Short Stories

 

MY RELATIONSHIP STATUS

I am Professor Sarika, Professor Calcutta University, single, unmarried, and staying alone in Kolkata. You must be thinking, why I am still unmarried and single? There is a long story behind this, and let me tell elaborate.

I was born in a very remote village in New Alipurduar District of West Bengal in a lower middle-class family. But at the age of 5, my parents died in a bus accident. Then I was shifted with my cousin’s family in Siliguri, where they used to live in an apartment. They were not poor but being a middle-class family, just managed to make ends meet. I did my schooling in Siliguri, in a government, Bengali medium school but my cousins were in Private English medium ICSE board school. They were fluent in English unlike me, but I was not poor in the study, so I always wanted to learn English. I completed my Secondary and higher secondary in Science stream from the same school. My school days were not as easy as my cousins’. I was never ill-treated but it just that I was not treated equally as my cousins.

I wanted to pursue my graduation from Viswabharti University, Shantiniketan, one of the best universities in the world and in my state. But I was never allowed to go far from the home. So, I had to complete my graduation from University at Siliguri. But my cousins went to their desired universities. After my graduation, I wanted to study further but I was forced to marry a rich guy in Siliguri. I got married but my married life was not happy from the beginning itself. My husband regularly got drunk with his friend while returning from work and used to hit me at home. I tried telling my sister-in-law, mother-in-law, uncle, aunt but didn’t get any solution. Everyone suggested me to compromise with him. But till when?

I have had enough and planned to leave my husband but he was not ready to divorce me. So, I ran away from my husband’s house to Mumbai and joined a Catholic Christian missionary. I worked there as a cook and somehow managed to lead my life in Mumbai. I was happy to leave my husband and living happily in the missionary. My love for studies motivated me to study late anight after my work. My desire to learn English helped me learn English from Sisters, Brothers, and Fathers in the Mission.

One day I met a Marathi guy, Rajneesh, tall, dark, and handsome. He used to supply kitchen materials and food items to the mission. We used to meet almost every week and eventually started liking each other. One, fine day he proposed to me and I accepted. We were in a happy relationship. Few months into our relationship I got pregnant.

When I informed him about my pregnancy, he was in shock, and knowing this I got shocked. He asked me to abort but I was not ready to kill my baby. When sisters and fathers got to know about my pregnancy they asked me to leave the mission. I requested Rajneesh to inform his family but he was not ready to inform and forced me into abortion. He used to abuse and assaults me daily to kill my baby, but I was not ready. He was determined and tried every possible thing to kill my baby and I tried my best to save. Ultimately I gave in and couldn’t save my baby. Having lost everything, I decided to leave him and Mumbai.

So, I came to Kolkata and started to give tuitions for living. I planned to pursue Masters and applied for it as I continued to give tuitions. In the beginning, it was difficult for me in masters as I was pursuing after a gap of 3 years from my graduation but I managed to continue with determination. I made new friends in the universities and again it was my happy period. One day a boy named Arun proposed to me, he was from my new close friends’ circle. He was a very nice guy so I accepted his proposal. Eventually, after a few weeks, he offered me to shift with him as I used to stay alone. So, I shifted with him to his place and started our live-in relationship. After completion of Masters, we both decided to pursue a Ph.D. together. But he managed to enroll in the best University but I couldn’t get admission to the same College. After enrolment in Ph.D., I asked him for marriage and he accepted, so he introduced me to his family.

When he introduced me to his family in his home, they asked me a lot about my past. After learning my dark past they denied our marriage proposal. But still, he consoled me and continued to be with me so I was happy to be with him. But after one year his family started forcing him to leave me and get married to the girl of their choice. He denied since he never wanted to leave me, but his family was forcing him and asked him to choose between me and his family. So, I asked him to leave me, because I didn’t want him to leave his family because of me. And in the end, he had to go with their choice because he didn’t want to leave his family either. Since that, I decided not to marry and stay singles whole alone my life.