Agomoni

Having grown up hearing the stories of Agomoni from our grandparents' generation, how Maa Durga is but a daughter returning home to us, for five days, and the blue sky and white clouds being a reflection of her happiness on her impending homecoming. Then suddenly clouds begin to gather, and my grandmother would often say, Oh look, there it is, Shiva seems angry. Why, I would ask, the eager child in me, always having a love for stories. And love stories.

Why, of course, he will miss his wife when she comes here with the children, and he doesn't want her to come. Thunderstorms would follow, often drenching the plains of Bengal, and we would hear a rather popular tale of how perhaps it is Shiva and Parvati having one of their marital arguments up there in Kailash, which was for some reason always skywards. Oh, who won? The rains were too heavy. She must be crying. The imaginative child in me would go into a world where She would be in tears over an argument. But then look, the sun shone through the clouds again. She must have won the argument; After all, who could win an argument with his wife? Not even the Lord.

© Suranya