FERA – Episode 8 : The Ledger of Absence

🌧️ FERA – Episode 8

📖 : The Ledger of Absence

🗓️ :v২৩ জুন ২০২৫

📍 : Partha Pratim Guha Neogy

🌿 English Version :

"Some names no longer echo in the classroom roll calls.

 Some relationships are recorded only in the opposite of presence — in silence."

We had an old ledger at home —

 My father called it the “account book,”

 but to me, it was always the ledger of absence.

Ma used to jot down little things in it:

 Who didn’t call,

 Who hadn’t visited in a while,

 Who said “coming soon” during Durga Puja, but never showed up.

As a child, I laughed at it.

 It seemed like a silly journal of forgetfulness.

But now, years later, standing again in this house,

 I realize the ledger is gone —

 and instead, the entire house has become one.

The old chair sits silently —

 the one Thakuma used to cough from, her presence echoing in every quiet afternoon.

 The string cot in the verandah —

 where an uncle once sat, who left one day for "a job in North Bengal" and never came back.

And this house, this courtyard — they all carry stories of people who don’t live here anymore.

Absence is a scent —

 the lingering trace of someone who’s gone,

 that no monsoon can ever wash away.

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