The Lowland

Back in Calcutta, Subhash’s mother Bijoli looks out on the two ponds, and the lowland between them—the area is now completely clogged with trash. The refuse is being allowed to pile up because real estate promoters want to plug up the city’s remaining swampy land and build new homes atop it. Tollygunge has grown dirty and unrecognizable, no longer the quiet, clean neighborhood of Subhash and Udayan’s youth.

Each day, at the hour of Udayan’s death, Bijoli gathers flowers and walks to the edge of the lowland. An old woman now, Bijoli moves slowly and laboriously. At Udayan’s marker, she washes his tablet and places flowers on the ground. It has been twelve years since Udayan’s death. The neighborhood children whisper about Bijoli and her nightly ritual; she wishes she could either scare them away or make them understand her pain.

A month ago, Bijoli’s husband died in his sleep; their maid, Deepa, discovered his body one morning. Deepa takes care of Bijoli, washing her hair, sleeping over at nights, shopping at the market, and cooking meals. Deepa reads Bijoli articles from the newspaper every afternoon out on the terrace. When Bijoli realizes that Deepa has replaced everyone in her family, she wonders whether Udayan somehow “arranged” for this to happen. As a boy, Udayan spent time with the people who worked for their family—teaching them how to read, ensuring they had enough to eat at mealtime. As a young man, he brought their housemaids medicine and summoned doctors for them. In spite of all this, Udayan died being called a “miscreant” and “extremist”—someone who did not know right from wrong.

Bijoli feels her home has been “forsaken”—Udayan has not lived to inherit it, and Subhash has left the country. His departure has added to the sense of loss Bijoli feels—not to mention his controversial marriage to Gauri. Because Subhash and Gauri have stayed away from Calcutta for twelve years now, Bijoli feels the deep shame of having lost her only living child.

One morning, Bijoli heads out to the lowland with a large shallow basket and begins piling trash and waste inside of it. She knows she will never remove it all, but each day she returns and fills her basket several times. She does not stop when people point out the futility of her task—it satisfies her and passes the time. One day, remnants of a marriage celebration are piled around Udayan’s marker. The mass of garlands and fruit repels Bijoli, and she refuses to touch it. She is bitter that neither of her sons had a proper marriage celebration and becomes angry that someone would have desecrated Udayan’s memorial in such a way. She begins shouting out to her neighbors, demanding to know who did such a thing, but no one pays attention to her.

Deepa hurries out to help Bijoli home. On the terrace, Deepa gives Bijoli tea and hands her a letter from Subhash. He is planning to visit, though three months will have already passed from the date of his father’s death by the time he will arrive in Calcutta. He informs Bijoli of his plans to bring Bela with him and writes in his letter that Bela knows Subhash as her father—she is ignorant of her true parentage. Bijoli finishes reading the letter, hands it back to Deepa, and turns her mind to other things.