![]() ![]() Best of all, she kept the stairs spotlessly clean and the outside world at bay. Nevertheless, her tales harmed no one and she was entertaining. Chatterjee believes she simply mourns her family and wraps herself in illusion. Dalal of the third floor can’t fathom how a landowner ends up sweeping stairs, wives think she is the victim of changing times, Mr. Each resident of the building had a different interpretation of her tales. But her tales were so impassioned that no one could dismiss her outright. The details of her journey across the border shift in each retelling. Each litany ends with the same phrase, “Believe me, don’t believe me.” She chronicles the easier times in her life, the feasts and servants and marble floor of her home. ![]() Tied to the end of her sari is a set of skeleton keys belonging to coffer boxes that housed her valuables. She was separated from her husband, two daughters, and home. As she sweeps, her raspy voice details the losses she has suffered because of Partition. Each day, she trudges up the stairs, lugging her reed broom and flimsy mattress behind her. Boori Ma, an increasingly frail 64-year-old woman, is the durwan (live-in doorkeeper) to an apartment building of Calcutta. ![]()
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