Nine

Memory of Sarala Devi's eldest sister, Hiranmoyee (Didi), remains with her like the fragrance of a flower. Didi assumed charge of the family. Didi got married when she was sixteen years old to Phani Bhusan Mukhopadhyay, a nephew of her uncle. In keeping with the tradition of Sarala's maternal grandfather, Didi like all granddaughters of the family, was married at the Jorasanko house. For the wedding, as part of the entertainment programme, Rabindranath composed an opera, calling it 'The Wedding Festival', which was performed almost entirely by the women of the family. Khusi was also a part in it; Saroja took the heroine's role; some girls acted as her companions. After her marriage Didi's attachment to her natal family deepened, and she started assisting mother in her work. The cult of theosophy was much in vogue those days, and Sarala's mother was the President of the Women's Theosophical Society. Sarala's Didi occasionally wrote for the Bharati magazine in Bengali.