Short Story
The nose pin
When Ameena's mother put on a small, gold nose pin on her nose, Ameena felt very special. The nose pin had a sparkling white stone in the middle. It seemed to give her a place of her own among her two older sisters. She was twelve years old when the nose pin was put on her nose. Ma had invited three village women for the special day. They had sung some folk songs and then one of these women had pierced Ameena's nose. It was the first celebration of an event in Ameena'a life. Ameena often wondered why her mother had given her such special treatment. After all, she often heard Baba complaining how, as the third child, she had turned out to be a daughter. She sometimes wished that she could turn the wheel back and become a son, the torchbearer of the family. Why were there so many women in the village who had two daughters and then the third child was a son? And this gave Ameena a feeling of having failed her parents, as if being a third daughter was something to be ashamed of. But the nose pin seemed to raise her spirits a bit. Maybe her mother was not so disappointed after all. Ameena lived in the quiet village of Bongaon in Habiganj. The village held a special place for girls after they had their nose pins. They were sort of looked upon as budding women. Ameena's sisters were teenagers and were already married. And so Ameena, with the nose pin, was shown a light, as if to remind her that she was soon going to be a lady like them. The nose pin was like a significant stepping stone to her. Ameena was a dark complexioned girl. But she had the most beautiful eyes, large and dark. The curved eyebrows seemed to compliment the eyes that had a hint of sadness. Once you looked into the eyes you felt like knowing her more, to ask her if she was happy. The wide, generous mouth with the beautifully shaped lips held just a hint of smile. And over it the pert nose with the nose pin now added a hint of mystery; a mixture of sadness and smile. A poet would say that Ameena's face was sheer poetry. The white stone on the nose sparkled when it caught light and added grace to the face. Ameena spent long hours staring at her reflection in the small mirror that hung on the wall of her mother's room. She liked her face so much more with the nose pin! Especially when the sun was pouring through the open window she would stand in the light so that the sunlight caught the stone fully and it sparkled just like a star! Why, even her father seemed to treat her with a little respect after she had got her nose pin! Every morning when Ameena washed her face in the pond she took special care of the nose pin, she was very careful. She did not want to lose her pin. If it fell in the pond she would never get it back. There were other girls around her in the morning. They all came to fetch water and wash their faces. Ameena felt proud of her nose pin when she looked at girls of her age, those who still did not get the nose pin. The little white stone made her stand out among other girls. She felt more loved and cared for by her parents. At the same time she felt sad for them. Maybe their parents had not been able to provide them with nose pins. She felt lucky in that sense. Her parents were also like other villagers, relying on daily earnings through selling their meagre cash corps. But her mother had saved money bit by bit, to provide her daughter with the dignity of a nose pin. Ameena often sat under the coconut tree with her village friends. The wind would have the tree sway and the sunlight would make intricate designs on the ground. Ameena and her friends would feel refreshed as the wind blew over them. The sky overhead would loom like a vast canopy. Birds twittered on the trees nearby. Quite often the friends would remark how beautiful Ameena looked with her nose pin. They would speculate when and how they too might get nose pins. The village lay serene and beautiful below the pond. The yellow mustard flowers looked like sheets of gold under the bright sunlight. Then suddenly Ameena's mother would call out her name and the girls would scamper and fill the pitchers to go home. It seemed as if by sheer magic of the nose pin Ameena was soon wedded off to a rickshaw puller. Her in-laws provided her with a gold nose pin, the only gold ornament. Her own parents gave her a chain and ear rings made of silver. It would all be less significant than the nose pin. Village rites decreed it was compulsory for the in-laws of a girl to provide the nose pin for the bride. During the 'gaye halud' Ameena's mother opened her white nose pin and put on it the red stone that had come from her in-laws. Red was the colour of love and warmth for the villagers. White should not be there in matters of wedding. Ameena's mother and other village women sang folk songs as the nose pin underwent change: " shundori khulo tomar baper barir ful
pindo tomar shoshur barir nak-ful
hasho tumi ekhon shundori putul.."
( O beautiful, open the nose pin of your father
wear the nose pin of your in-laws
now smile, beautiful doll…) Every time Ameena went to fetch water from the pond at her in-laws house the other women would praise her nose pin. They would say that her marriage had added to her grace. Indeed the nose pin made her look so very happily married! "Manik Mia has got his bride with a red, gold nose pin! How lucky you are!" Manik Mia was Ameena's husband. He was liked by the villagers for his gentle manners. He was hard working and came home to his wife at least twice or thrice a week. He was dark complexioned, just like Ameena, but very handsome and manly looking. Ameena smiled shyly every time he said "The nose pin makes you look so lovely, my wife!" He would call her "Bou" (wife) over and over again as if to make sure indeed Ameena was his newly married wife. Compliments from her husband made her blush and she would cover her face with the end of her sari to hide her face. Her husband would pull the end down and hold the face, the lovely dark face and say " Amar bou kalo, kintu jogoter alo…" (My wife is dark but she is the light of the universe). And he would love her endlessly. Ameena, just into her puberty, had found a man in life, the very first man of her life. When Manik Mia was home, dawn would find them both lying in each other's arms till they got up to bathe in the pond. On such days Ameena would look at the face of her mother-in-law very shyly and ask her what to cook for the day. Her mother-in-law would suppress a secret smile and sigh. Her son was very happy indeed with his wife! Ameena , happy beyond words, often opened the little box in which she kept her old white nose pin and stared at it. It seems as though it was this pin that had brought her all the luck. But alas! Good things last but only briefly. Within a year of her marriage Manik Mia died in a road accident. A truck hit the rickshaw and he was killed on the spot. By that time Ameena was already the mother of a two-month old son. The villagers carried home the inert body of her beloved husband. She stood before it dumbfounded. The baby was in her arms. The baby cried in her lap wanting to be breastfed. Ameena just could not go inside the house to feed the baby. Her place was there in the yard where her dead husband lay. It seems as though the red marks from the oozing blood on the white cloth covering his body were like the red stone of her nose pin. She felt as though she was wearing a drop of blood from her husband. She touched the pin as if to make sure that it was there, the gift from her dead husband. Her mother-in-law came and gently took the baby from her. Some village women sat around her and took off her bangles, her chain from her neck and her ear rings. A widow was not supposed to have any jewelry on her body. "Nakful…nakful….oita khulo" cried some women. (Take off the nose pin…) Ameena held on to the nose pin as if to say "No, no, no…" to their requests. No, her husband was there with the nose pin, this was the symbol of her marriage. Her heart cried and she seemed to feel an evil string pulling her somewhere down, down into a dark void. Her mother-in-law came near and said softly: "She has a son and so she can wear a nose pin. Let her keep her nose pin. But let her wear a white one. Red should not be worn by a widow." Someone got Ameena's old white nose pin from the house. And then a woman was changing the nose pin. Ameena put on the white stone. She at least was given the dignity of being a son's mother through her old nose pin. She looked at the white cloth covering Manik Mia. The white stone and the white cloth; all looked so alike! Maybe if her mother had given her a pink stone all this would not have happened! Maybe the white nose pin was not all so good after all! But then, she wondered why the red nose pin had favoured her for such a short time? Ameena stared on at the dead body of her husband. Her son continued to cry on for her milk. Overhead the sky suddenly darkened and clouds gathered. The sun disappeared behind the clouds. Crows started cawing ominously from the trees nearby. "White nose pin, red nose pin; how did these touch her life?" A voice seemed to be echoing in her head. Ameena just wondered as she stared at the baby's face. For this baby she was to use the white nose pin! She wondered what luck it would bring for her son! The baby in her lap, the dead husband in the yard, the changing nose pins; all these were a blur for Ameena. She kept on wondering how a nose pin so small could rule her life! The pride of having a son had blessed her with a white nose pin! Which nose pin would come next?
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel.
Comments