Subhra Shatadal: The Stunning Beauty

By Hiranya Borah

It is a fictional novel based on some fictional characters. The protagonist of the novel, Subhra Shatadal was a very beautiful lady who lived a long and eventful life with many ups and downs. Why she was punished with severity by the Almighty had been a mystery for her great grandson-in law Kanak Barua for a long time. However, he came to know about her alleged confession of her guilt to a relative of Subhra Shatadal at her dying bed a few months before Kanak Barua married Alpana, the great grand daughter of the protagonist.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Hiranya Borah
• Release date: Apr 28, 2021
• ISBN: 9780463501221

Hiranya Borah

Born in a teachers' family in a village of Assam, a province of India, Borah started his journey of writing at a tender age of eleven. He published two novels in Assamese language and other fictional and non-fictional stories in Assamese periodicals during his college days. Then Borah almost stopped his literary activity for more than three decades. In the meantime he became a Gender specialist.However,so far, he has published more than one hundred and sixty five books on this platform in English and one book in Hindi within a span of five years. The books are on different topics like inspiration,romance and love, humour, ghosts, suspense thriller, children etc and those are written both in prose and poetry.Eight English and two Assamese books are also available in printed form. 2nd edition of his first book, 'Random Thoughts' is also in the public domain.

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Subhra Shatadal: The Stunning Beauty

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A Novel

Copyright 2021 Hiranya Borah

Smashwords Edition

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Preface

A successful person never cries, because practically he has no time for crying.

A successful person identifies his friends and enemies very quickly and takes actions very quickly.

A successful person is able to see the person behind the face of the person on the very first meeting.

A successful person cannot be successful in winning the heart of his/ her sweetheart, except Don Bradman perhaps. Otherwise all the successful persons’ hearts were won by the respective ‘very ordinary persons’ as their wives or lovers. Did you know the name of Smriti Irani’s husband or the name of wife of Gavaskar or wife of Kapil Dev before their marriages? I hope, your answers will be a resounding ‘No’ only.

Finally, a successful person never thinks he is successful in his life, because he or she could not win the heart of the person, he or she loves.

Before start of the novel, I want to clarify two important points from my point of view to my esteemed readers.

First of all, it is fictional novel based on fictional characters and therefore any character esembles with any dead or alive person, it is mere coincidence only.

My earlier novel is not based on my life entirely; to make it little interesting, some of my achievements and personal experiences are infused in the novel. In my opinion all the people are ‘Blessed One’. If one relates himself and herself with the life of the protagonist, Kanak Barua, one will feel that it is his or her life. If one is alive today, that is the best blessings of the Almighty. Some of my close friends even commented that in the book I have projected myself as ‘always better than thou’. Taking a cue from my esteemed critics, in this novel also I brought the character of Kanak sparingly, but with some malice in his character. Further, even though one can read this novel independently, I refer my earlier novel ‘Blessed One’ quite often in this novel intentionally, with little bit of malice in my intention to clarify my stand on the character of Kanak Barua, name of my all-time protagonist, both as an ideal man in some of my books and a man to be hated for his arrogance and his dark side as a character loose person, in some other books. Actually Kanak Barua is a man with two faces resembling two faces of our own life.

Many people criticise about my writing style that my books need special editing as it is not like ‘other good books’ in the market. Through this preface of this book let me allow to clarify on this particular point also. Most of the highly acclaimed English books are written by people whose educational backgrounds were coming from the English Missionary Schools mushroomed in the Pre-World War II British colonies; even if they were not from Missionary schools, at least they were coming from some English medium elite schools of these erstwhile British Colonies. On the other hand, my education upto 12th standard was in an Assamese medium school and in Cotton College where from I appeared my class 12 examination in Assamese medium as my English was very poor compared to my fellow convent educated students and few of my brilliant students coming from same background of mine. Therefore, whatever I write in English, those are nothing but some stories written for the persons whose educational background might not be as good as the students of those Missionary schools or any high class English Medidum schools; but for the persons passing out from vernacular schools with preliminary knowledge of English literature. My target group of readers are not sophisticated English speaking people but for those readers who are basically from the countries who were not British Colonies and the readers whose education might not have started from the school where ‘A for Apple’ was taught; but from the schools where ‘ka-a, kha’ etc. were taught in their primary classes. Luckily for me, I am able to attract a group of readers who like my style of writing, which may be unorthodox, rustic and free of high quality ‘not so easily understandable’ English. I am trying to introduce a new type of English writing skill which will be understandable for the masses with normal level of understanding in English. I shall not mind if my books are not selected for any award; but shall be very happy if it is liked by the village people with reasonable understanding in English language.

In this particular fictional novel, the protagonist is Subhra Shatadal, an uncommon name of an uncommon lady with stunning beauty. She happened to be the great grandmother in law of Kanak Barua, the protagonist of the widely read novel ‘Blessed One’. However in this novel Kanak Barua will be mentioned sparingly as the novel starts with a conversation of Kanak Barua with his newly wed wife, Alpana during his official cum honeymoon trip to Chandigarh to avoid the criticism that my pseudo name is Kanak Barua and I always try to portray me as ‘Me better than thou’ in my earlier fictional novel ‘Blessed One’.

Only a day dreamer can be an achiever; but without hard and smart works, a day dreamer is a total failure and may be a subject of ridicule. A successful man must be a hard working person and he must be a day dreamer. In this book I am portraying an imaginary lady who was a very good day dreamer but, she could not achieve anything in her life due to inherent lack of her hard working attitude. Even then she was unique in many ways. For most of her descendents she was a tragedy queen, but for me she was a pioneer of women empowerment with a difference. I want to showcase her achievement as an activist with a difference. I admire her character for her indomitable capacity to absorb all the tragedy in one heart and then the courage to move on in her life, without any support from her near and dear.

Every question may not have a correct answer in her reasonably long life; even then she manage to fight her way to see success in her life as a grandmother and as a great grandmother after a disasterous stinct as a mother and a wife. She became a unifying factor of some successful grand children and great grandchildren after being a lacklusture mother of four children and perhaps not so cooperating wife to her husband. None of those her four children achieved anything other than completing their lives with varied degree of lifespan from 23 to 83. However, two daughters became grandmothers and great grandmothers of few bright grandchildren who were able to establish themselves in the society as successful citizen.

Some of the readers may criticize me for giving some descriptions and comments of intimate relations of Kanak Barua with his wife; but in defence of those descriptions and comments, I have to submit before my esteemed readers that some of the most inspiring tales started when a couple is in intimate positions. Further, without those intimate moments of human life, mankind would not have been in this world today.

The names of the cities are real, historical references are taken from different sources (authenticity is not certified), but amalgamated to the present contexts in my own language.

I have found two types of readers in my career as a writer: one who buys and reads and the other one never buys and reads only when I give a free copy of my book. The readers who buy and read, they normally find thousand of mistakes and shortcomings in my books and those who do not buy but read my books seldom find any mistake and shortcomings in my books. I am thankful to both types of my readers for their good wishes and suggestions for improvements. I am also thankful to my friends who never opened even a single page of any of my books but stood behind me as solid rocks and defend me and my writings like a tigress fighting for her cubs. I am thankful to those well-wishers; because without their support I would not have dared to write even the second book of my life.

I am also thankful to all my family members, particularly my wife, for their constant support to write something usual and unusual. I love them all.

I would like to submit my sincere thanks to smashwords for publishing this large e-novel on their platform.

Author

Family Tree

Phukan Family:

1. Manohar Rajkumar and Sovita Rajkumari (Parents of the protagonist)

2. Banmali Phukan and Subhra Satadal Phukan nee Rajkumari (Husband of the Protagonist and the Protagonist)

3. Ganesh Gohain and Plabita Gohain nee Phukan (Husband and eldest child of Phukan Family)

4. Sabita Barua nee Phukan (Youngest child of Phukan family) and Hari Barua, Sabita’s husband

5. Animesh and Anirbaan (Two sons of Banamali and Shubhra Shatadal)

6. Mayuri (Second Wife of Banamali Phukan)

7. Kabin Gohain (Only son of Ganesh and Plabita Gohain)

8. Pabitra Arandhara and Anima Arandhara nee Gohan (Eldest daughter of Ganesh and Plabita Gohain and their son in law)

9. Dr. Devadutta and Pratima Duara nee Gohain (Second daughter of Ganesh and Plabita Gohain and their son in law)

10. Rajat and Ajita Rajkhowa nee Gohain (Youngest daughter of Ganesh and Plabita Gohain and their son in law)

11. Kanak and Alpana Barua nee Duara (Great granddaughter of the protagonasit and the original narrator of the story)

12. Surya and Swapnalee (Brother and sister of Alpana)

13. Pabin Saikia (son in law of Sabita and Hari Barua)

Chapter I: Alpana married Kanak Barua

As you might be aware from my earlier novel ‘Blessed One’ that Kanak Barua was a lecturer in a reputed college of Guwahati when he married Alpana Duara, the eldest child of Dr. Duara and Pratima Duara of Guwahati. However just after few days of his marriage with Alpana, the beautiful young convent educated girl, Kanak resigned from the lecturer job and joined at New Delhi as a Direct Recruit Central Government Officer against the will of many family members, particularly his mother, Pranami who thought the lecturer job in the college would keep him near to her and her family. Ever argumentive Kanak Barua convinced his mother that he should leave the lecturer job for another Assamese unemployed youth as for any other Assamese youths; getting a group-A job in central government would be very difficult. He cleverly avoided confessing before his mother that, he would be a very bad lecturer if he would continue as a lecturer permanently.

As already shared with my readers that Alpana was from a good family of Guwahati and having all modern etiquettes that a good modern girl should possess. Kanak Barua agreed to the marriage proposal brought by Ajita, the dimunitive maternal aunt of Alpana without a second thought even before meeting her for the first time as Ajita was a teacher of Kanak Barua during his college days. Kanak Barua was not aware of the family details even after his ring ceremony was over against the will of his family members, particularly his father, Prithibi Barua.

At the behest of Ajita, his teacher of few days, he met Dr. Duara at his residence and told his desire to marry Alpana. After a half an hour discussion with Dr. Duara he was able to convince Dr. Duara that he was the best man for his daughter. After two months of that meeting Alpana became the wife of Kanak Barua.

By going against proverb of a tribal community, ‘do not f--- your wife on the very first night, otherwise you will be f---ed by your wife every day, every night every time.’ However, Kanak dismissed the proverb and acted against the proverb and now he has been suffering day and night at the hands of his wife, Alpana for the last three decades like any other faithful husband of India. However, Kanak has never regretted for the mistake he had committed on the first night of their conjugal life as he has no data to prove his mistake on that night.

During his probation period he had to visit Chandigarh and he took Alpana alongwith her to the delight of his friends and to the disgust of the seniors. After visiting few places