The Notebook: Page 3

For many days after that incident, Uma did not write anything. But one autumn morning, she heard a beggar woman singing about Uma (Goddess Parvati) returning to her parental home and meeting her mother, Queen Menaka. Uma rested her chin on a window bar and stood quietly listening to the song. As it is, the autumn sunshine reminds one of the childhood days, but, on top of that, if one gets to hear a song welcoming Goddess Parvati, the heart is filled with joy.

Uma could not restrain herself. She could not sing. But ever since she learned to write, she would write down the songs she heard and, thus, make up for her inability to sing. Today, the beggar woman was singing:

The people say, "Uma's mother, your lost star has returned."
Hearing the news, the Queen, mad with joy, runs out to meet Uma.
"Where is my Uma? Where is she?"
"There is my Uma," the Queen sobs.
"Come to me my dear, come to me my dear,
Come to me my dear, I will take you on my lap.
Stretching her two arms, clinging to her mother's neck,
Weeping with childish pride, the girl reproaches —
"You never came to fetch me."

Uma's heart also filled with childish pride, and her eyes welled with tears. She took the beggar woman inside secretly, closed the door, and began to write down the song in her notebook in strange spelling.

Tilakmanjari, Kanakmanjari, and Anangamanjari observed everything through the keyhole. They clapped their hands and said, "Boudidi, we can see everything that ou are doing."

Uma opened the door quickly and came out. "Please, my dear sisters, do not tell anyone; I beg you. I will never do it again; I will never write."

Uma saw that Tilakmanjari was eyeing her notebook. She ran and, picking it up, pressed it to her breast. The sisters tried to snatch away the notebook with force but were unsuccessful in their attempts. So, Ananga went and fetched Dada.

Pyarimohan came and sat on the bed with a grave expression on his face.

"Give me the notebook," he said in a thundering voice.

The order was not obeyed.

So, he raised his voice still higher and said, "Give!"

The girl held the notebook to her breast and looked entreatingly at her husband. But when she saw that Pyarimohan was rising to snatch away the notebook from her, she flung it on the floor and, hiding her face between her arms, crumpled on the floor.

Pyarimohan picked up the notebook and read out aloud what the girl had written. Uma's ears burned in shame, and she tried to dig into the floor with her fingers to hold it in a tighter embrace. The audience, comprising three little girls, was seized with an uncontrollable fit of giggling.

Uma never got back her notebook after that day.

Pyarimohan also had a notebook in which he had written down his subtle prickly theories. But no good Samaritan had yet snatched it away from him and destroyed it.

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