The Bet

THE BET

-by Suchitra Bhattacharya

 

There are two main characters in the story – Basundhara and Debanath. The story was written from Basundhra’s point of view. Basundhara is a Bengali, educated women. The story is set in 1960’s in Bengal. Though the girl is educated and has a broad understanding of the world, but still, she is from a Bengali Indian family. After her graduation, she is pushed to marry to a well settled business man, Debanath, who was 12 years elder than her.

The girl had a dream of a French lover as her husband, but when she saw the photograph of Debanath as her husband she judge him from his looks and also did not like him. He was not much educated. As she dislikes him from the starting, she made her mind to stay away from Debanath. She was not happy with her marriage and does not want to involve in it.

In the story, bets were something which increases the gaps in both of them. Basundhara use it as trick to stay away from Debanath and Debanath was the victim of the bets. The first bet was not intentional. It just came out of her mouth, as a habit. It was on the Raag playing outside the room. This was on the occasion of their first night and what she asked for it was that Debanath will not sleep with her. She won the bet and Debanath did in accordance with the bet.

The second occasion was on her writing. Basundhara likes to write and also when she has nothing to do anything in her home, she started writing again. Writing just takes Basundhara’s whole attention, though she wanted this but Debanath did not like it, hence he start hiding her paper and pen. On this event she threw a bet that if her story will publish in the magazine, he will never stop her from writing. Story got published, but Debanath hide it from her. And later when she got to know this, she started hating Debanath more…..

The next bet was on their baby. Debanath wanted a baby girl. While Basundhara did not think about it, but just because Debanath wanted a baby girl, she said if it would be a boy. She threw a bet on this and the wager this time was that he will not demand other child from her. Ultimately she won the bet, and they never had other child. This time the gap between them expanded a lot. They start living in different rooms. As the story tell that Basundhara get so involved in raising their son and also in her writing. They both did not talk to each other and get involved in their own lives. They live different lives and like strangers, under one roof. Still, there is a liaison developed between son and father.

But one day, when Basundhara got acute chest pain, Debanath started taking care of her. During this time, she started feeling for him again. They involved in one more and the last bet. There was no wager this time. The bet is on who will die first. For me it was not clear that who won the bet, as in the story it was not clear that Debanath die or not. But he was no more in Basundhara’s life, he has gone far away.

Their relationship was at the stake for whole life, but neither of them tried to make it work out. Debanath seems to be more conservative. He did not express his feelings, but he does care for people in his life, either his father or his wife Basundhara.

To me he loves Basundhara very much but, never expresses it to her. He makes sure of her comfort, and also she should be able to spend time with him. That’s why servants did all the house chores, so that she doesn’t have to do anything. Though, they both do not speak a word, when they are together, which make the moments very awkward. Debanath was the man of his words, as the people in his work place say and it was quite visible when he always act as per their bet, but it was questioned when he hides the news that Basundhara’s story was published. 

Basundhara was an educated lady with dreams and aspirations. But being in a Bengali, Indian family, she has to sacrifice her dreams and marry to a well settled business man. Though she married to Dibanath, but it was always in her unconscious mind, that she did not like him, and hence whenever she gets a chance, she does something to stay away from him, like bets. Basundhara seems to be a strong lady, who does not care about the society. In an Indian society, where husband is considered as equivalent to god, she took a step and demands such things from him, which actually negatively affect their relation and she did not worried about it ever. She was fond of writing, especially when she does not have anything to do. When she came out of the relation, she gave her most of the time in bringing up her son and writing. She was good at writing and was able to establish herself as a good writer. She has very cold feelings for her husband and her dislike towards him increases by the time. Basundhara was a strong lady and she tried to break a lot of norms of the (Indian) society. Like when she did not take care of her husband, which is considers as a first duty of a wife (at least in Indian society). She writes and become independent. She goes out in conferences on writing and also earns fame as a writer, which as per my understanding; it must be a big deal at the time, when story was written. She found ways to create her own space in the house. And fight with her husband and lead her own way. She brought up her son, the way she wanted and gives him freedom of doing what he wants.

The marriage of Basundhara and Debanath, I would say, was a disturbing marriage. It was very clear that Basundhara was not happy with the marriage. It also reflected when she writes that her son marry to a girl of her choice. She doesn’t want her son to suffer as she suffered the whole life. Though Debanath was a caring husband (as I feel), but he was never expresses it in a proper way. Basundhara’s attitude towards this marriage was also negative. Both of them never put in any effort to make this marriage workout rather they start living their different lives under a roof.