A Moment Of Eternity

A Moment of Eternity - Bhabani Bhattacharya

The Prisoner was waiting for her verdict. The Judge known as out "Prisoner at the Bar". There was faltering in his voice. There was a knot of difficulty and throbbing of the old man's heart. The Prisoner had to resolve his issue. So she smiled at him. As the Judge cried he looked away, and the Prisoner felt he was like her Father. There was black cap waiting on the table for the Judge. It implied death. It was meant for the Judge to look like Yama. The convict pitied him for his problems and loved him for his tenderness. There was mercy in the Judge's face. Possibly he would not don the black cap. This was the moment of eternity. It was a condensation of all that occurred. It was the moment of a drowning particular person yielding his final breath. Maybe the convict was to be drowned not in river or tears or passion, but in mercy. But mercy was not coming soon after all. The hands of the Judge fumbled towards the black cap. It meant that the convict, the mother of Sona Mona was to be condemned.

It is in this moment of eternity that the life story of the convicted lady, the mother of Sona Mona is flashed just before the eyes. Sona was a modest girl youngster, not far more than 4 feet tall, who would bath joyously in the tap water of the wall. Mona was younger. Mona was a child girl whose name had no which means, but was meant to rhyme with Sona which meant gold. The lady had these two tiny daughters.

Her husband was a shrunken man, with dark circles beneath the eyelids. He utilised to be sleepless with be concerned. He had not wanted to marry but due to the fact of his old grandmother who had encouraged him saying one day he would be Higher Court Judge with his finding out and would find no problems in feeding an a lot more mouth. But regrettably he lost the clerical job he had in the coal merchant's workplace. His wife who wanted to support could aid in no way.

Then he got the job of a bus conductor. But he was currently ill. He had fever. Abruptly he started to cough and spewed up blood. For one second he was pondering of the good factors he would get with his month-to-month spend and the cost-free health-related assist he would purchase. But the sickness was galloping inside. He had to be moved to the hospital, but the beds have been complete. His wife nursed him. She believed of the story of Savitri and Satyavan and how Savitri had fought against Yama and brought back her husband from the dead. But the mother of Sona Mona could not be Savitri. Her husband expired.

Then she believed of a way of suicide. There was a stock of opium in the residence which Grandmother employed to take. She gave some to her two youngsters. Rest she took herself. Her two kids died. But she lived. She believed of losing her sanity. But there was no way she could drop her sanity. She believed of a variety of other approaches of suicide. Drowning, Fire but to no avail. Mona had suckled death out of her breasts and Sona had taken it out of her hands. Now she was presented for the verdict of the Judge. She was charged with two cold blooded murders and try to suicide. She did not plead insanity. She confessed that she had carried out it in complete awareness. She hoped for death as punishment from law.

But to her amazement, anger and disappointment the verdict was that she was to live. She would be imprisoned for 4 years. The moment of eternity came to an end with the sentence. She was a victim of the old man's mercy. She prayed for insanity but it did not come. The ringing voices of her two modest daughters whom she had killed rang in her ears.

This story is a pathetic tale of poverty. It is the woes of a helpless lady and a mother. What she had accomplished was to save her youngsters from intense poverty. She had wanted to be Savitri. It reflects the situation of an Indian lady left with out a husband. She can't fend for herself and she is left without other option but suicide. It is a pathetic image of poverty and hapless motherhood.