Chapter 1

Poly and Pabitra, the siblings of the famous ‘Chowdhury Family’ woke up in flurry with the sound of blowing Conch and a captivating ( Heart-touching ) religious song ... singing by their mother Protima. Jumping from the bed and quickly washing their hands and mouth, they rushed towards their worship-room. They saw their parents and grandmother praying ... sitting on the floor in front of marble statue of the Goddess ‘Maa Laxmi’. Entering the sacred room, they sat behind them silently and just like them, with folded hands ( importunately ), they started to pray ... closing their eyes.

Although Protima was an eminent Singer cum classical dancer of Bengal, her next door Bengalee housewife look and active participation in various charitble works made herself a highly respectable woman in the society. So she was now very much happy achieving almost all the qualities a respected woman always dreamed ... and that naturally made herself a full fledged dignified woman.

And in case of her financial condition, her family should be treated as an upper level middleclass family ... maintaining more or less an affluent status of living. The steady flow of income ... coming from her dance troupe and music show ... and from her husband’s business kept her small five members consisting family in a stable position.

As she was against in keeping an outer person to comply her family’s normal household jobs, there was neither a male servant nor a maidservant in ‘Chowdhury Family’. Actually, with her self-sufficiency mentality, she preferred to do most of her family’s daily chores by herself and naturally that helped her to keep her body in fit. However they had a small car and when they needed to go for a long drive, Birju Soren ( A faithful Adibasi Driver of Palash’s brother Pijush ) would do that task.

Anyway, after her father’s sudden death ... just one month ago, her lonely widow mother Promila started living with her whose room was at the farthest corner of ground-floor of their two storied building. At fifty-five yrs, she was still in her good shape with proportionate curves which she consciously maintained through her veg-dieting and regular morning walk.

Although she was now totally devastated losing her beloved husband, she tried her best to forget that fateful incident by passing most of her times in Puja and praying for God. That’s why she decided to stay at that room which was attached with the worship-room. However other times, either she helped her daughter in cooking and serving food or watching the religious theme based TV serials. And being a graduate, she often helped her two grandchildren in their study who read in Class-XII ( Granddaughter Poly ) and Class-X ( Grandson Pabitra ) of a reputed Govt higher secondary school.

Anyway that day was Sunday and she was making some arrangements for the forthcoming Durga Puja with the help of her husband Palash, son Pabitra and her bosom friend Ajmira’s father Aslam. However Pabitra’s two friends Abdul ( Ajmira’s son ) and Birbahadr were also cooperating them ... so that the house was now quite busy.