Parineeta

Parineeta ( Porinita) is a 1914 Bengali language novel written by Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay and is set in Calcutta, India during the early part of the 20th century. It is a novel of social protest which explores issues of that time period related to class and religion. Title The word Parineeta is translated in English as married woman. The literal meaning comes from Bengali (Sanskrit) word "পরিণয়/परिणय/Parinay" - "marriage". Plot Parineeta takes place at the turn of the 20th century during the Bengal Renaissance. The story centers around a poor 13-year-old orphan girl, Lalita, who lives with the family of her uncle Gurucharan. Gurucharan has five daughters, and the expense of paying for their weddings has impoverished him. He is forced to take a loan from his neighbour, Nabin Roy, by mortgaging a plot of land with him. The two neighbouring families share a very cordial relationship, although Nabin Roy covets Gurucharan's mortgaged plot. Nabin Roy's wife, Bhuvaneshwari, dotes on the orphan Lalita and showers love upon her; the latter reciprocates even to the extent of addressing Bhuvaneshwari as “maa” (mother). Roy's younger son Shekharnath (Shekhar), a 25-year-old, recently minted attorney, has a joking, bantering relationship with Lalita, his mother's protégée. The young girl adores him like her mentor, and for some strange reasons, accepts his possessive attitude towards her. Upon the emergence of a supportive Girin in Lalita's life, a certain jealousy transpired within Shekhar, which tended to moderate Lalita's increasing associations with Girin, who has now extended his helping hand to Gurucharan's finances and also assisted him in finding a match for Lalita. These situations seemed to stir the instinctual passions of Shekhar and Lalita for each other. One evening before Shekhar's tour to the west, the duo secretly gets married. But a newly married Lalita had to conceal herself in the veil of her spinsterhood, as her uncle Gurucharan quits his fight with the law and orders of Hindu society and embraces Brahmoism, inspired from the angelic words of Girin. The society abandons them, and the same is followed by Shekhar towards Lalita upon his return (though mixed with covetousness over Girin's influence on her family).