The lucky child in ‘The Marie Biskoot’

Aritra’s ‘The Marie Biskoot’ scaffolds on the undiluted love a mother has for her child. It unwraps a poverty-stricken mother’s grit and tenacity to go the extra mile to satisfy her child’s modest desires. The Marie Biskoot & other stories is a collection of short stories set in a sentimental temper which emphasizes on the human endeavour to provide meaning to what we distinguish as life.

“The eyes are enslaved, caught in desire for a bigger slice of life that the city offers. Those are the 'eyes of the beggar' they say. Her eyes, though were different. They didn't crave for life neither were they desperate for death.

The Marie Biskoot & other Stories

She was not the typical beggar on the streets, pestering the crowd at the bus stop or the traffic signals. In my observation, if the woman was offered a pot full of rice and curry, she wouldn’t have taken it home. For this woman on the street had a clearly defined reason to be amongst the crowd at the harbour and that reason was to satiate the infinitesimal desire of her child.

This main story apart from the other touching ones in the book, reflects upon the beautiful mother-child bond talked about from centuries of its birth. The social values may undergo significant changes, the society might re-emerge with idiosyncratic views on relationships, but what doesn’t alter is the mother and her love. Like Shakespeare upholds true love and calls it constant, unmatched and unmoved, the love of a mother for her child is nothing less than what the great dramatist had come to experience through his vivid takes on life.

Aritra sure is an author of detail. In his short story of 4 minutes read, he effectively portrays the indifferent crowd as they keep to themselves and do what they have come to. The dust across the streets does not worry them. As they throw away the plate still filled with bits of onion, tomatoes and the aloo Tikki, they forget to look beyond their hunger and see the straight line of beggars waiting for a morsel of food. Even when they come forward and fetch the Tikki piece already in the dustbin amongst dal, kulcha, spit and water, the crowd around does not show any sympathy. Even before the Tikki is finished, they have moved on for kulfis. But our woman in The Marie Biskoot is not keen on eating. It is not relevant whether she is hungry or not, the dustbin is not her destination nor the drops of kulfi falling from the child’s mouth.

Coins, she wanted coins or perhaps something from the shop was what she was eyeing at. Even while she complained about her cruel man and what she did to him in the end, her eyes were focused on the shop. Then she was brutally beaten up for trying to steal something from there and we wonder what is it that she came here for! Was it the tasty chunks of chicken on the skewers, the pastries adorning a small moving cart or the Marie Biskoot arranged one over the other in the small shop around the corner? Buy why the biskoot? Why not the rice and curry? Only a mother can answer that perfectly for the pulse of her child runs in her veins and in his veins doth she finds happiness. Mother, how exceptional. 

By : MakeUp Room Authors & Books, An initiative by The Alcove Publishers.   

Get The Marie Biskoot & Other stories by Aritra Chakrabarty here: The Marie Biskoot & Other Stories - The Alcove Publishers