Chapter 48 / 51 · 1 min

Private University

Bapi couldn’t believe his ears.

“Seriously, Ma? I can’t marry Urmila because she studied at a private university?”

Gayatri Rai’s cold eyes looked like white ice.

“I worked so hard to make you worthy. I’ll only bring a worthy girl into this house.”

Bapi couldn’t make the numbers add up. He had no father. This mother had raised him alone. Surviving as a single mother in a place like Bangladesh had been nearly impossible. Humiliation at every step. And yet it was from this very mother that Bapi had learned how to respect people. So how could that same mother judge a human being in one breath, by her university?

The presence of a private university’s name on Urmila’s resume would end his eighteen-and-a-half-month relationship with her? They couldn’t marry? No. His mother could never do that.

Gayatri Rai went to her room and sat there, stunned. She had never spoken to her son in such harsh words. She dialed Urmila’s father’s number.

“Hello, Mister Majumdar?”

“Yes, speaking.”

“This is Bapi’s mother.”

“Oh, Boudi, we were just talking about you all… how are you?”

“This is Bapi’s mother, Gayatri Rai. Do you recognize me?”

For a long while no sound came from the other end. Gayatri Rai stressed each word.

“You understand this wedding has to be stopped, don’t you?”

Subrata Majumdar hung up the phone. Exactly the way he had hung up twenty-five years ago, when he learned Gayatri Rai was pregnant.