Rai Ganguly thinks Elokeshi is her best friend. Rai has thought so for 20 years. All is not what it appears to be. When I went to Elokeshi’s house once, she started telling me how she does not trust Rai at all and even though Rai is her best friend, Rai could stab her in the back at any point of time. She does not like Rai. Once I saw Elokeshi’s mother somewhere, so I went up and spoke to her, and somehow Rai came up in the conversation. I was basically admiring Rai the way everyone does because Rai is very intelligent. Then Elokeshi’s mother shot back with, “Rai kintu bhalo noy.” That means Elokeshi told her mother all kinds of rubbish about Rai, which is why her mother was so hostile towards Rai. Then upon Satrajit’s dumb insinuations, I went and spoke to Elokeshi’s father about the legal case at hand. Elokeshi’s father also had a similar notion about Rai, that she has not amounted to anything and has done nothing with her life. Yes, this is what Elokeshi’s father had to say. Let me clear up all the confusion, so that Elokeshi’s parents know the actual perception people have of Rai. People love Rai. Rai is admired by everyone because of her intelligence wherever she goes, whoever she talks to. She has a brilliant mind. She’s very sharp in both humanities and science subjects. Everyone is always in praise of Rai when she is not around because of her intelligence. Even very demanding people like Swapan da like Rai so much, because she’s brilliant. As far as her moral character goes, I used to speak to everyone, and no one other than Elokeshi has ever said anything negative whatsoever about Rai, thus proving Elokeshi’s mother’s suspicions to be false. Rai is liked by all. No one has seen anything questionable or suspicious in Rai. Everything Elokeshi said is very strange, because Rai is very unproblematic as a person. And she’s helpful also. As for Rai being a waste, that’s just utter lies spread by Elokeshi. Rai pora shonay khub bhalo. Since she is so gifted academically, she keeps herself busy academic pursuits. She doesn’t necessarily follow what’s in the syllabus or a set course for her studies, but she reads plenty of high-flown works and can assimilate alot of information. She has a brilliant mind. She always catches the attention of people when she speaks on such subjects because she has so much knowledge. And she can bring up relevant information immediately when in a discussion or asked. There are plenty of people like this in our generation, and previous generations, who spend their lives learning and studying. There are plenty of people, and there have always been plenty of people, who live a free kind of life. There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s not like Rai idles away her time and does nothing. I don’t see anything wrong with somebody pursuing their studies. And it’s pretty natural for people who are strong academically to devote their time to that. And their are people who have enough money lying around to be able to live a life where they can sit around studying all the time. There’s nothing wrong with that. People pursue what they are good at. And Rai’s a good student. So, it’s fine, studying suits her. As long as she can manage money her whole life, which is very, very important and very, very serious, it’s fine. And what does Elokeshi even understand about pora shona, o toh ekebarei porashonay bhalo noy? How can she comment on someone else studying? Just because she is rubbish in pora shona does not mean everyone else stops studying! Elokeshi hates Rai so much that she even got her parents on her side against Rai, turned her parents against Rai. If you didn’t like her ever, why did you pretend to be her best friend? And I’ve never seen or heard of Rai doing something unethical, so her ethical track record is gold. I haven’t seen anything scheming or back-stabbing about her. Neither has anyone else. It’s just some crazy scheme by Elokeshi to secretly undermine Rai, ruin her reputation, have people turn against Rai. It’s disgusting. And all the people Elokeshi talks about this way, Rai, Varsha, Alok, Poushali, Chico, Chinki, Diya Lahiri, Nandini Sen, the only time I’ve ever heard anyone say rubbish about them was when Elokeshi was talking. And Rai wouldn’t even be given a chance to talk to Elokeshi’s father, because Rai tends to enthrall with her intelligence, and Elokeshi’s father is a very erudite kind of person, so he would naturally appreciate Rai’s intelligence. Rai always spoke highly of Elokeshi’s father. And Elokeshi cannot stand her father. He’s so nice. Works really hard, provides for all the extended family, everyone would depend upon him. And he’s very skilled in Indian classical music, has Kolkata’s largest vinyl collection of western classical music. He’s the reason everyone else was able to keep going. Why would you not like that?