ABSTRACT
Her mother’s sudden passing made Kamola almost a grown up very quickly. Immediately after her mother passed away, when she was merely twelve years old, she would knock softly on her father’s door with a “Baba, it is time to get up,” very early in the morning. Her limbs were loose with sleep, her long hair tangled in knots. Her father scolded her for this. But Kamola knew somehow that it was her responsibility to take up some of her mother’s domestic tasks. She cooked for her father and Shibu and Ramen, washed dishes, cleaned the house and kept their clothes washed. Besides doing all this household work, she started doing something else last year. It helped her deal with the loneliness she felt after her mother died.
