Human life, Indranath reflected, goes through such phases and transformations itself. Nothing is permanent. In this process, human relationships become a sharp, piercing weapon, hurtful and acrimonious to near and dear ones.

  Indira Goswami, The Moth-Eaten Howdah of the Tusker (2004)

She shrank within herself and tried to hide her voluptuous form as much as possible. But her whole body was blooming like white kathana flowers. How long could she veil it from the eyes of the world? Even through the cracked mud walls of this ramshackle house, her growing body yielded tantalising glimpses to prying eyes, like the broken, scintillating image of the moon on the ripples of Jagalia.

 Indira Goswami, The Moth-Eaten Howdah of the Tusker (2004)

Later she whispered to Durga. "Tell these women to go away." Durga whispered back. "They have all come for your sake. They are unhappy at your suffering."

Indira Goswami, The Moth-Eaten Howdah of the Tusker 

These women would prowl in the night, haunting the spacious backyards of houses, to poke and probe the washed dirty cloth pieces hanging out there, for the tell-tale marks of menstruation, hoping to find some signs so that they could get their vicious pleasure in denouncing the girls as outcasts...

Indira Goswami, The Moth-Eaten Howdah of the Tusker 

Amoti: Four days in Asarh (July) when the earth is supposed to be unclean and the digging of earth is forbidden. A ritual observed mostly by Assamese widows. It is believed that the earth menstruates during this period.

Golokdham: A game of dice. In the dice board, portraits of various abodes of Hindu Gods are drawn. As the final goal, a Golokdham, which is known as the abode of Lord Krishna with his consort Radha and the gopis, is depicted. The dice player who reaches it, crossing all the hurdles wins the game. It was a popular game among the women of South Kamrup in those days (1948).