Irreparable Damage

Mir Mahboob Ali

P

arirokh and her husband courted for months before they decided to marry.  It was a passionate pre-nuptial period intense with emotions. She was comparatively a tall lady considering the average height of south-east-Asian region. Slim and very attractive to the opposite sex, though not fair- the foremost quality of beauty according to the general notion in Bangladesh- she had a penchant for short men. A teacher in the university, Montakhab was a short man of thirty-three and Parirokh was barely twenty a sophomore in the same university. An experienced man in the affairs of the heart, Montakhab met Parirokh in a picnic party. He was nursing a wound as Shraboni a very pretty lady, he met in India, while pursuing higher studies there, had just jilted him. Parirokh strikingly resembled Shraboni; only Shraboni was much fairer in complexion. Perhaps, the resemblance attracted him to Parirokh. Parirokh for her part did not notice Montakhab. Both sang Rabindra sangit at the party.  Montakhab was a far better singer and trained but still a hint of sadness in Parirokh’s husky tone infatuated him. He began inquiring about her and arranged a meeting with her. Parirokh was inquisitive at being asked to meet a man she did not know. She was surprised when Montakhab began the conversation with a proposal of marriage. Annoyed by the abruptness of the matter, she was feeling very uneasy but was amused. To show that she was matured, since, it was a trait of her character to show off maturity, she endured the meeting to the end, but left vowing never to meet Montakhab again.

After about a month or so, she met Montakhab perchance, at a friend’s party. Montakhab pretended not to recognize her. When the host introduced her to Montakhab as a young high salaried executive of an American (USA) company, they met as if they were meeting for the first time. But the fact that Montakhab turned a high salaried executive from a teacher ignited interest in Parirokh. She even began to think, “after all, Montakhab is not that irritating!” They parted with a promise to meet again. Montakhab began to take her to expensive restaurants. She immensely enjoyed eating in restaurants, because she always liked the glitz, as she thought that enhanced her status. Therefore, she gladly accompanied Montakhab to places that were beyond her before.

Before six months had lapsed, they found themselves married. Both the families consented to the marriage willy-nilly, since, both Parirokh and Montakhab were adamant. She was the only daughter of her parents, and he was the eldest issue. The high salary and the lavish entertainment by Montakhab mesmerized her into a marriage she was, perhaps, not prepared for.  Just after their marriage because of a shift in government policy of the host country, the private American enterprise closed its activities and Montakhab lost his job. The whole joy of the newly married was ruined. Montakhab was depressed and considered his marriage with Parirokh a bad omen. He was superstitious. Anyway, he did not share his thoughts with Parirokh and Parirokh and her family was very supportive in that crisis.  As Montakhab was almost at his wit’s end, an appointment letter from a middle-eastern university came as a blessing from God, where Montakhab applied earlier and had forgotten all about that. He changed his opinion about his marriage with Parirokh. Parirokh now assumed a saintly stature in his mind, overnight.

Montakhab and Parirokh with renewed hopes flew to their new destination without bothering to know even about the climate of the country they were destined to. Arriving at the capital city, they were elated but when they were driven to a small town centering only on the university of which Montakhab was appointed a teacher, their enthusiasm was dented.   It was almost a village. There were only three families from their country, Bangladesh. They were very senior to them, precluding any intimate relationship. But still they considered themselves lucky that Montakhab, at least, got a job. Given the tender age and the love of company it was difficult for Parirokh to be satisfied only with the unquestionable love and affection showered by Montakhab. She felt lonely when Montakhab went to work. After a month or so, she returned to her country citing her studies not inconveniences. Montakhab was not pleased.

Being alone in foreign land Montakhab’s displeasure had grown into bitterness.  But when at the approach of summer vacation Parirokh proposed a European tour for honeymooning that, they could not have earlier, Montakhab melted like ice-cream in a the mouth. It also coincided with first anniversary of their marriage. 

They were enjoying their tour enormously but for Montakhab’s jealous nature, an attribute sharpened in him after being jilted by Shraboni and Parirokh resembled her. So, whenever Parirokh engaged in a conversation with a male, because of the animated perceived exuberance she displayed, Montakhab felt jealous and angrily kept murmuring inaudibly. Therefore, when on a train journey, while Montakhab was engaged in a conversation with a man for sometime, Parirokh leaving her seat joined them, Montakhab inexplicably got angry and shouted at Parirokh. Parirokh was offended.

“She always has animated discussion with males … a bit coquettish,” Montakhab thought, “…she never displays the same exuberance while in conversation with her fellow females…. Shraboni also loved male company….” As he remembered Shraboni, he got excited and more agitated at Parirokh’s perceived liking of male company.

As Montakhab was engrossed in the thought of the concocted cause of his outburst, Parirokh’s sulky silence all the way to the hotel eluded him. In the romantic setting of the hotel suite, after taking a shower, Montakhab’s passion erased his bitter feelings. He was filled with irresistible passion of desire and prepared to drown Parirokh in his sizzling love. But when Parirokh repeatedly rebuffed his advances, Montakhab got angry and slapped her. Parirokh began to have doubts about the appropriateness of her decision to marry Montakhab in a hurry.  Her dreams were shattered. She felt cheated and dejected. Her instant reaction to Montakhab’s violence was her decision to end her marriage. She was young and volatile and took a decision at the spur of the moment.

However, they were almost at the end of their tour and somehow they completed their tour without any more unpleasant incidences. They had to endure each other for only a day. Contrary to their plans, Parirokh did not accompany Montakhab to his workplace in Iraq. She returned to Bangladesh. He was genuinely sorry for what he did. Parirokh was so devastated by the suddenness of the event that she refused to listen to any explanation. Consequently, there was no meaningful discussion on the matter and it remained unresolved. Parirokh stopped writing to him and did not reply his letters.  As Montakhab was planning a visit to Bangladesh to settle the misunderstanding between him and Parirokh, news came of Parirokh’s pregnancy. Parirokh in the meantime sobered down and began to forgive Montakhab his rash act. Her pregnancy had a cooling influence on her. At that time, she began to desire Montakhab more than she hated him. In her emotional somersault in keeping with her volatile nature, she recorded songs sung by her and messages in her own voice for Montakhab and sent those to him, expecting equally, emotionally intense reply. She was disappointed. Parirokh shifted to her father’s residence from her father-in-law’s house citing pregnancy.

The news of Parirokh’s pregnancy after about two months or so since her angry walk out seemed unusual to Montakhab. On top of that, the intensely emotional messages, punctuated by audible sobs, seemed to him to be a conscious effort at softening him up.  In his cynicism, he messed up the whole thing and even began to question the legitimacy of Parirokh’s pregnancy. He thought, “Parirokh could not be pregnant … for we had not been together for long … no, no she could not be pregnant with my child ... how could she leave me, just because I slapped her…. … She even did not give me a chance to apologize…” All these disjointed thoughts inflamed his suspicion so much that his natural wisdom was muddled. Parirokh-messages rather than softening him down made him seethe in a diabolic fire of suspicion. He postponed his journey, which did irreparable damage to his marriage.

Though agitated by the messages from Parirokh, he was irresistibly attracted to those for some inexplicable reason.  On repeated exposure to Parirokh’s voice, Montakhab, a softhearted man otherwise, could not resist responding. He came to Bangladesh for ten days. He could have come earlier if he did not lose time brooding over, ‘To go or not to go’. Parirokh was recuperating from an abortion caused by a fall in the bathroom, a few days before Montakhab arrived. They could not be intimate. Parirokh was not happy. The journey was costly for a ten-day stay and he was unable to explain his delay. Parirokh though an extravagant spender, had a propensity to criticize Montakhab’s wisdom of financial management. In this particular case, she was scathingly critical as she was blinded by a perceived notion of an affair between Montakhab and one of his beautiful female students, Adibah who visited them a few times while she was there. To her she was the cause of the delay! She would not mention Adibah but kept harping on the inappropriateness of spending so much money only for ten days. Montakhab’s uneasiness grew as she kept on pressing for the reason of the delay. She was churning with the thought; “Adibah must have continued to visit him after I left. She melted like butter in the hand at being addressed by Montakhab.” When even after being bombarded with vehement criticism, Montakhab did not attempt an explanation, though visibly uneasy, Parirokh could not control and let the cat out of the bag. She blurted, “I know it is Adibah.” Montakhab ignited like a firecracker and blurted out the reason for his delay - her pregnancy! All hell broke lose… she began to shout at the top of her voice, “you scoundrel, you son of a … and even lunged at Montakhab with a penknife. Montakhab fended off with his hand and silently walked out of his in-law’s residence, to vanish in the darkness of the night.

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