Sometimes Mother
intervened, ending the childish quarrels, temporarily, by a gentle
box on my ear, as the elder ear.
Time passed; Nalini was betrothed to a young Calcutta physician,
Panchanon Bose. He received a generous dowry from Father, presumably
(as I remarked to Sister) to compensate the bridegroom-to-be for
his fate in allying himself with a human bean-pole.
Elaborate marriage rites were celebrated in due time. On the wedding
night, I joined the large and jovial group of relatives in the
living room of our Calcutta home. The bridegroom was leaning on an
immense gold-brocaded pillow, with Nalini at his side. A gorgeous
purple silk SARI {FN25-1} could not, alas, wholly hide her angularity.
I sheltered myself behind the pillow of my new brother-in-law and
grinned at him in friendly fashion. He had never seen Nalini until
the day of the nuptial ceremony, when he finally learned what he
was getting in the matrimonial lottery.
Feeling my sympathy, Dr. Bose pointed unobtrusively to Nalini, and
whispered in my ear, "Say, what's this?"
"Why, Doctor," I replied, "it is a skeleton for your observation!"
Convulsed with mirth, my brother-in-law and I were hard put to it
to maintain the proper decorum before our assembled relatives.
As the years went on, Dr. Bose endeared himself to our family, who
called on him whenever illness arose. He and I became fast friends,
often joking together, usually with Nalini as our target.
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