First time she saw me she looked at me with a critical eye, measured me and directed me to sit beside her. I was dressed in a saree and was conscious of delivering my best performance of a cultured educated mind. She was the one who had advised Deepayan to ask me at our first meeting “Madhura is a character in which Saradindu story ?” She knew I had answered it correctly. So she shot her next question at me “Who is your favourite author ? Who are the other authors you read?” The question- answer session had turned into a conversation after a while and then finally into an “adda”.

Over a few days when families were convinced about the potential of Deepayan and I being together for life (from our respective versions of course), they went ahead to actually plan the social event.

Meanwhile she decided to know me more. I would often drop in at their Fern Place house. Slowly, it got revealed that I am an artist and I paint and she got this bright idea that I should design the invitation card. Being a freelance artist I had taken the assignment quite professionally and had actually designed the card with the motif of Palash which turned out to be one of her most favourite flowers! That was probably the first time we connected. Post that we found that Tagore and the Rays come up as references in our conversations almost all the time and that I love music and Tagore’s songs. So the next demand was “sing a song”. I remember I had sung “সকাতরে ওই কাঁদিছে সকলে”. The reaction was a sigh of relief and a broad smile. It had nothing to do with my voice or being a good or a bad singer…it was something else, something more…

Over time we found that we connected at various levels…movies, music, poetry, art, literature, humour at one level and recipes and gardening at another level. We would have long conversations about how well “আগুনের পরশমনি” has been used in “উত্তর ফাল্গুনী”; “ধরা দিয়েছিগো আমি আকাশের পাখি” in “অতিথি”; “না চাহিলে যারে পাওয়া যায়” in “মেঘ ও রৌদ্র”; Baul and Jhumur songs; Ray’s movies and our favourites, my field work; impact on rural communities I worked with; new books we have read; my PhD thesis, history of theatre in India, Debabrata Biswas (her favourite), Ghaasphul, Shiuli, Palash and Chanpa, our cats, and how to rectify disasters in cooking amongst many other things….it was just about anything and everything. We were story tellers for each other. She was my greatest source of quick information and advice.

At some point of time she had told my mother “They are a match made in heaven”.

I always felt when talking to her that she had reached that ‘intellectual sanctity” where no one could touch her. She lived a full life, and exited silently. It was as if she made a death wish because her purpose in life was over !

Few months back she had told me “আমি মারা গেলে তোমাদের বাগানে ঘাসফুল হয়ে ফুটে থাকবো”[when I die I will stay with you in your garden and bloom as ghaspul] – a flower all three of us love.

The season is over but I am waiting for the bloom…