The afternoon of 24th August 2016. An otherwise uneventful Wednesday afternoon for Mr Bose. With nothing to do at hand he decided on having an afternoon siesta. He was soon snoring away into a peaceful sleep after a lunch composed of the routine Bengali maach bhaat. Kamal had cooked ‘parshe macher jhol’ along with 'Cholar dal’.
Although Mr Bose was never a fan of Pershe mach but being the worshipper of his wife, as usual he gulped down an entire fish as per instruction of his loving wife. After lunch he went into the room where his father-in-law once slept, turned on the AC and went off to sleep.
It was decided by Mrs Bose that her husband had been going through a tough time after her recent diagnosis of being a diabetic thus, resulting in her mood fluctuations as she was unable to eat a lot of things that she loved. She had to say no to her daily dose of roshogolla, plate full of rice, spice rich mutton, chicken rolls in the evening, just name of few.
Her inability to achieve satiety owing to all the restrictions set by her doctor led her to misbehave every now and then with her husband over whom she had absolute control. He was a devoted husband and she was a loving wife. She realised, he needed to have some rest from all the bickerings she had been throwing at him ever since she had been diagnosed to be diabetic.
So today he was supposed to have an afternoon nap after lunch. For the past 7 days she had been keeping him awake and and on his toes to do whatever errand came to her mind. The tasks ranged from filling the empty water bottles on table, to giving her a head massage, to staying awake with her because she was unable to sleep out of hunger because she had skipped that tasteless diabetic meal especially prepared by Kamal for her.
Needless to mention here that Mr Bose had also started taking a diabetic diet. He felt that having a diabetic diet would do good to his health and keep company for his wife.
Today morning as a blood test came within the permissible limits set by her physician, she treated herself with dose of rosogolla that had been drained off its syrup. As she gulped down the rosogolla, her husband handed over the medicines.
She looked at him and felt pity for the ageing handsome hunk cowed down by her immense love into a docile domesticated husband. His greying hair looked more grey and the baldness of his head look more bald. He must get some rest today, she immediately decided.
The satisfaction from rosogolla was going to be a strong sedative for her afternoon nap as well. If left on his own Mr Boss would turn on the TV and keep watching news till dinner time and as usual she took matters in her hand and ordered him to go to the other room and take a nap. Mr Bose followed her command like an obedient school boy.
It must be around 4 p.m. in the afternoon when Mrs Bose woke up. It was her usual tea time. She made two cups of Darjeeling tea and called Mr Bose. Soon they were sitting at the dining table sipping the afternoon tea while, the TV was turn on and played some local news on a regional TV channel.
Mrs boss suddenly felt the table move. She had cervical spondylosis and often suffered attacks of vertigo. The vertigo would soon be followed by nausea and sometimes vomiting. She was in no mood to destroy the beautiful afternoon. She decided on a preventive measure and immediately ordered Mr Bose to get her tablet vertin.
The physician had advised this tablet to her mother during their last visit when she complained of occasional dizziness and vertigo. Mrs Boss had a quick acting mind. She immediately ordered her husband to open the case of medicines that belonged to her mother. It was placed on the table where they were having tea. Soon the case was opened and she had a tablet of vertin in her hand which immediately gulped down.
Mr Bose watched her and said, ‘you see I am also having vertigo’. ‘then you take one too’, she handed over another tablet of vertin to Mr bose which he obediently gulped down.
Mr Boss had just swallowed the tablet when his attention was broken by ulu from a flat in the adjacent tower. A woman in another flat has started blowing the conch shell. It was at this point he realised that it was actually an earthquake that had shook the house and his wife thought it was an attack of vertigo.
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