Raikamal : With Pain Matures Life

                    Every ounce of pain brings an ounce of maturity. However strange this may sound, yet it is true. Someone who has not felt pain and agony has not had any substantially sensible growth. When sensibility has not managed to grow the person has not managed to get matured. Today in InDepth, I take up a story as our subject. A story in which we try to explore a life; a life which is distinct and singular, a life which is that of a girl. We read about her pains and we take a look at her rather unique journey. The associated romance is just a background character. Finally, in the end, we try to agree if the protagonist attained her much needed maturity or if she failed.

                   Somewhere in Bengal lies a village of Hindu Vaishnavas. Vaishnavas, or the followers of  Lord Vishnu, are nomads, travelling from one place to another, from one village to another, in search of happiness, solitude and above all, tranquility. Kamalini, or Kamal, is a child destined to be a Vaishnavi and Kamini is her mother who is a practicing Vaishnavi. In their lives run regular begging, daily chanting of holy hymns and a holy urge to mingle with any and all. A boy Ranjan befriends Kamal but their friendship fails to take its due shape, for, Ranjan's father opposes their closeness. Kamal and her mother is somewhat coerced to leave the village; they travel all the way to Nabadwip, the revered place where Lord Chaitanya was born. The first stroke of pain hurts Kamal. Her eyes knew the love, her heart bore it, her face showed it, but her life could not welcome it!

                    Mother and daughter are guarded and shaded by Rasiklal, a Vaishnava sage, an old Hindu ascetic. Kamal matures too, she does it soon after her first tryst with pain. Just when things start to soften out, life starts to ease in a breezy mood, Kamini meets an unexpected death, leaving her only daughter only to herself. Poor little daughter is heartbroken, she has known no one closer than her mother. She reels in pain and ends up marrying the frail, feeble, fragile old Rasiklal. A teenage girl finds no other way to free herself, she has no other means to keep herself protected, she is left with no other choice. Her pains turn her into a stone, a stone that can wither away any storm but cannot offer a soft texture. She matures - Kamalini matures. She matures so much so that she dismisses love from her mind. There is hardly any materialistic virtue left in her marriage, which is, in every way, a colossal mismatch than a match!

                  Rasik understands Kamal's dilemma. Clearly, the age gap is so huge that a relationship is impossible. Kamal and Rasik goes out on a tour, travels far and wide, meets people, charms people and extrapolates every single dash of joy. Thereby they try to stay happy. Rasik gets older and older till he can carry himself no more. He leaves Kamal who is by now a graceful beauty. Kamal is grieved but not pained. She takes the departure as an episode in her terse romantic life. She continues to walk forward, step by step, through storms and rains, through mornings and nights, till she finds back her Ranjan.

                Ranjan has grown up to be worthy of Kamal. He has become a sage too, his life is also on the verge of misery. His marriage to childhood friend Pori is unsettling. Pori is dying, she is no longer the competitor to Kamal as she used to be when all three were young. Kamal marries Ranjan, her lover and Ranjan marries Kamal, a matured beauty. But beauty is ethereal, it lasts like dew drops, it evaporates over time. Just when Kamal thinks that affliction is a long way away from her, she sees it again. This is the last time. This has to be so, for she has suffered just too much! Ranjan marries again and brings home a younger Vaishnavi and Kamal is shattered. She says not a word, chants hymns, prays to the God, leaves Ranjan's abode and makes the entire world under the sky her abode. She protests in elegant and matured way!

                 Tarashankar Bandopadhyay, a towering personality in the field of Bengali literature draws RaiKamal in a way that forces us to rethink about the very essence of human relationships and human values. Kamal is Rai, she is Radha, the eternal symbol of depravity, calmness and maturity in the eyes of popular culture. She contacts romance, she falls for it, time and again, but alas! She cannot keep pace with it. She simply cannot walk side by side with it. She either runs ahead of it or chases it from behind.