Taming of the Shrew – In Reverse

A loose translation of a Bengali short story by Sharadindu Bandhopadhyay set in 1930 in India

Rai Bahadur Samarendra Narain Roy Chowdhury was a formidable man.

He was also a man with an outrageous rage.

Rumor has it that he first expressed his rage at the age of three months, by kicking his nurse on her nose, and thereby breaking the said nose, because she had not tucked him up properly.

As he grew up, his tendency to assail one and all, in his rage, became more and more evident. Servants were scared, teachers were shaky, tenants were terrified, and even the venerable Munshi observed caution while dealing with this fire-brand.

Fortunately, before any confrontation could happen between his father and son, young Samarendra Narain became the Zamindar of a very large tract of land in the Burdwan district of Bengal, following the death of his lamented father.

Young Samarendra took up the control of his Zamindari with an iron hand, aided by abundant dollops of rage. The British, always being admirers of powerful personalities who were totally loyal to the Throne, lost no time in proclaiming young Samarendra “Rai Bahadur”.

In due course, the Rai Bahadur was married. His first act in the holy state of matrimony was to re-inforce what his bride had already heard about his uncontrollable rage – he smashed the marital bed because the legs were not exactly level.

Eventually, his quavering wife, the Bohu-Rani, noticed three things after years of observation :

- He always said “Phrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr” before an outburst of rage began.
- He had a tendency to smash things when in a bout of rage.
- After he had smashed something, the rage would be over.

The third point was established when in an abnormal bout of rage at the absence of Ilish-macch (hilsa fish) at dinner, he had kicked, and smashed, a seven foot Venetian mirror in the Durbar room. Immediately he had fallen silent.

The solution had been found.

Bohu-Rani procured grosses of glasses. Every time the Zamindar had a fit of anger, which was about twice a day, some anxious servant would slip in and hand over a glass to the Zaminder, which would immediately be thrown against the wall, and peace would prevail thereafter.

Life went on smoothly for some years.

Peace was disturbed when the Zaminder’s only son announced his intention to go to Calcutta and study. This was an outrageous proposition. Why would the scion of the Roy Chowdhury clan need to study ?

Rai Bahadur Samarendra Narain Roy Chowdhury destroyed one dozen glasses that evening, but his son left for Calcutta nevertheless.

Several years later, several dozen glasses were smashed in one evening.

The reason – the Son had decided to marry a girl of his choice.

If the effort of smashing all those glasses had not depleted his energy, the Zaminder would have sought some other vent for his rage.

He had to content himself, nevertheless, with putting his wife on notice that he would kill his wayward son, his unacceptable wife, and any of their procreations, the first time he saw any of them.

Bohu-Rani shuddered, said a quick prayer, and kept silent.

About a year later, the Zaminder told Bohu-Rani one evening that he would be taking the train to Calcutta the next morning to take delivery of a new car from the Austin Company.

Her eyes lit up.

“Can I go with you ? “ she pleaded.

“What for, budhiya ?’ he thundered.

She hesitated for while, and then summoned up her courage and said “ My Bou-Ma is going to have a baby, our grand-child. I want to see her”.

“Phrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr”

“Bakshish Singh”, he thundered.

The Head Paik appeared, trembling.

“Is budhiya ko apney kamre mein bandh rakho. Bhag na paye. Chaubis ghanta bandh rakho. Samjha ????????”

“Samajh gaya Malik. Aisay hi hoga, Sarkar”.

The Zamindar turned to his now prostrate wife and extracted from her the address of his wayward son.

Mid-morning the next day, there was a knock on the door of 27/1A Muktaram Babu Street in Calcutta The maid opened the door and received a ferocious “Phrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr”

“Who is that, Soudamini ?” asked the lady of the house.

No answer.

Curious, she came down the stairs and found a cowering maid and a ferocious gentleman, whose first utterance was “Phrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr”

The next utterance was “My name is Rai Bahadur Samarendra Narain Roy Chowdhury. I am coming from Burdwan”.

“Baba”, she said, and fell at his feet, placing her forehead on his muddy toes.

“Thak, thak, Ma, otho “ ( = that’s fine, please get up)

The Rai Bahadur lifted up his daughter-in-law by her shoulders and inspected her.

Her eyes were down cast, as they should be.

She was fair.

She was wearing sindur on her forehead.

She had the requisite red and white bangles, and the steel bangle, on her hands.

She was wearing her saree in the right way, with a bunch of keys tied to the end of her palloo.

Rai Bahadur Samarendra Narain Roy Chowdhury had been expecting to find a sophisticated city girl who had seduced his son. But this was something else !

“This is Lakshmi herself. How did they keep this Goddess from me ? I will kill that budhiya for this !!” he thundered.

She smiled. “Baba, please sit down”. She sat him down on a chair.

“Soudamini, get a fresh gamcha (towel) from the cupboard”, she said, and ran off to fetch a large gamla (bowl) and a ghoti (lota) of water.

Then she proceeded to wash his feet and carefully wipe them.

Rai Bahadur Samarendra Narain Roy Chowdhury was entranced.

Was this the daughter-in-law that he had spurned?

How foolish had he been !

His amazement grew by the moment as this girl did everything that he would have yearned from his dream daughter-in-law.

She brought him a glass of water and two pieces of sandesh. He refused, but she insisted, saying that one shouldn’t drink water by itself.

She got Saudamini to wipe his shoes and take out all the dust.

She even sent sandesh and water to his driver. At this he had started to protest, saying that this was not necessary. One look from her stopped him from saying anything more.

Rai Bahadur Samarendra Narain Roy Chowdhury cleared his throat.

It was not the ferocious “Phrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr”, but just a mild “Frrrrr”.

He had made up his mind.

“Bou-Ma, I don’t want you to spend one more moment in this house. You must be in MY house, as my Bou-Ma. I have bought a new car today from the Austin Company. Just pack your things and we will leave for Burdwan right now”.

“As you say, Baba” she replied demurely.

“By the way, my budhiya said that you are…… you are going to have………. it is a long way by road, Bou-Ma, will you be all right ?”

She blushed and replied “I will be fine, Baba”.

That evening, the wayward son, having received the stunning news from little Saudamini, namely, that his father had taken his wife away, sneaked into his house to see a wondrous scene.

Rai Bahadur Samarendra Narain Roy Chowdhury was seated at dinner.

The daughter-in law was urging the Rai Bahadur to have one more piece of fish.

“Na, na, Bou-Ma” he implored.

“You have to have one more, Baba, I cooked it for you" she insisted.

He agreed.

The wayward son laughed.

Rai Bahadur Samarendra Narain Roy Chowdhury had been subjugated.