The afflictions people suffer through:Jackie Kabir finds she is dealing with strange matters

Rourob is the name of a Hindu hell. In this case, it symbolizes individual affliction. Leesa Gazi, an expatriate and an actor, has had her first novel published --- at this year's Ekushey book fair

The story is about a woman who enters into marriage with an impotent man in all senses of the word. But just as many Bengali women accept their fate without any complaints, she does it too. In the process she suffers and makes her two daughters suffer as they grow up, so much so that so that they all inhabit their individual hells. The girls never go to proper educational institutions, have never made any friends and are always locked up in their own territories. The older girl Lovely always hears a man talking to her. She is more outgoing whereas Beauty prefers to stay alone in her room. She is addicted and gets the grass from the boy working for her as a servant. The sisters are somewhat neurotic as they hardly have any connection with the outside world. And they are just the opposite of each other. More often than not Lovely will be locked up in her room with migraine while Beauty will get the latest Hindi movies for everyone to watch. Beauty is loud and speaks back to her mother, who acts almost like a tyrant, while Lovely is very submissive to her. Even the father's presence is not felt by any member of the household. He is more like a house husband after his retirement and is frail.

The main events of the story take place on Lovely's fortieth birthday. Farida Khanom is annoyed by thoughts of Bashir, which is triggered all of a sudden as she muses on Lovely's birthday. He is a distant relative of her husband and used to stay on payment in her house in earlier times. Farida is too busy to go out with her daughter that day and Beauty is in deep sleep in her room. So she lets Lovely go to New Market to buy some clothes for herself.

Lovely knows her mother will prepare pulao with hilsa, duck and rice pudding for her birthday. Every year it's the same for both the sisters. They are both appalled by their mother's meticulous routine. The girls hate the rituals with all their might and yet carried on with them as robots would. Farida Khanom has never failed to carry out her duties religiously.

Farida's family all know very well that the routine will have to be followed scrupulously if they do not want all hell to break loose. So each and every one complies, no matter how much they dislike doing it. Lovely, however, breaks the law that day. She goes around the market to buy some clothes and a sharp knife. 'Give me one with which I can cut the meat……. My husband doesn't like me squatting on the floor to cut things,' she tells the shopkeeper. Her next destination is Ramna Park, where she had never trod before, not even in her dreams. To her surprise she meets a little girl, her namesake, who sells water to her at five taka a glass. She envies the girl, who is flitting about like a butterfly. She sits there, enjoying the sunlight and savouring the gaze of strangers as the most adventurous events of her life. While she is cracking some peanuts, a rather strange person comes to chat her up. She even considers accepting his offer to go to his flat with him for a split of a second. This man whom she calls 'lal muffler' makes her go back in time to an episode of her life years ago.

Her cousin Riaz would come to visit her on the pretext of giving notes to her during their HSC exam. They would spent a lot of time playing, chatting and smooching while they thought no one was noticing. She seemed to have lived for that event. But suddenly one day Farida Khanom declared that Riaz was forbidden to come to the house; it sounded like a death sentence to her. But she acted normally, smiled at her mother as though nothing had happened. Lovely was locked up in the room for more than a week after that event. Her younger sister was somewhat rewarded for some obscure reason she didn't understand. The man in her head now asks her if she has ever wondered why Farida Khanom had suddenly asked Riaz never to come again. She sits there well after her curfew is over, knowing fully well what the consequences might be.

The plot of the story is well planned though some of its aspects could raise questions in readers' minds. For instance, there is the only mobile phone which is plugged to the charger at all times, with only Farida Khanom having access to it. Most people in this country prefer their daughters married off. So what makes Farida keep her daughters in the state of spinsters is also a question. But then, there are exceptions which makes of them stories for us to read. A husband who is impotent will surely feel helpless. But will he allow his wife to sleep with another man in his presence? Farida's husband Mukhles had rented out a room to his distant cousin knowing fully what the consequences might be. This may be yet another question.

The use of contemporary language and the lucidity of the narration makes the book unputdownable. One can just leaf through the pages without knowing when the end is reached. There is the strong voice of the writer in the narration, the pictorial description of the surroundings almost makes the reader visualize the events that take place. The ending, though, shocks the reader. And makes one wonder if there was any way the writer could at least save one of the characters from their personal hell.



Jackie Kabir writes and teaches. She is a member of various book clubs .