Sister of My Heart

Nalini is putting the girls through a rigorous regimen of preparations for their weddings, with beauty treatments and lessons in cooking and sewing. Nouri is refusing to undergo bypass surgery for her heart as she does not want to risk leaving the girls alone before they are married. Anju is angry that both the marriage proposals and the offers to buy the bookshop, which is now up for sale, are poorer than the mothers had hoped. Anju attributes the poor offers to the rumor of Gouri’s illness having spread. Anju hears Sudha weeping and offers to intervene with the mothers on her behalf, but Sudha refuses. Anju reflects that Sudha is like a princess in a fairy story, waiting passively to be rescued.

Sudha is horrified to learn that the mothers are on the point of accepting an offer for her hand. Ramesh is the heir of the wealthy, distinguished Sanyal family. His mother has run the family business since his father’s death and is seeking a beautiful bride for her less-than-attractive son, hoping to secure “good-looking grandsons” (117). Not knowing who else to turn to, Sudha seeks out Singhji, bursting into tears when he opens the door of his room.

Sudha’s prospective mother-in-law arranges to visit with her son. Nalini throws herself into elaborate preparations for a meal, for which the Sanyals arrive an hour late. Ramesh is clearly smitten with Sudha, and his mother-in-law is favorably impressed and ready to proceed with wedding preparations. Anju is surprised that Sudha is not more distressed, but her cousin informs him that Singhji has visited Ashok for her. The young couple has a meeting fixed at the Kalighat temple early the next morning.

Ashok concludes that there is no hope of Sudha’s mother accepting his proposal and that they must elope as soon as she turns 18.

A wedding proposal has come in for Anju from a family whose son works in the United States. Sudha sits up late into the night, watching for fallen stars. As the clock strikes midnight, she is torn between praying for her own happiness and that of her cousin. In the end, she dedicates her wish to Anju and is left with a terrible sense of foreboding. “On the breath-end” of her wish, she finds herself hoping that she and her cousin might somehow marry the same man, who will keep them together forever.

In a defiant mood, Anju awaits her “bride viewing.” Her prospective husband has been delayed on business. She helps with stock-taking in the bookstore, which has been sold, and looks away in sadness as the “Chatterjee and Sons” sign is lowered. A young man arrives in the shop and asks her about the works of Virginia Woolf, an author Anju has loved since reading a copy of A Room of One’s Own ordered by her father shortly before his death. Anju discusses Woolf at length, and the young man buys the complete set. When he learns who she is, he asks if she is studying literature at college, and she sadly recounts her approaching marriage. The young man reveals that he is her prospective husband, Sunil; he decided to come to the bookshop to get to know her in more natural circumstances. He promises that, if she marries him, he will help her realize all her dreams. Thoroughly smitten, Anju hurries home to Sudha to apologize for her mistaken skepticism about love.

The two families meet to finalize wedding arrangements. Sudha is disturbed to learn that Sunil’s father recently broke off marriage negotiations with another family because of a scandal in the prospective bride’s family; Sudha worries that eloping with Ashok will ruin Anju’s prospects with Sunil. The two girls are sent out into the garden with Sunil. When Anju goes into the house to get a Virginia Woolf book, Sunil places his hand on Sudha’s arm, comments on her unique beauty, and expresses his regret that he became betrothed to Anju before meeting her. Sudha backs away. Sunil apologizes profusely.

Sudha gives Singhji a letter for Ashok, explaining why she can no longer elope. Singhji tries, to no avail, to make her relent. Sudha is convinced that, by making this sacrifice for her cousin, she is at least in part righting the wrongs of her father. Ashok writes back with a bitter note, wishing that Sudha will one day experience the hurt and rejection to which she has subjected him.

Anju is deeply in love with Sunil but worried about Sudha, who does not love Ramesh, her future husband. Gouri calls the girls and the other mothers into her room and shows them the ruby, asking for advice on what to do with it. Pishi wishes to sell the stone to pay for the weddings. Gouri proposes cutting it in half to make a pendant for each girl. Nalini interjects that Sudha should have the whole stone, as her daughter has so much less overall than Anju and as it was Sudha’s father who brought it into the house. Pishi counters that it was Gopal’s fault that Bijoy lost his life and that the ruby should therefore be Anju’s in full.

In a trance-like state, Anju takes command of the situation. She declares that none of the family has a right to the ruby, and it must go back into the safe. Her mother interrupts with an expression of agreement, taking the box containing the ruby away without completing the sentence that has been “sent” unbidden into her mind: “Not until we’ve suffered even further, not until the house of the Chatterjees is reduced to a heap of dusty rubble” (153).

On the day before the weddings, the house is a hive of activity. The girls reminisce about their past, recalling a brief and mysterious encounter with a distant cousin who had a brain defect. Anju reflects that, when she is far from Sudha, she will never be able to talk this way again. Sudha attempts to brighten the mood by arguing that Anju will be so happy with Sunil that she will not miss her, but Anju is offended by the suggestion.

Singhji arrives with letters for Sudha, including an envelope full of money purportedly from her father. Singhji remarks that the money would be enough for her to live happily with Ashok. Sudha is tempted but refuses to risk Anju’s happiness. She shows Pishi the note and the money. Pishi recalls that they never identified the bodies, and Sudha concludes that her father must have killed both Bijoy and the third man who was with the two of them. Sudha asks Pishi to distribute the money among beggars.

As the two couples go through their marriage rituals, Anju worries about her cousin. Anju asks Sunil to wait a moment while Sudha completes her seven circles around the fire. As Anju admires her cousin’s beauty, she is shocked to realize that her husband is also rapt with admiration, muttering that Sudha is “the loveliest of women” (169). When Sudha drops her handkerchief on the way out of dinner, Anju sees Sunil pick it up and stash it in his pocket. She furiously confronts Sudha before storming out of the room.