Chapter 4 Payel

“Stop it. Or else, I am going to throw your music system out.” Furious on her room partner, Payel switched off the music system.

“Hey, hey, hey…you have got no right to that…” said Jyoti, in a light hearted mood.

Payel and Jyoti were friends since the kindergarten. In fact they were best friends. They enjoyed each other’s company and were more than sisters to each other. They regarded themselves as sisters from different parents. Even their parents didn’t make any discrimination in between them .Both of their parents treated them as their own child. Both of them were single child. From childhood, whatever Payel’s parents would buy for her, they would get two. One for her and another for Jyoti. Same was also done by Jyoti’s parents. They would fare well and equally in everything they participated in.

But as they grew up, they started to change. Jyoti was more of the outgoing type, more influenced by western music, clothing style and food likings. When they had decided to go and study in the prestigious Women’s College in Agartala, Jyoti had chosen BSC in computer science whereas Payel had chosen Arts. Payel has had always wanted to know about her family’s past. That was the reason why she took History as major subject in her Masters.

Jyoti was not that attractive whereas Payel looked like a goddess. She had the big yet Mongoloid style eyes. Her hair was jet black and long. All her friends would envy her for her long hair. She had a bright fair complexion and a skin as smooth as velvet. She had learnt classical music and dance from childhood. Also she had a rich taste in clothing. At home, she would wear the traditional PACHRA. Other times she would wear simple light colored full length salwar kameez. She never wore jeans or T- shirts.

Payel’s father was the second son of her granddad. She had come to know about her family history from folklore that used to go about in people’s mouth, when she was a child. She had heard from her grandma that, her family was once the ruling family of the mighty Barmuras. In fact, The GOD Barmura was one of their ancient ancestors. They were among the first people to settle in these areas thousands of years ago. Even the last Rajah of Tripura was a descendant from their family. Even now, when she went to her village during vacations, she would spend more time in knowing the past. This, she would do, by interviewing old people in the nearby villages. She had taken up writing a book on the history of Tripura and the history of the people. She was in continuous consultation with the professors, not only in her own college, but also from other universities as well as other places like Kolkata and Delhi. She would from time to time visit the Chantai in the 14 God’s temple. In fact it was now, in the end of May, that she was planning to go to Unokoti, Pilak and a few other places to get some pictures for her book. She had decided to take the tourist bus facility recently started to all major attractions of Tripura for 7 days. She has bought a high definition camera for the purpose and taken her parent’s permission too.