he then faced the west and stood in a posture of prayer. The sura that he recited between his teeth is the one meant for recitation before lowering down a dead body in a grave. On finishing recitation, Javed came back to where in the room there was his bag. He unloosened it chain and brought out a big knife by groping from under the clothes. The knife shone in the light. It was Popy’s. It was she who had carried it from her home in Dhaka. Four months back she bought it on thinking that keeping a knife with her was necessary, and she did not fail on a single night to keep it carefully on the bed.

On keeping the knife in the proper place, Javed moved in the direction of the window. He looked at the sky that was a single whole in the darkness. His eyes suddenly got stuck to a star in the far sky. It seemed that this was the same star that Prophet Moses saw over the Mount Tur. Looking at that far star, Javed muttered to himself, “Alas Javed, a jobless graduate from the village. You could never procure a job anywhere. It so befell that you finally took a job at a garments factory! And then you fell in love with this village girl that had twice plucked at the HSC exam. You could kill the embryo that had grown up in her womb for three months. You claim to have so much courage, but you fled from Dhaka city to save your life from the hoodlums of your locality.

Javed waited for someone to speak out in reply to this. When none said anything, he came back from beside the window. On bringing out Popy’s face from the coffin, he called out to her, “Do you really think that they would really lift you after the day’s work that day? Do you believe that they would murder me if I had gone to oppose them? Anything like that might not have happened. Isn’t that so?”

Popy now woke up from sleep. But as the sound-receiving system in her ears failed to establish contact with the nerves in the brain, she could not hear clearly and wanted to know, “Did you say something?”

Javed did not reply. Popy raised herself on the bed, took the blue chemise from beside the pillow, and put the same question. Javed now wanted to know, “Did any body really come to your womb that time you underwent an abortion? If any body had come, dud he resemble Prophet Jesus, you think?”

Popy lowered her face to look at Javed’s face. As the burning bulb of the wall was in line with Javed’s eyes, the picture of a village inundated by flood was what she saw there in Javed’s eyeball. Then she loosened the zip at the back of the chemise to undress her two shoulders and half of her breast, and very slowly drew Javed closer to her. As she pressed her warm breasts against his hairy bosom, Popy said in a partially broken voice, “You really got very frightened while fleeing from Dhaka city by bus. Embrace me firmly, and you will find the fear gone. What is so much of fear with male persons?”

Javed’s voice became hoarse. He muttered, “Put out the light. There is no more the fear of the hoodlums of Dhaka here. But, if the light is put off, I shall no longer see in the dark room the person whom I fear very much here.”  

Yet, the light did not go. It silently went on burning for the rest of the night. The dawn came. The crows cawed. The curtains of the windows got removed. Popy saw the brightly clear dawn outside. About one hour after that Javed started dressing and getting ready. Popy wanted to know from him, “Will you complete the work of getting the marriage registered today? What did the hotel-manager say?”

Javed got startled. He looked in different directions, and said, “Marriage? But, what after that?” 

“What do you mean by ‘after that’?” She kept trembling after saying this? Javed made Popy sit on the cot by placing his two hands on her shoulder, and then placed her two eyes on her eyes. Popy took way her eyes. On rising from the cot, she moved in the direction of the window. One worker was pairing grills at a road-side wielding factory. There was frequent and audible sound of sparkling. Blue fire-sparks of molten lead were getting emitted. Those sparks were now burning the two balls of Popy’s eyes? Covering her eyes with her two hands, she said in a partially audible voice, “Why cannot I see anything?” 

Javed placed his eyes on the opposite wall and said so that Popy could hear, “We have spent all your and my hard-earned money and your gold chain during these two months at this hotel. What will happen to me, Popy?”

Popy moved away from the table. One can not say why she overturned the two pillows of the bed. She put off the pillow-covers, those were blood-sucker bugs there. She overturned the bedcover, the …… , those were bugs there also. There was one pressed-up match-box there without a single stick. Popy broke it into parts, and scattered it over the whole floor.   

Javed, lowering his head, moved in the direction of the floor. Popy caught and pressed his right hand, saying, “Where are you going?” Javed freed his hand and looked at her face. The gaze remained fixed for some moments. At one time, she said, “Why have you, like the snake-charmer women, painted the …… on your forehead? Is that a cobra?”  

Popy did not answer. Javed stretched out his hand and wiped off the black tip on Popy’s forehead, and said, “Let me bring the breakfast for you.”  

That was a going out of doors by Javed in search of the food for a single woman, but there was no question of his coming back. The day was drawing to a close. Popy had, in the mean time, gone to the hotel-manager for three times. But, she wept only for once. The other two times it appeared to her that weeping would make the manager touch her shoulder and cheeks and give her the warmth of his body. On the occasion of her crying, the manager said, “Hasn’t the scoundrel fled away leaving you here?” As she didn’t cry for a second time, then he said, “Maybe, he is on the lookout for a job.” She had, at that closing time of the day, forgotten the cup of tea and that single chapatti that he had on that occasion of her crying forced her to eat. She was remembering Adam then. On being driven away from the heaven to the earth, he had entered into the forest to look for food for Eve. But, Adam had lost the way of coming back. He was walking and walking in search of the path back. The basket of fruits was on his shoulder.

Javed came back empty-handed at night. Popy went forward to know from him literally, “Have you this time also brought Gandham fruit?”

Javed eyed Popy with cold eyes. On getting no reply, Popy asked again, “Where would God throw us this time for our sin?” There is no other heaven and no earth. Where would he, tell me.”

Javed took down his eyes and moved two steps forward. Taking up the shoulder-bag, he said in a broken voice, “Let us, Popy, move to go back to Dhaka.” 

The serpent of the tip wiped off from her forehead leaped down on the floor and started swaying its hood in front of Popy. She clutched one of the mosquito-stands of the cot.

Popy was trembling. She was trembling in a very perceptible manner. Pressing her very much heavy head on the cot-stand, and keeping her eyes closed, Popy said, “Did I flee from Dhaka, grasping your hand, to go back to Dhaka? Kill me, but do not bring this word. to your mouth.”

Javed now flopped down on the floor, reclining himself on the wall. His bag was on his lap. His head lowered forward. He whispered, “I shall be murdered if I go back to Dhaka alone; if I take you along with me, I shall get back the job. Will they murder you? No, they won’t do that. I believe that they will not look in your direction for more than one night. Get prepared for one night’s suffering, Popy; I am ready.”

Answerless Popy stood erect as she was swimming ceaselessly in the unbelievable words of Javed.

Javed stood up as he was whispering, “You shall have to bear with pains for a night’s time in exchange for my pains of a whole life’s time. We shall then forget everything and become new creatures.” He opened the bag and, with a quick hand, brought out the dagger. With the dagger in hand, he proceeded. Popy covered her eyes with her two hands, but removed them then quickly. She shifted her gaze to the silently burning lights. But, for a moment. She started putting off all her dresses very promptly. Naked Popy then said in an inarticulate voice, “Look at this, look at my body. Look how so many things are there in my body. This body is thousands times more valuable than the dagger.”

Covering his eyes with his left hand, Javed said in a hoarse voice, “Put on your dresses quickly.” 

Popy quickly put on her dresses. Now she mutters, “Even if it is negligible to all others of the world, Popy’s body has much value to that goon of Dhaka city for one night’s time.”