Thank Heavens Rabindranath Tagore rescued dark-coloured girls somewhat... I mean, sitting beside you when the colour of my skin starts to gnaw at me... the girl says in an indistinct voice, then at that very moment listening to that line coming out of your mouth unleashes a white firestream in my blood. Over their heads a strong sun blazes away.

Getting down from the rickshaw, the boy says, This time it's firm, I'll come to your house tomorrow.

Such a scorching day! Fire, feeling like it is tearing water out of the girl's skin with bare teeth. But unmindful about it, because of the fragrance coming from the boy she has recently fallen in love with, the girl enters the house after crossing through the alley. Only then does the thought occur to her and she slaps her forehead. She sternly rebukes herself!

She's been in a swoon, swimming trance-like in a drunken river and now the world asserts itself, crash-landing into reality's space. It is a working day, with everybody in the house having gone out to do his or her own work.

She frequently keeps making this same mistake nowadays when she enters her room. She tosses her bag, forgets everything and then pitches forward face-down on the bed. Previously, she would have turned the house upside down if she didn't see the cat at her doorstep. The cat too out of some wounded pride doesn't wait by the door these days, doesn't meow anymore.

Hearing the scratching of claws on the floor, the girl with a start of violent guilt jumps up to scoop up the cat on her lap... Hey...hey... she tickles the cat, So, you are not feeling happy, not feeling happy at all eh? So what do I have to do, ask about you all the time?

The girl's lips are desolate, and on hearing the soft sounds, the cat gradually calms down. Some unknown, strange sensation sends a shiver running through its black fur... after turning and twisting a few times it sits down and looks at the girl with gravid, solemn eyes.

‘My skin colour and yours, they are so much alike,' the girl murmurs as she sinks back down on the bed. A striped cat had paired off with this tomcat, and then one fine morning had run off with a gorgeous white cat. This poor cat then had nearly scratched itself to death.

After this incident, the girl now pays far more attention to the cat. They eat together... they sleep together... she talks to the cat constantly... the girl thinks, How lonely had I been when the boy hadn't entered my life... and this cat then had been my companion at every moment, at every turn.

If you were a woman, I'd have called you Krishna Kali... the girl laughs out loud, melting into the deep romance flowing beneath the laughter as she runs her fingers through the cat's fur, strokes and kisses the cat...again, that strange, unknown shiver runs through the cat.

Okay, you ready? Let me change, and then let's go to the roof.

The sun's rays still fall. The cat sweetly, softly bites at the edge of the girl's shalwar. Up here on the roof through the crevices of a thousand buildings a piece of the sky slides downward. Standing in the midst of all this, the girl looks at the amazing clouds and feels contented... Hey hey, cloud...dissolve into fragments over his curly hair wherever he is standing and make it wet.

The cat is running around in great spirits. Then, to get the girl's attention it slowly pads over to the railing and sits on it. 'Aray array, you're going to fall off, the girl in one motion picks up the cat and holding it against her bosom lies down on the roof. Do you think often about your lover? Feel bad? The very next moment the girl feels a deep anxiety... the cat can't tolerate anything white... when just the other day a fair-skinned girlfriend of hers came to visit, it would be quite correct to say that it had veritably sprung at her.

However, ultimately the cat had behaved itself, leashed by its mistress's strict control. Perhaps there would be trouble at the beginning with the boy, but then the girl would eventually reconcile them both to each other, make them friends. The next day, again everybody has gone out of the house. After getting the maidservant to take the cat to some other place, the girl stands sweating in the small space in front of the boy. They are alone in the room. A surprising calm about the boy, telling her stories about his childhood while playing with the girl's fingers, telling her You know what happens, I was an only child, grew up feeling very lonely, both parents at work, coming to you I feel comforted.

The girl puts out the spark of fire that makes its way up her ice-cold heart, and says in a soft voice, That's what I fear the most, this dark-skinned girl for their one, good-looking son, will your family...?

What are you calling good-looking? This fair colour? Oh, God! Do you know how beautiful you are? Saying this, the boy very tenderly joins his body with the girl's and passionately kisses her on the lips.

There is a sudden sound and the girl draws away, only to see the silent, cold eyes of the cat staring at them from a gap in the window.

Late at night when the girl is sleeping with the cat in her arms, climbing stairways of clouds in her dreams, she feels that the cat has moved away from her.

What's up? Where are you going? She turns on the lights and follows the cat, and as she enters inside the kitchen, she is rendered speechless. In a split second, the cat has jumped on to the blade of the standing boti, and its blood-soaked body is now lying dead on the floor.

Nasrin Jahan is a Bangladeshi writer who has won various awards. Asrar Chowdhury teaches Economics at Jahangirnagar University.