Boundless Boon - Esparlee Khongriah

A middle aged woman, approaching her 40s, works hard to make ends meet. She is unmarried and has a day job to support her family. Children call her ‘Auntie’ because of her appearance. She has lived a very monotonous life which has made her work hard since her teenage years. Her parents were travelling and they got into a car accident. In this incident her father died and her mother suffered serious injuries and withdrew into paralysis. Her mother was bedridden and required constant care at the hospital.

After working hard for 15 years she had lost all hope and had given up on life. Every night was haunted by nightmares which made her sweat during her sleep. Her mother used to comfort her after each one of them, consoling her and telling her that everything was alright. She used to see her father in her dreams and also dreams of her being old and wrinkled which made more conscious of her age. Her days were ruled by hard work and pain and her nights by churning stomachs and nightmares.

_____________     ;________;    ________________________________________________________

One day her boss calls her to his cabin approaches her and asks her to marry him. She got offended by this and had tears in her eyes thinking that her boss thought of her as a spinster or something. She was hurt by this and was shouting at her boss for long. This was only before her boss made it clear that he was a divorcee. After this she sat down and they talked for hours. According to her they lost the track of time in their conversation. Which might indicate that she also got quite interested in him during the little chat they had.

________________________    ;________;        ___________________________________________

“My boss was a controlled human computer, cold and calculating. He seldom smiled at the employees….Moni, I always thought of you. I’ve observed you. You have a lot of problems. Don’t you.”

In the above line we come to know that Mr. Sundaram(the boss), might have taken this step very cautiously and he must’ve put a lot of thought into this considering this option that he had given unto himself. This also tells us that Mr. Sundaram knew about the lady’s life at least a bit to know that she was unmarried.

___________________________    ;________;    __________________________________________

“Our maidservant took a day off. So I came early. I heard a thud….was not the first time.”

In the above excerpt we can see that even Mr. Sundaram had his own problems regarding his family. His mother having a medical situation needs to be taken care of. Even if there is someone like a maid to take care of the old lady, she does need care and affection. Therefore, by this line we can see that asking Moni to marry Mr. Sundaram was a choice well made by him. Listening to this Moni drowns herself in tears. She really feels the pain and the agony that her boss is going through caused by having no wife and of those caused because of not being able to take care of his mother well.

______________________________    ;________;   ________________________________________

“On a cold winter day of late February 1988, a car deposited us outside the door of Hotel Paradise. The manager greeted us politely. ‘Good Morning, Mrs and Mr Sundaram!’ My pulses quickened. I looked at my wedding ring to make sure I was not dreaming.”

This excerpt tells us that the narrator, Moni, didn’t expect her life to take such a dramatic turn of events. After losing hope and trying to find comfort in nightmares and hunger, after 15 years of hard work and at a juncture where no one would step in to help, this was surely mind easing for her. But as we can see, for her this might take some time to get used to considering her past life and experiences. It’s almost like a new life for her.

_____________________________________________    ;________;   _________________________

“I flung myself back on the pillow and saw another dream. This time…..I believed in and put my trust in God.”

This can be seen as a turning point in the story considering her chores in life before this and her boss’s proposal to her after this. This is one of the greater pictures which can be seen in the story. Here the author asks of us to place our faith in God and just go on about our day to day lives. Whatever happens in our life, it is surely not in vain. One day each one of us would attain happiness however bad the situation might get.

________________________________________________________    ;________;   ______________

Boundless Boon tries to show us that even with all the hardships in life a person can expect well in the end. Even though all hope is lost, life doesn’t lose hope in use, we must have faith and go on about our life without hesitation. The story also points out the outlook on women in the Indian Society which are pretty evident.

________________________________________________________________________  ;________;