Momotadi is a story written by Bengali writer Manik Bondopadhay. This story was taken from the book “Soriship”,published 1939. I love the main topic of this story,really heart touching. And i thought i should translate it and share with you. Hope you like it.
It was winter morning. I was studing,mom was chopping cauliflower. She came suddenly and said,” Do you need any cook? I will do babysitting too.”
A request without any hesitation,understood that she had many hesitation,but with hardly trying,she won it. So the amount of hesitation she should have to ask,that was also gone.
Her age was 23. She was wearing unclean sari (traditional Bengali women dress),the red colour of sari was discolourant. The veil was till face,skinny face was full of weariness,calm eyes. Her forehead had a wound scar.
Mom said,”Are you a cook?”
She shined and her face turned red. Mom’s heart could feel it,she tenderly said,”Please be seated dear.”
She didn’t sit,said, yes I’m a cook. Please hire me? I shall cook for you and do many other works.
Mom investigated her. She was not open-minded. She just answered mom’s question,did not say a word from herself. She said, her name was Momota. Her home is not too far from ours.She lived in Jibonmoy lane,27 no.house.She had a husband and a son. Her husband lost his job 4 month ago,can’t meet necessary demands, so she came out to look for a job. This is her first job. Salary? She doesn’t know it. She will cook daily but won’t eat. Mom desided to give her 15 taka. Maybe,she was expecting 12 taka,her eyes were shinning out of gratitude. But she just showed her gratitude quietly.
Mom said,”Okay,come from tomorrow morning”
She nod her head and was going immediately. I caught her up in front of the gate and said,”Listen,why are you going so quickly?won’t you see kitchen? Let’s go.I shall show you.”
She said,”i shall see tomorrow.”and went from there in a second,she didn’t show me respect!! I liked her,wanted to be friend with her,so i was deeply hurt by her act. I went to mom. She had soo sweet voice,face-eyes were full of love,but very rude😒😒!!
Mom said, why did you go after her?want to befriend with her? Don’t worry,she will love you. She was looking at you.
Felt good to hear that.I can’t say why i was going crazy to get her love that day.
Tomorrow morning she came and started doing her work quietly. She was quite intelligent cause she was doing her job perfectly.Did not ask any unnecessary questions and did everything in the right way. Her work was too flawless like she was doing these types of work since long ago.
Her discipline and working swiftness made all of us happy,she did not love me,mom’s foretell was not true,i was hurt by this. I asked water two times,went to kitchen four to five time hoping that she would love,but she did not. She just ignored. She ignored all of us. She worked from heart but avoided us. She come to work at 6 am to 10 am without a word and talked to mom a few time calmly. She was like a shadow. I became heated and went to school. Did she knew that every one was hoping to talk to her,especially me,young master of the house.
Few weeks later she got used to her work place and became my friend.One day,some guest had come to our house,they brought a bunch of rosgolla(a kind of sweet) and shondesh(a kind of sweet). I ate my share and went to kitchen and started eating more and more sweets like a thief,she came and grab my hand. I looked at her angrily but saw was smiling.
She told me i was looking at you the whole time and was counting how many you eat. You ate too much.You could get sick.Okay dear?
She wasn’t scolding me,was requesting me. If mom caught me up then she would have scolded me badly and i would have take more sweet and run away from there. But now i stopped eating,she said,good boy,come drink some water. Everyone was busy with guests,after drinking some water i sat by her side. I saw she was smiling.
I said,Bamundi [Hinduism cast Brammon is powerful in the society but Momota was from lower cast and writer’s family was from Brammon cast]
She shocked and stopped smiling. She was looking at me like i said something terrible to her.I couldn’t understand her.
I said,What happened bamundi?
She looked around.She mixed some salt in dal and suddenly came nearer to me and seriously told me,don’t call me bamundi.Just call me didi (sister). Will your mom get angry if you call me didi?
I said no by nodding my head. She hugged me, i was blushing.
Then we talked so much. If i could write it then it may not be precious in literature but it would have been my personal precious writing.
Suddenly mom came. She was hugging me,as soon as mom came she took her hands off me and was acting like a thief. I saw her fear in her eyes.In a moment, she kissed me in my forehead and said my mom,your little son can talk so much.
Mom smiled and said, he is like that. He keeps babbling all the day. Don’t love him too much,otherwise he will disturb you. Then mom went away.
I saw some teardrops were coming from her eye’s. Those drops were totally mystery for me. If mom insulted her,then her eyes would have been dry,mom gave her respect,so she cried out of happiness.
Few days later,i saw three bruises on her cheeks. Maybe,from finger. Aboni got the same bruises when teacher slapped her. It means someone slapped her. I got curious. Who could do that kind of thing? I asked her. She got shocked and said,it’s nothing. I slapped myself! Yesterday night a mosquito was on my cheeks so i got really angry and accidentally slapped myself.
You slapped yourself! I was laughing. She was also laughing with me,then started rubbing her cheeks and stopped laughing. I also stopped laughing. I felt like she was in pain.
I got concerned and said, you are not telling the truth didi. Someone hurt you.
Suddenly,she got emotional and said,no brother no, I’m telling the truth. Who can beat me?
I didn’t get my answer and so didn’t pressure her to say anything. I did not understand then that her husband had beaten her up. Her pale cheeks and three red bruises,i couldn’t stand it. I was going to rub her face but she took my hand to her heart. She said,what i don’t get from others,why do you want to give it to me?
I said,what do i want to give?
I didn’t get my answer. She got busy with cooking.
She had very gorgeous and longer hair.i started playing with her hair.
In the afternoon,i asked her,what will you do if your husband gets a job?
She said,what do you want me to do?give you Horir loot or treat you Shondesh.
I said,no no I’m not saying that. Your husband don’t have a job. This is the reason you are working in our house,but if your husband gets a job then will you not work in our house anymore?
She smiled and said,i will do and look I’m doing.
I said, That means your husband got a job.
She got a serious face and said,yes.
Mom was gossiping with other aunts in the colony that oh no!husband got jobless and she is working so hard. I was really concerned about her husband job.When i heard this news i was happy and told mom.
Mom called her and said, Your husband got a job?
She said,yes. Few days ago,from January.
Mom said,Are you thinking that you are not able to arrange us another cook and is this the reason you are not quitting this job. Well,don’t worry. We won’t stop you. We are really happy that your pain has come to an end. If you wish then you can quit your job at the moment.
There was tear in her eyes,she just said,i shall work.
Mom said,Why?Your husband got a job.
She said, his salary is too law. It won’t be enough for our family. Please don’t fire me. Don’t you like my work?
Mom said, no no this is not the reason.I was just thinking about you. We love you,we won’t feel good if you go away.
Then she went from there to kitchen. I went after her and saw her crying. She wiped her tear when she saw me.
Suddenly she asked me,Dear,what happens if you say lie?
I knew what happens if someone say lie. So i said,It is sin.One-day whr. I was coming back from school then saw her in the lane of Jibonmoy where she was buying orange from a hawker.she didn’t want me to go and i could sense that,still i forcefully went to her house. She brought two orange an took to to her home,Jibonmoy lane was too dirty. Who wanted to mock this lane by keeping it’s name Jibonmoy [it’s a positive word]!
She took me to her bedroom. It had two window. Sunlight could come through the window but no air couldn’t come through this. All the needy things were stored in that room. All of those were cheap and ugly things.
Her five year old son also was sleeping in that room. As soon as Momotadi went to that room ,she first went to her son and saw if he was okay.
She said, yesterday night, he had a stomach pain,i didn’t sleep along with him. His father gets angry.What happened?Why aren’t you eating orange. I atea orange. She was looking at me and said,We have only parched rice,i brought you to eat orange.
I said,i want to eat another orange didi.
She smiled and said,felt good. Wish everyone loved like you.
There was no air and sunlight in the house so we went in front of the house. She started gossiping with me and was doing household chores as well. She mopped the floor,washed the utensils,brought water then blended spices. Then suddenly said,Brother,it is your time to go home. Maybe you are hungry.
THE END
This is a short story. I couldn’t translate the whole story,i skipped a few lines. And translated the main points of the story. Hope you don’t get me wrong.
A Story-Feel the Emotions 