Chokher Bali
Chokher Bali is a Bengali novel written by the legendary poet, author, and playwright Rabindranath Tagore fondly known as Gurudev. The story is set in the early 19th century in Bengal. It is a tale of friendship, love, passion, jealousy, and bereavement. It deals with the idea of duality and different shades of grey. It was written around the time when child marriages were the norm, and widows had nothing much to look forward to in life, aside from tending to their elderly who were left grieving the loss of their sons.
This article isn’t so much a review as it is a reflection of the myriad emotions that I experienced through this novel. Through this piece, I am trying to understand the virtues and vices of the characters and how I saw glimpses of myself in them.
The story is about Mahendra who is born into an affluent family. Mahendra lived with his mother Rajalakshmi and they had a comfortable lifestyle with rows of servants and aids available at their beck and call. Mahendra was a pampered child which showed in his lack of expertise in taking care of his own day-to-day needs. His doting mother, Rajalakshmi served him day in and day out without a thought for her health and convenience. It was around this time that the story introduces new characters. Binodini is a young widow who is Rajalakshmi’s friend’s daughter. Before Binodini’s marriage and the untimely death of her husband, she was suggested by her mother as a suitable match for Mahindra but due to Mahindra’s reluctance and keen focus on education at the time, the match was never made. Enter — Asha, a young sombre girl too naive to understand the complexities of wedlock. Although, her marriage to Mahendra is a whole different story. She was initially intended to be Bihari’s wife. Bihari is Mahendra’s best friend but more like a family. Bihari doesn’t have one of his own and has always gone above and beyond to be a friend and a brother to Mahendra and a son to Rajlakshmi. He was a good influence in Mahendra’s life and took a keen interest in his affairs as a concerned brother but at some points, the concern reached the altar of intrusion — all in good faith, though.
Mahendra (Mohin)
As we see throughout the novel, Mahindra is somewhat of a spoilt man. He has had everything he ever wanted, presented to him on a silver platter at birth. That has unequivocally made him arrogant and extremely nonchalant with respect to his responsibilities in life. We see it in the case of how he almost forgets about his mother once he is married to Asha and forgets about Asha once he develops feelings for Bindodini. Through Mahendra’s character, I understood what entitlement looks like. We are all different shades of grey and to single out Mahendra for his immaturity may come off as a holier-than-thou attitude. But what resonated with me the most is that in Mahendra’s world he is right and everyone else is occupying a moral high ground and being a hypocrite. When in fact, it is Mahendra who has surpassed the heights of hypocrisy. He blames Asha for not knowing the responsibilities of an ideal daughter-in-law and wife when he is the one occupying most of her time. He chides her for her deplorable writing and yet he is the one who was unsuccessful in getting her to study and complete her lessons. Mahendra is an embodiment of a man who has never had the dearth of external validation and so he doesn’t know what it is like to be rejected — as he is made to feel multiple times by Binodini. When Mahendra dismisses Bihari’s genuine attempts at reconciliation it shows not only his anger and jealousy towards Bihari but also his deep sense of insecurity and fear of never being able to be as good as Bihari. Be it as a friend or as a son or even as a lover. It’s this jealousy that also shows in his utter disregard for the incredible work Bihari was doing for the disadvantaged in Bali. He thought it to be a show to impress people around him while it was only his own narrow-mindedness that manifests in his actions and the results of his actions.
Mahendra is a delight to read, though. He has vices that any reader will relate to and it is annoying how much I relate to some of them. While Mahendra learned his lesson the hard way I wonder what it would take me to let go of the behavior and habits that pull me back and sever my bond with the ones close to me. While everyone isn’t blessed to have a Bihari in their lives it takes a saint to not take for granted the source of such unconditional love, support, and friendship.
Asha
Asha is a demure young woman who enters into wedlock unawares. She is shy, inexperienced, and therefore, in essence, mouldable. Asha is underconfident, doesn’t know how to hold her ground, relies heavily on the servants for all the household chores, and is not polished like her Chokher Bali Binodini. She overthinks all her actions, the consequences of those actions, and every word that comes out of her mouth and overanalyzes the ones coming out of others. And thus, Asha’s character felt close to home. It is suffocating to think and rethink every act, every nuance, every event that has the remotest possibility of going south. Asha is naive in every sense of the term. She bestowed immense love and respect on her beloved Mahendra and Choker Bali without an iota of malice in her heart. And yet, they were unfaithful to her. Asha’s story is a nightmare for any human being who is too trusting, who loves deeply, and who has not been corrupted by the realities of the world. Nevertheless, she stood strong and went on with her life after being jilted by Mahendra. In fact, she began to understand her responsibilities and smoothly transitioned into her role as a daughter-in-law by taking care of her mother-in-law’s needs. However, If it were not for Rajlakshmi, Asha wouldn’t have pushed herself to engage with Mahendra when he finally returned home after the fallout with Binodini. But mind you, Asha was always ready to accept Mahendra back with all his faults, she was ready to forgive him. I won’t comment on how right or wrong that was but I believe if there’s something I can learn from Asha, it’s the art of forgiving. Being as young as she was, she showed traits beyond her age.
Perhaps the only character that has considerably changed as we proceed towards the end of the novel, is Asha’s. She has shown an entire curve. From being the newbie wife to handling the home to eventually owning it.
Binodini
At the outset, let me start by saying how much I loved Binodini’s character. She is everything a woman aspires to be. Despite the trials and tribulations, she went through, she remained her true self. She had an attractive demeanor and anyone who talked to her once couldn’t help but be left wanting for more. Binodini was never the damsel in distress as most widows are made out to be in stories. She was smart, witty, confident, and nothing like Asha. And she knew that. Binodini is that friend who will route for you, make you feel like the best version of yourself all while thinking (and knowing full well) that you can never be better than her. Her friendship with Asha didn’t challenge her. If anything, it acted as a validation. Her camaraderie with Asha started as a desire to delve into the pleasures of married life. As a young woman widowed early in life her bodily desires and pleasures were left unmet and naturally for her Asha’s recollections of her time with Mahendra gave Binodini some sort of twisted pleasure. She was living vicariously through Asha. Intrigued by every detail of Asha’s time spent with Mahendra. It was a fantasy tale happening in real-time and Binodini experienced elation and heightened desires with every story. It was this desire that turned into envy for the life Asha had. How could Asha lead such a comfortable life with servants all around and a husband that loves her when she doesn’t deserve all this? Why has life been unfair to her while Asha who is too naive, and unpolished gets to live a life few could dream of? And not just Mohin, but his best friend Bihari too found Asha to be somewhat of a goddess who doesn’t deserve to be hurt or alienated. Bihari respected Asha immensely not only because she was his bhouthan but also because he was chosen to marry her before Mahendra did. And so, he had a soft corner for her. But it was platonic and Bihari was always mindful of his boundaries. Albeit what Binodini saw was 2 men going gaga over one woman — Asha. And this was not palatable for her. Especially because her shot at a life like that was snatched away from her too early in life and handed over to someone who she thought was undeserving. What Binodini did from thereon was simply an act of revenge. She led Mahendra on merely to break Asha’s marriage and not because she particularly had any feelings for Mahendra. It was the idea of having a perfect life more so than wanting Mahendra in it. Binodini’s journey through the story outlines perfectly what jealousy and envy can do to pure relationships and good people. None of these characters was particularly black or white. They had their prejudices and vices and so did Binodini but she paid for her iniquity towards Asha when she almost lost Bihari. She realized how marrying a widow would ruin Bihari’s image in society and she took cognizance of that when Bihari proposed to marry her.
Binodini’s was a character that shall remain close to my heart. Her vivaciousness, wit, and worldliness are things I wish I had learned early in life. Someone once told me that if you treat yourself like a doormat someone else will too and then you won’t be able to stop them. Binodini even during her brief attachment with Mahendra made sure to keep the terms very clear. Nothing was ever out of her control and that’s a trait we could all learn from her!
