Bamboo Grove Art Cafe

At five in the afternoon Nia drove to the cafe which she had opened a little over five years ago. That was before she was supposed to get engaged to be married. At that time she was in the last semester of the Master's course. Back then she opened the cafe with a different goal. Over the last five years the purpose behind the cafe had changed.

The Cafe was near the river beach of the Brahmaputra. There was a small path that led to the white sand beach and the river from the courtyard of the cafe. One could have a view of the beautiful river, of the sunset sitting on the spacious courtyard of the art cafe. Or they could walk to the beach, sit on the sand, drink tea, enjoy the sunset and the river view.

The one storey low pitch roof building of the cafe was surrounded by bamboos of different sorts. She had planted golden and black bamboos to give the place an exotic look and people now loved the exotic air lent by those Chinese varieties. Nia loved books. She loved reading while drinking her favourite cup of tea. Another thing she liked was, reading somewhere in a beautiful natural surrounding.

There were libraries or fancy cafes and tea houses in the city. But they were not her ideal place for enjoying a book. The city lacked such a place. So she wanted to provide one such place to others where they could have both the beauty of the nature and a cup of tea they liked. She knew a few upcoming, promising writers who complained about lacking a place where they could have the feel of nature, drink a few cups of favourite tea or coffee while they wrote.

Soon after Nia opened the place it turned into a hub of writers, artists and people who craved for tranquillity and tea. The cafe provided popular fiction, comics books, classic literature which it stoked on shelves in the long dining room. There was a small studio at one side for the children, stuffed with drawing materials. People had the luxury of choosing from a wide variety of tea, coffee, and the cafe served the best kind of dessert.

The best thing the cafe served to the customers was of course the breath taking view of the river and its beach of white sand, and the small bamboo forest that surrounded it. Looking at the popularity of the place she later on added simple dinner service that had a touch of home rather than the professional elegance of a star rated restaurant. After she opened the shelter for the women, she also thought that it was a great way to engage some of the women from the shelter and give them a job at a decent place.

So now most of the people working in the cafe were once a part of the shelter that she managed back at her home town. Mahua, who had done a baking course, baked all the tasty cookies and desserts sold at the cafe. The girl was in the final semester of her bachelor's degree. Looking at her at the moment Nia smiled with the pride of an older sister.

There was little resemblance of that seventeen years old girl she had met almost four years ago in the present Mahua who was busy taking out the cookies trays from the oven. Like Nia, Mahua earned a black belt in karate in three years. In the nearby three storey building which was mostly hidden by the thick groves of bamboos from the people who came to the cafe, were the training arenas and the gym. Mahua often helped in training other women.

Nia had that building built a little more than two years ago. She constructed it with the aim to build an elite force of female bodyguards. There was no plans to join in any underworld activities on her part. She wanted to create it to provide for the women a job chance where they would feel powerful, protecting others and also themselves. She had the agency of bodyguards registered in the name of her mom, grandma and another partner.

She stood in the kitchen for a while, drank two cups of bilouchun tea, then walked the concrete brick path that led to the training building. Inside the building in the training arena on the ground floor the women were busy training. Mahua helped in the morning to train the women as she attended college during the day and worked in the cafe in the evening. Nia liked her hard working attitude but she also wanted the girl to have a normal life like other girls of her age.

Mahua had her Sundays off, to use it as she pleased but the girl preferred to hang out at the cafe most of her Sundays. At the training hall Nia watched the trainees, talked with the trainers, and went up to the gym on the first floor. The second floor had the dormitories for the trainers and the female stuff of the cafe. She walked into her office on the first floor and found Zubeen Gohain there waiting for her.

"Have you been waiting long?" She asked him with a slight smile on her face.

"I came an hour ago but I'm here in the office only for...maybe twenty minutes."

He shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly, looking at her tired face. But he cared a lot for the woman who was now sitting in the swivel chair behind the desk. He respected her hard work and achievement. Zubeen himself was a testament of the suffering she had undergone and the hard work she had put in to be where she stood now. He saw how that butterfly like twenty-one years old young woman shed her fragility and changed into the Phoenix.

He had been once a core member of an insurgent group who surrendered to the government and gave up arms. Well, he still carried arms with him, though with the permission of the government. He had his own business in the city, both legal and illegal. He was also one of the partners of the agency of female Bodyguards. Nia's mom, grandma and he, the three of them jointly owned the agency.

Nia stayed away from his illegal side. That was his life, he knew that she would not join him in that side of his business but she would not hesitate to choose even the illegal way when it came to protecting the people under her care. She was not the vulnerable woman without strength that she once had been. She knew how to handle a gun. Zubeen taught her and she surpassed the master. Being a sharpshooter needed lot of grit and practice. Nia had both.

While Zubeen managed the contracts, they both supervised other official works of the agency. He stared at the now twenty six years old powerful woman, flipping through the documents he had brought for her. He met her five years ago. Five years ago a lot happened to this woman in a short span of time. In these five years a lot of changes had taken place in her. They never talked about that fateful day from five years ago.

It was the day he met her, saved her and almost killed the man who tried to rape her. He was in that forest, hiding with a few of his comrades. They were waiting for the final message from the mediator between the government and them. They saved her and brought her home. After his surrender Zubeen Gohain spent a few months with the new family he had found in Nia, her mom and grandma before he left for the city.

Nia shifted her gaze from the documents on the desk and diverted it to a Zubeen who was lost in thought while his eyes were fixed on her. She gave out a small laugh and that disrupted his thoughts. It seemed she had guessed his thoughts.