Anowara Begum kept staring at the girl for a long time. Such a beautiful girl!
She was wearing a light cream-colored three-piece dress. She was quite tall too—probably around five feet five. Her complexion was lovely, like fresh turmeric.
Anowara Begum had already made a plan in her mind. Her son wasn’t bad. He had just finished his master’s degree.
He didn’t have a job yet. But so what? They had plenty. Four houses in Dhaka city. All of it belonged to her son.
She wondered if the girl was married. It didn’t seem like it. If she were, she would probably be living with her husband, not her parents.
Today, new tenants were moving into their house. Anowara Begum was standing on the balcony to see them. Who knew they had such a beautiful daughter?
Anowara Begum made up her mind. She would invite the new tenants over for lunch. They must be too busy with the hassle of moving to cook.
What was the man’s name again? Oh, yes—Aslam. That sounded like a Muslim name. But then again, these days, names don’t always reveal religion.
A few days ago, one of Raihan’s father’s colleagues came over. His name was Shantanu Dhar. Names like “Dhar” are usually Hindu. So, she prepared food accordingly. Later, she found out he was a Muslim!
Knowing their religion was important. Religion is connected to food habits. If they were Muslim, she could serve beef. But if they were Hindu, that would be a big problem.
Anowara Begum thought it would be best to cook chicken. Both Muslims and Hindus eat chicken.
What else should she cook? Polao or plain rice? When guests come, polao is expected. She could do both—polao and plain rice. Some people don’t like polao.
Anowara Begum went inside and called Rahima. Rahima worked in their house. But she didn’t feel like a maid because she had grown up in that house since she was very young. She called Anowara “Mother” and was treated like a daughter.
Anowara Begum had no daughters. She considered Rahima her own. Not just treated her like a daughter, she raised her like one. Rahima had recently taken her HSC exams. She was a good student. She had scored a GPA of 5 in her SSC exams. This time, she would likely do well too.
Hearing the call, Rahima rushed over. “What happened, Mother?”
“Take the chicken out of the fridge, dear. And check if we have polao rice at home. If not, ask Abbas to get some.”
“Why do you need polao rice?”
“We have guests coming.”
“Guests at this time? Who is coming?”
“We’ll be hosting lunch for the new tenants. They just moved in; they probably won’t be able to cook. Let them have lunch here. They’ll arrange for their dinner by evening.”
Rahima wasn’t surprised at all by Anowara’s words. She knew her mother was kind-hearted.
Anowara Begum went back to the balcony. A large truck was unloading their belongings. She couldn’t see the girl.
The girl’s father, Aslam, was supervising the process. Anowara wanted to see the girl. What was she doing? Was she helping her mother organize things, or had she gone to rest?
Some girls get exhausted even after a short journey. They are the lazy type. What kind of girl was this one?
A lazy girl would be a problem. Raihan didn’t like lazy people.
Maybe she should go over and check. As the landlady, she could inquire about how things were going. And she could give the lunch invitation while she was at it.
