How fast times change? Chapter 23

Can you help me fix the palla of the sari? Ashmi screeched while making an effort to get the sense of pleats. They always left her befuddled.

‘Why do you care to wear a sari, when you can’t manage it?’ Akhil shouted while, remaining seated on the sofa. ‘How much time would you take to get the hang of sari, it almost three years, we have been married by now,’ he put dryly.

The remark hurt Ashmi as tears began to glisten in her eyes. She chose to ignore the unshed tears bravely and thought of managing the sari all by herself.

As she struggled to pin the palla on the place, Akhil took the pleats, from her hand, offering his help. Ashmi flinched at his touch.

‘Stop acting hurt now,’ he chided her.

 ‘No, I can manage. You are right, I must learn to drape a sari on my own,’ she told him. But, you forgot that today is my real birthday, emphasizing on real and you could have reserved the comment for some other day. The comment intended to remind him of his fake birthday in order to meet her and also of a time just two years ago, when he had almost celebrated it a month ago.

‘You want to fight,’ he said. His voice betrayed irritation, while his hands expertly handled the palla. Since her sari came off at Delhi Haat, Akhil helped her to wear it, whenever she intended to do it, and he was quite a pro by now.  Before he threw the neatly pleated, palla on her shoulder, he fixed it in place with a safety pin. To make the palla stay put, he put a safety pin once again.

Now that I have set the sari right, there is no need to get angry, he said while bending down to pull the front pleats a bit lower. ‘And where is my reward for helping you?’ he asked her. She knew quite well that a reward meant  a kiss.

‘Have didi and brother-in-law left?’ she asked him as she ignored his request for reward and moved on to set the table for the impending party. 

‘You no longer sit and talk with me, and are always pottering around the house,’ he complained.

‘I would love to sit and cool my heels, but someone has to work hard so that somebody could lounge around,’ she bickered.

Akhil was clearly hurt by now. He moved on to the drawing room to watch TV. Ashmi got busy in the kitchen. Cooking helped her relax and she rhythmically began to chop onions for chicken that was waiting in the marinade of beaten yoghurt, spices and lemon to be cooked. Deftly she cut the cucumber for salad and washed basmati rice to prepare pulao.

‘Can I expect a cup of tea?’ he asked her meekly as she was busy with cutting, chopping, grinding and cooking simultaneously. Ashmi looked at him intently, which meant ‘NO’ but she put the sauce pan on the stove at the same time. . She grated ginger and her favourite chai ka masala, an acquired habit, from the Punjabi neighbourhood when she was staying with didi in the Punjabi bagh, in the bubbling water, a spoonful of sugar, tea leaves and milk and waited for it simmer.

‘Akhil, come and take the cup of tea,’ she hollered while straining the beverage. Now, he knew that she was furious. When in a happy mood, he was always addressed as hubby. It was good that he stayed out of her hair.

The gang swooped to celebrate her birthday around 7.30 pm.

‘Akhil, you have lost so much weight, ‘didi commented as usual.

‘Ashmi, don’t you take good care of him,’ she gave her verdict.

‘If he doesn’t eat, then should I shove the food down his gullet?’ she thought of saying, but bit her tongue so that the offending words remain inside.

‘I need to travel a lot these days,’ Akhil answered, saving her the agony of giving an answer to her. ‘How do you spend your time Ashmi when Akhil is not around? There was no need for you guys to pick a pad of your own, but who listens to elders these days,’ Didi wailed.

‘By the way, do you know, mom and dad are coming today? We will be going to pick them from here,’ his brother in law interjected in between to veer the conversation to a different tangent.

Unlike didi, Muktesh Singh, her brother-in-law was a composed man who was devoid of theatrics.

‘Why don’t you come with us too?’ didi said to Akhil as she sat by his side.

‘Come on folks, we are here to celebrate Ashmi’s birthday,’ her brother-in-law seemed to remind everyone. 

‘Yes, Ashmi, where is the cake?’ didi asked to no one in particular. Akhil tried to get up to fetch the cake, but didi tugged his hand and made him sit down forcibly.

‘Why can’t he tell this woman to shut up?’ Ashmi thought as she got up to get her birthday cake. The song Happy Birthday was dutifully sung for full three minutes, before Ashmi mercilessly murdered the cake. She had so many plans for today and all she wanted was a quiet evening with Akhil to celebrate her birthday. For the last three years of her marriage, she had seen that whenever a special occasion would come, her whole clan would descend to celebrate it. Not that she didn’t like their coming but then how could they spend the special day together. ‘Now I know what made him celebrate my first birthday after marriage a month ago?’ she thought with a smile.  Akhil noticed it. .

Shaking herself out of reverie, she began to serve cake. It’s delicious, Singh commented to deviate attention from the sudden plan thrown by his wife. ‘From where did you order it?’ he asked genuinely interested.

‘Next time you get a cake for your brother-in-law when his birthday is,’ didi said in a grumpy voice. ‘Why doesn’t Akhil also come along with us?’ Didi said once again like a broken record, which was back to her tune

 Muktesh found the whole idea quite absurd, After all, leaving the birthday girl on the day of her birthday, isn’t right at all, he wondered but he didn’t have the courage to argue with his wife.

‘Why don’t you also come along with us?’ Muktesh said to Ashmi. ‘If she comes, then one of us has to take an auto so that mom and dad could sit comfortably,’ reasoned didi.

‘Then, let’s drop Akhil too. What’s the need for him to go? Aren’t we going to pick them? Anyway, today is Ashmi’s birthday. They would like to spend some time together,’ Muktesh tried hard to infuse reason in his wife.

‘Already, we have cut the cake and the dinner is over. Now, what more celebration is left? Moreover, they have spent three years together, isn’t it Ashmi?’ She looked at her for confirmation about the saturation in their love life while winking at her.

Ashmi was embarrassed. She was seething. When angry, she would go quiet. Her head was pounding already. ‘Why Akhil couldn’t put his foot down, she thought bolting the door when all three of them left.’ 

Apparently she didn’t say a word.

 Akhil left with his family and Ashmi began to sob uncontrollably as he left.

Chapter 24

You win some, you lose some

‘Ashmi!’ bahuji, her landlord’s daughter-in-law shouted her name. She came out in the balcony, lined with different kinds of money plants to face her.  What was her real name only she knew, but may have forgotten herself. People around her didn’t care to remember. Her husband addressed her as the mother of his sons, and for the rest in the family and the neighbourhood, she was ‘bahuji’. Though in thirties, she looked like someone in forties and her face had a sad expression affixed to it.

Ashmi walked down the steep staircase that took her to her landlady’s drawing room. Akhil is on the other side, she told her as she cautiously got down the steps. ‘Something wrong with your phone,’ she said in an effort to start a small talk with her, which was quite unusual for her. In the past Ashmi’s efforts to initiate a conversation with her had been snubbed by her.

 ‘Our phone is dead since today morning,’ Ashmi said.

‘Did you complain?’ she said. It was clear she wanted to talk. Her efforts got sabotaged when Ashmi picked the receiver to talk to Akhil.

‘Hello,’ he shouted.

‘Yes, Akhil, I am able to hear you,’ she said.

‘Start packing the bags,’ he said in a euphoric tone.

‘What for?’ she enquired.

‘That I will come and tell you once I come home today evening. I must rush to the station now,’ he said and disconnected the phone. Bahu ji was eavesdropping on their conversation.

‘All well! You had a very short conversation,’ she commented generally.

‘The line was disturbed, and I couldn’t hear him clearly,’ she said her. Anyway, he will be coming from Chandigarh today evening, she said and took the steps back to her part of the home.

The house was built in a 150 yard plot (the official term of Dilliwallahs for the piece of land) and they had rented the first floor to Akhil and Ashmi. Their entrance was from outside but the landlords had access to the small iron gate, which led to steps that had access to their first home.

‘Why does he always leave his sentences alone?’ Ashmi thought trying to speculate, what could cause so much excitement in his life. She opened the refrigerator to investigate if it had all the ingredients to bake a cake. All that stirring and whisking ingredients helped her release stress. She also had something to share with Akhil. But right now, she wasn’t sure herself. She needed time to make up her mind.

There was no way Akhil could come before 7 in the evening. This meant there was a fair enough day stretched before her. She decided to lounge in the mellow February sun. Akhil’s gentle nudge woke her up. It was going to be six, and she was snug inside a blanket.

‘When did you come?’ she asked.

‘When you were sleeping, and I even baked the cake, but it got a bit burnt,’ he said.

‘How could this be true?’ she thought.

‘Why didn’t you wake me up?’ she demanded, now feeling guilty that she overslept.

‘Because you were sleeping like a baby andI covered you with a blanket. I felt as if you haven’t slept well for days together,’ he explained amused at the same time, how even over-sleeping could work her up.

‘You are right. I have been restless for a while,’ she admitted.

‘What did you want to tell me?’ she asked remembering of the telephone conversation and ‘how did you come early?’

‘I have been chosen for training, by my company and we are moving to Oshkosh and I came early, because my boss too was coming to Delhi. He lives near Rajouri Garden. From there I came in an auto, he said trying to keep pace with her flow of questions. Inwardly, he smiled because he loved this about her.

‘Where on earth is it?’ she was in her elements.

‘I have been told that it is a small town in US and it is three-four hours of drive from Chicago,’ he flaunted his newly acquired knowledge.

‘What on earth am I going to do there?’ she asked.

‘We will find something to keep you busy, may be you could study, as you left it after graduation,’ he thought aloud. ‘That I would not be able to do,’ she said.

‘Why?’

‘Because I am expecting,’ she said without even giving a thought.

She thought he would scoop her in her arms and whirl her around for giving the news. Instead, he let the information touch him, settle a bit and took a while to digest, then he blurted, ‘Are we prepared for it?’

Now was her turn to look surprised.’ What are you suggesting? I am not going to kill my baby,’ she affirmed.

How many months?’ he asked.

One and a half, she said.

‘Think about it, we are going abroad, you could study, and I will support you, you are too young for a kid,’ he said to convince her.

‘Anyway, it’s my career, and I don’t bother. I married you and it’s your job to support me. Why weren’t you more careful earlier?’ she said.

‘Yes, it’s my job to support you, and now you are blaming me for something which is not my fault at all, we still have time, if you make up your mind,’ he protested.

‘I will under no circumstance terminate my pregnancy. PERIOD. Am I clear enough?’ she shouted.

‘Yes, you are,’ he admitted with a smile in his heart and a spring in his steps. He had succeeded.

‘Did I do the right thing by arguing and not agreeing?’ she wondered, but was too proud to accept her mistake. Akhil knew that.