Sister of My Heart

For the first time, Sudha makes a train journey alone, traveling back to Calcutta.

Sudha is met at the house by Nalini, who is furious, and by Gouri and Pishi, who are more understanding. The mothers have had to close off the top floor of the house. They serve her a modest meal, but she enjoys it. This meal is the first food she has eaten since the beginning of the pregnancy with no “strings attached to it” (266). Sudha is nonetheless worried by the mothers’ reduced circumstances and Gouri’s ailing health.

The next morning, the family calls Mrs. Sanyal, who refuses to take Sudha back unless she goes ahead with the scheduled abortion. Gouri wants to contact Ramesh, but Sudha sees no point. The divorce papers come through the next week. Nalini immediately begins wailing about the disgrace, but Pishi comes to Sudha’s aid. In an unexpected tirade against society’s unfair treatment of unmarried women, Pishi recalls her own blighted life as a young widow. Pishi insists that they must sell the house and move into a flat so that they can take proper care of Sudha and her infant daughter. Pishi also tells Gouri that she must stop putting off the bypass surgery.

The mothers ask what blessing they can give to Sudha after she touches their feet. Sudha wishes to be like the Queen of Swords, ready to fight for herself and her child against all odds.

Relations between Anju and Sunil remain fraught. While Anju defends her advice to her cousin, Sunil keeps warning her that Sudha and her daughter are now at risk of living as social pariahs and that Sudha is placing an unsustainable burden on the mothers. Anju hatches a plan to bring Sudha to live in the United States. Anju intends to get a job, without her husband’s knowledge. She decides that the babies should be called Prem (God of Love) and Dayita (Beloved).

It is moving day for the Chatterjee women. Sudha feels guilty, but she observes that Gouri, her bypass surgery successful, is now freed from the burden of trying to maintain the house and has taken on a new lease of life. Sudha recalls signing her divorce papers. At that moment, she felt a sense of relief and liberation, knowing she and her unborn daughter were setting out into uncharted territories.

Ashok arrives at the empty house to see Sudha. He renews his proposal of marriage. Sudha is happy and optimistic for several weeks until Ashok announces that he feels he would be unable to welcome her daughter and asks if the baby might be sent to live with the mothers. Heartbroken, Sudha promises to consider his request.

Anju is secretly working at the university library. She finds her newfound financial independence exhilarating and compares her attitude to that of her American peers, who grumble about the extra work and wish they had more support from their families.

At her checkup, the doctor is very worried about her blood pressure and sugar levels. He threatens to put her on bed rest if she does not start eating and resting properly.

Anju follows the doctor’s instructions diligently for a few weeks. She is irritated when he says he will “let” her stay on her feet. She arrives home happy with her latest paycheck, only to be struck with guilt that she is deceiving her husband.

Sudha enjoys designing clothes for the new babies. The mothers are keen for her to accept Ashok’s proposal, but she refuses to abandon her daughter. She dreams of the infant, Prem, floating above them, “as blue as Krishna” (294); the infant calls them to come to her. The dream fills her with a mysterious melancholy. Meanwhile, the mothers continue enjoying their new lease of life now that their house has been sold.

Sudha has received a letter from Anju describing Anju’s plans for Sudha’s move to the United States. Sudha is worried about Sunil, still recalling his behavior before and during the wedding. When Sarita Aunty expresses disapproval of the mothers’ plan to take Sudha and the baby to Darjeeling, Sudha again worries about the social stigma they will face in India and reconsiders Anju’s proposal.

Exhausted and suffering from lower back pain, Anju falls asleep over her books on a sofa at the university. She hurries to the station to meet Sunil, but there is no sign of him. She finds him waiting angrily at home. He returned early due to a nearby meeting and found a message on the answerphone asking Anju to come in for an extra shift at the library.

As the pain in her lower back and stomach intensify, Anju explains why she is working. Sunil says he will call the library to hand in her resignation, and Anju responds angrily, doubling up with pain as she begins to lose blood. Sunil calls an ambulance as she loses consciousness.

Anju awakes in the hospital, where an emergency C-section has failed to save the baby. She is not allowed to see the baby’s body. Sunil tells her that he was “blue…like a…baby Krishna” (304), having been deprived of oxygen. Anju despairingly shuts her eyes, saying that she has killed her baby.

The mothers have kept the news of Prem’s death from Sudha, but she knows something is wrong. One evening, she calls Anju, and Sunil answers. Sudha tricks him into believing that she has already been told everything, and he speaks of the loss of the baby and Anju’s deep depression. The doctors are suggesting that Anju should be institutionalized, and he has no more leave available from work.

Over the phone, Sudha tells Anju the story of the Queen of Swords. A queen is pregnant, but all the court aim arrows at her belly when they discover the baby is a girl. The baby passes her a sword from within the womb, with which she fights off her assailants. The queen finds refuge with her sister, who extends a rainbow across the ocean to pull her to safety. Anju expresses her longing to see her cousin but repeatedly ignores Sudha’s references to Dayita.

Sunil has agreed to organize and pay for tickets. He sighs and says “I tried” before hanging up, reinforcing Sudha’s sense of foreboding.

Baby Dayita is born, and the mothers and Singhji are besotted with her, constantly squabbling over who will be allowed to hold her. Sudha tells the child the story of her cousin, Prem, who was taken away by the gods because he was “too good for the imperfect world of men” (314). Sudha worries about Anju’s continued refusal to acknowledge her niece.

Ashok arrives and repeats his proposal, apologizing and saying that he will try to be a father to Dayita. Sudha refuses again, saying that she does not know if she will ever return from the United States. Anju has written about starting their own clothing business, and Sudha imagines a future as a fully autonomous, self-sufficient woman.

Anju is anxious that Sudha will accept Ashok’s proposal and change her mind. Sunil is irritably dismissive of her claims, but she hears that he, too, has trouble getting to sleep and takes sleeping pills.

Anju is converting the study into a bedroom for Sudha and Dayita. She cannot bear to look at the crib that Sunil has bought for the baby. Anju feels that to acknowledge Dayita would be an injustice to Prem.

Anju comes across an ornamental box containing a wedding handkerchief. Initially, she thinks it is her own and plans to tease Sunil about the romantic gesture. She is distressed to realize that it is Sudha’s and is suddenly filled with apprehension about her cousin’s arrival.

After rejecting Ashok again, Sudha is in a hurry to go, but she feels a terrible pang of sadness and regret as she leaves the mothers at the airport. Ashok has left her a credit card so that she will not “feel dependent on anyone” (235). Sudha imagines he is referring to Sunil. An invitation arrives to Ramesh’s wedding. She is stung by Mrs. Sanyal’s spite.

The mothers have given Sudha a mysterious brown packet for Dayita, which she opens as soon as she is on the plane. In it, she finds the ruby, which has been made into a pendant on a necklace. She reflects on how, now that the Chatterjee house has fallen and the stone belongs to her infant daughter, Sudha no longer views the ruby with foreboding and can appreciate its beauty.

Sudha is initially horrified to find another envelope containing a letter written in her father’s hand. She learns that, on the night after they collected their rubies, Bijoy confronted her real father about his identity. Her father revealed that he was the illegitimate son of Bijoy’s uncle and that he had lived like a servant in his father’s house until his mother died of a fever. Her father had cheated his way into Bijoy’s house with the idea of exacting revenge on the family but soon grew to feel genuine brotherly love for his host. Bijoy immediately forgave him and recognized him as family, leaving Sudha’s father deeply touched.

The two men then drifted rapidly off to sleep, having been drugged by their traveling companion, Haldar. Sudha’s father awakes having been thrown overboard. Unable to find Bijoy in the water, he swam back to the launch and confronted Haldar, who slammed a burning lantern into his face. Her father struck back at Haldar with the grappling hook, which knocked the man overboard. Ashamed to return home, her father disguised himself as a refugee and trained as a mechanic. When he heard the Chatterjee women were looking for a driver, he applied for the post in the guise of Singhji.

Shocked, Sudha reflects that this means she no longer owes Anju a blood debt, on the basis of which she has repeatedly sacrificed her own interests. On further consideration, though, she concludes that nothing in their relationship has really changed.

Anju is torn between eagerly anticipating Sudha’s arrival and worrying about the effects it might have on her marriage. When another man waiting at the airport sees Sudha and compliments Sunil on his “wife,” Anju notes that Sunil makes no attempt to correct him.

After the two women embrace, Sudha asks Anju to hold Dayita and thrusts the infant into Anju’s arms before she has a chance to protest. Anju had felt that it would be somehow disloyal to Prem to love another baby, but she immediately feels a strong connection to Dayita.

The two women slowly leave the airport, arm in arm, supporting the baby between them, as Sunil follows with the trolley.