A Piece of Reminiscence
(A Short Story by M. Menonimus)
A Piece of Reminiscence
A Piece of Reminiscence
Mrinalini is accustomed to getting up early in the morning and performing the morning prayer, she gets busy with household routine-like duties as- bathing, washing the utensils, sweeping the rooms and courtyards, preparing breakfast and tiffin for the children and so on. At eight o’clock the three children go to school and at about 9 a. m. her husband leaves home for his work. And from then till three o’clock in the evening, she feels utterly lonely. Mrinalini with her children and husband lives in a rented house in the city leaving her mother and fathers-in-law in the village estate. Sometimes she spends hours reading books though she does not like them. She only turns the pages and reads the headings and closes up the books without being gone between the lines. Sometimes she watches the television but soon it makes her monotonous. Then she lies on the bed but she can’t get to sleep. It only increases her boredom.
She is the second wife of her present husband. Her husband took her in marriage after the death of his first wife who met her end in childbirth leaving behind her two children- both are girls. Mrinalini was married formerly to a venture school teacher who was engaged in a senior college.
Today it is ten o’clock. She lies on the bed and suddenly her eyes fall on an old suitcase. She thinks to herself, “Why does she not cleanse it?” And she sees that a layer of deep dust had coagulated on it. Then she rises up from her bed and lifts up the suitcase from the rack. First, she sweeps it off with a piece of rag and then unlocks it. She found a heap of old clothes which she wore during the first few months of her remarried life. Already twelve years have passed. The clothes have given out a rusty smell. She unfolds them and thinks that it would be better to expose them to the sun. Hence she brings out all the pieces of clothes and beneath all she finds a piece of the cotton sari in rags. She remembers that it was a sari given by her first husband just a few months after her marriage. She pulls it out and takes it in her right hand and thinks, “How did it happen to come here?” She reminds, as far as she can, that all the things that bore the memory of her first husband had been spoiled by her own hand as she wanted to erase the memory of the man from her mind. But the more she tried to erase the memory of her first husband, the more his image came to her mind vividly, at least ten thousand times a day.
She remembers that her former husband was a thin, tall youth near thirty. Reading was his hobby and he occasionally seemed to practise poetry. He was a man with a peculiar whim and qualities that made him distinct from the rest of the people of his age. But he seemed to love her deeply which she was then unable to appreciate. He was taciturn in nature and he smiled less, and did his duty with speechless attention. He did not seem to be angry but if he got angry he seemed to tremble within. He was a good man.
But he had two weak points which she hated from the core of her heart and that was- first, he was almost a pauper- he had neither much land nor any other source of income. But if he wished he could earn as the other unemployed educated people did. He seemed to be indifferent to a better-off lifestyle. But all the time he kept busy studying new and new books which she could hardly like.
His second weakness was that he was in love with a girl until Mrinalini married him. She happened to know that he had even physical attraction to the girl and sometimes they had had carnal relations also. She could not bear this in mind. And she thought that he did not love her though he was generous in giving her love and affection. She remembers when he kissed her he made her mad and when he embraced her he was very enthusiastic and warm without the least pretence. She could understand his love but the thought of his premarital love affair with that girl disappointed her.
Mrinalini had also a premarital love affair with a young boy. She loved him deeply but her parents could hardly approve of it as the boy was below their standards. Their love affairs ceased after her marriage.
And these two were the leading causes for which she sought a divorce from her husband and consequently they were separated.
Twelve years have passed since her separation from her first husband. Every day and even all the moments, despite her conscious unwillingness, the image of her first husband comes to her mind. She sees him often in dreams also. But she never lets anyone know that her mind is preoccupied with the images of her first husband. She keeps it secret. She often becomes a philosopher and gets her mind lost within herself.
As the days pass, her love for her first husband keeps on increasing and now the two causes for which she took divorce from her first husband become minor cases and in turn, all his peculiar qualities come to be counted.
And nowadays in these solitary hours of the day, she becomes almost mad at the thought of her first husband. But she can neither tell anyone about it nor can bear it. She feels that had she got back her former husband! But it is impossible.
Already the sun turns into evening. She looks at the wall clock; it is three; a time when her children usually come back home from school. She, in a hurry, rises up from her bed and thinks that she must preserve that piece of cloth as a token of love for her former husband and then she grasps it with both hands and raises it up to her nose and sniffs it and feels how dearer this piece of cloth is! 0 0 0
A Piece of Reminiscence
N.B. The short story ‘A Piece of Reminiscence’ originally belongs to the book ‘The Prostitute and Other Stories‘ by Menonim Menonimus.
A Piece of Reminiscence
Books of Composition by M. Menonimus:
- Advertisement Writing
- Amplification Writing
- Note Making
- Paragraph Writing
- Notice Writing
- Passage Comprehension
- The Art of Poster Writing
- The Art of Letter Writing
- Report Writing
- Story Writing
- Substance Writing
- School Essays Part-I
- School Essays Part-II
- School English Grammar Part-I
- School English Grammar Part-II..
Books of S. Story by M. Menonimus:
Related Search:
- Indian English Short Story in English
- Short Stories with the Theme of Love
- The 12 Best Short Stories Ever Written
- Short Stories by Guy de Maupassant
- The Best Short Stories of the 21st Century
- The Greatest Short Stories of Anton Chekhov
- Short Stories by O’Henry
- The Greatest Short Stories of Leo Tolstoy ..
