Story: An Unromantic End to a Sindoor Dani

After his recent house-shifting, he was opening the cartoon-boxes one-by-one. When he opened that cartoon box, he was shocked to see inside it. There was a saffron color powder wrapping every object inside the box. He sat down on the bed and remained still for a while. Old memories came alive to him.

During their wedding, his wife had got a big colorful wooden ‘Sindoor Dani’ – a box to keep Sindoor. Sindoor is supposed to be a symbol of marriage for every Indian woman. Women display it on the parting of their hair as a sign of marriage as well as a gesture respecting their husbands. After their wedding, his wife had frequent quarrels with him. And when she went away for higher studies, she left her Sindoor-dani at home. It kept lying at the bottom most row of her almirah. And when she was back, she kept it inside the under-bed storage. There, it kept lying along with other miscellaneous useless items. For many years, the Sindoor-dani kept lying there – one among the other ‘useless items’. He had noticed it from the beginning; and had felt a bit of disappointment at its lack of care. But that was it. In front of bigger problems, smaller problems are never addressed.

Every time he got transferred and moved houses, the Sindoor-dani was shifted from one storage to another, but always with other useless items. This time however, it seemed that the Sindoor-dani had given up all hopes. It decided to implode.

On the way to the new house, the Sindoor-dani had got opened and whole of its Sindoor came out, rubbing each of the miscellaneous items it was clubbed with in the box.

He took some of the other items to the bathroom and washed those under the tap. The cover of Sindoor melted and started moving to the sink. He watched its traces disappear into the sink. Later when the objects dried up, they still had traces of orange Sindoor over those. The Sindoor did not get totally washed off. It clung to whatever object embraced it, even if unknowingly.

In the end, the Sindoor-dani was totally empty. And traces of Sindoor still clung to each of the other useless object which travelled with it in the cartoon-box.

He wondered how wise his ancestors were to have created such a miracle of ‘symbolism’. As Sindoor was a symbol of matrimony, the neglected and useless ever-wandering status of his wife’s Sindoor-dani was just an apt symbol of what was going on in his matrimonial life. He saluted the tradition and started unpacking other boxes.

- Rahul Tiwary