Title of 'The Empty Chest'

Title of 'The Empty Chest'

Indira Goswami, or Mamoni Raisom Goswami as she is popularly known, is among the best-kown names in the field of Assamese literature. She was a Professor in the Department of Modern Indian Languages in the University of Delhi. A prolific writer, Dr Goswami has been honoured with a numb er of prestigious awards including the Jnanpith Award for the year 2000. she dies in 2011. her stories are characterized by an unusual sensitivity and a felicity of expression. The themes explored in her stories are wide ranging – the pain of thwarted passion, blighted hopes, the struggle for existence – and they transcend the ambience with ease. No one got up at this hour, not even the people who had come to live on the fringes of the cremation ground under the shrine of Kamakhya. A few bulbuls chattered in the Hijol tree in front of Toradoi's shack. A flock of yellow-billed goru-bok had just flown past, heading for the horizon to the east of the Brahmaputra. The stench of burnt human flesh stole across the cremation ground to mingle with the sweet scent of distant lemon blossom. Com ing out of her shack, Tolradoi saw that Haib or, the firewood-vendor from the crematory, was standing under the Hijol tree. His spindly legs stuck out of his black shorts. His white teeth gleamed like the chewed-up remains of sugarcane sticks.  remembered some of his words. They fell on her ears, again, like hammer blows.
"It will be long before that drunkard of yours comes out of jail. That is, if he comes out at all! After all, he has killed not one, but two people by ramming into them. It has been proved that he was drunk while driving. But I am here, don't worry! I will help, only keep the door open at night. This way at least your two kids won't starve to dceath!" Haibor had said. Since then, lured by the prospect of seeing Toradoi's door open to him he had come, even before daybreak, to stand under the Hijol tree where the birds chirped and sipped honey from the flowers above the head. When finally Toradoi went out again and looked around, Haibor was nowhere in sight. No, this firewood-vendor was not among those who furtively came to see the wooden chest she had scavenged from the cremation ground.