Storm

Chapter One

We were meeting exactly after twenty years. It was not difficult to recognize her voice on phone, the same ring, the same arrogance, and laughter. She had the same style of shattering others with her sense of humour.

“Won’t you come to the hotel to meet us? We are in Asoka Lake View Hotel. We will be going back tomorrow. You can’t imagine how I found your phone number!”

“Why did you put up at a hotel?”

“We were not sure that we would be successful in talking to you,” said she in a complaining voice.

“Look, we are meeting after so many years. We will sit together and chat about the old times. It would be fun,” said I with a tinge of delight in my voice.

“He won’t find it easy. We can adjust but not him.”

“You stay with me. I will persuade my brother-in-law.”

“All right, now you come quickly to me or I will wait for his car to come back.”

I was very happy that she was in town, as if something priceless has been found. She was my bosom friend and we were meeting after twenty years. There was evident joy. There was an expectation. I wanted to talk to her about everything that had happened in her life and tell about mine.

My thoughts took me back. Twenty two years ago, she was a little plump. With her braided hair, in her striped skirt and blouse, she looked good. She must have changed a lot. When I remembered our time in school, I got excited.

I got up and began to take care of the things in the room. I changed the bed sheets and curtains. I wanted to show her that I was a very good housewife. I really did want to impress her.
“Mother, what has happened to you today? Why are you doing all this? You never do all this even for guests.”

“My friend is coming. You won’t understand. Go and fetch these things quickly!”

I ordered for all those things which she liked. How happy she would be to know that I remembered what she liked and what she didn’t! I had an old photo of my friend. I searched all the albums and finally pulled the photo out. I put it in a frame and hung it on the front wall in the drawing room.

“Is this your photo, mother?” children were laughing.

I rechecked whether there was enough money in my purse. Maybe they wanted to eat out! I had some money but it was not enough. I dialed my mother’s number, “Mama, could you lend me two thousand rupees? My friend is coming today. Yes, the same. I have a little money but I think it won’t be enough.”

I took leave from my office and got dressed to receive my friend. It seemed as if every leaf in our garden was dancing with joy, waiting for my friend.

“Mother, what is wrong with you, today? You are working like Charlie Chaplin!” children were teasing me but I ignored them.

I was literally flying. My eyes were looking towards the road. An official Jeep stopped at the front gate and she got down. I ran towards her and embraced her tightly. There were tears in our eyes.

She smiled and said, “You have not changed at all. Look, I have put up so much weight. Do you work so hard, or you are on diet?”

I was not ready for this. She entered the house and began to see everything very carefully. Her manners suggested that she did not like what she saw. She looked at her picture and said with a scorn, “This photo is still with you. I have thrown my photo. I look so bad in it.”

“It reminds me of our childhood,” said I. I was not sure what children were thinking about her but the impression was definitely not good.

“You were not in touch. You never wrote any letter and didn’t even inform about your marriage. I could not resist myself and look, here I am. What else did you do in these years? You used to value our friendship very highly but you never remembered me!” the complaint was evident in her voice. I could sense that she was not pleased to meet me.

I felt inferior in front of my friend. I could see that she was in a very expensive sari and her tastes had also become very expensive.

I slipped into my bedroom and dialed the number of my maternal uncle.

“Uncle, may I borrow your car for two hours this evening?”

“Why? Is there some emergency?”

“No, uncle, my childhood friend has come to meet me. I want to take her around. If your car is free this evening…”

“I need the car but I’ll try.”

I was assured and I returned to my friend.

“What does your husband do? You live on his salary or there are other sources of income? Where do your children study? Who teaches them at home? Do you have a maid servant?” she asked so many question that I was almost out of words. She didn’t even mind the presence of my children in that room.

I told her everything about our family; after all it was necessary to quench his curiosity. Her eyes were scanning everything in our house. I knew that she did not approve of many things there.

“You never tried to contact me, did you?” she pretended to be angry.

I happened to see a few strands of grey hair on her head and realized that she had dyed her hair. I was sure that she was in some kind of tension. I decided to ask her later.

“I was so much lost in my family that I hardly got any time to think about my past,” I realized that I was being emotional.

She looked at me very attentively and then said, “Do you have any problem with your in-laws? Do they live with you?”

“No, I am free from all sorts of bandages. I have to concentrate on my children’s future and nothing else. There is no problem at all,” said I very firmly.

“How will you make your children’s future? They will do as they wish. Who was there to make our future? Who asked us? I have been to most of our college friends. Disha’s husband is an engineer; she lives in a very big house because he earns handsomely. Uma is in this town; her husband is a businessman, and that Madhuri, whom boys used to send love letters, is married to an army officer. Anuradha has taken divorce from her husband; she lives alone; she teaches at a school…” she said so very easily that I was surprised.

I had not been in touch with any of them but I was curious to know about them. I was, in a way, thankful to her because she had told me about them in such a short period of time.

“Let’s go out. We have many beautiful spots in our town. Let’s enjoy,” I tried to change the topic.

“What is there to see in your town? We visit Kullu, Manali, Darjeeling, and Kashmir almost every year,” she said quite arrogantly.

“I have told my uncle to send his car. If you don’t want to go, we will sit here and talk about old times. You can see some books meanwhile,” said I and moved towards the kitchen.

I had sent my maid away because I wanted to cook everything myself. I wanted to please my friend in every possible way. While I was busy preparing dishes, she entered the kitchen and started looking around.

“Do you worship gods?” she indicated towards the idols of deities kept on the shelf in the kitchen. I could sense that she was making fun of my devotion.

“Why? Why do you say so? You never believed in God and you never fasted on pious days,” said I turning towards her.

“I believe in myself. We get rewards and punishment on the basis of our deeds,” said she.

I did not want to continue the argument because I was sure that she had not changed at all.

“How are you able to do so much of work? I can’t do. I get tired. Don’t you get tired? Don’t you ever get angry? We have four servants. I don’t like my old father-in-law. He is always quarrelling with everyone in the house!” she said very loudly.

I moved towards the kitchen door to see where my children were. I did not want them to listen to our conversation.

“I have to do everything in my house. Who else will do the work if I don’t? Let’s take lunch first and then talk later,” said I.

“I won’t eat anything. I take fruits and orange juice. I am very conscious about my health,” said she.

“I have cooked all those dishes which you used to like,” said I very softly and persuasively.

She examined all the dishes one by one and then said, “Are you happy with your life, I mean, with your husband?”

I was not ready for this. I had never thought about it. How she had guessed that I was not happy!

I gave her a smile and sat down. In the name of eating, she just nibbled at the things. She was not eating; she just tasted the things.

Chapter Two

“What did you get from your in-laws?”

Now she had begun to talk about my husband’s parents.

“What do you mean? My husband and I set up our home by ourselves like that bird sitting on that branch,” I pointed to the bird in the garden.

“It means his parents were poor,” she said.

“No, we did not ask them for anything because we did not need anything,” said I very proudly.

The smile disappeared from her face. She looked very depressed. How much she had changed? There was no trace of the girl from the rural background. She had three children but she had maintained her figure. On the surface, her personality expressed that she was a very happily married woman.

“What else did you do? Did you buy a house, at least a plot of land?” now she was talking about property. She had learned so much in those twenty years.

“No, we don’t have our house.”

“Then what did you do?” she said in an annoyed tone of voice, “Both of you earn but you have not been able to buy your own house. Do you like living in this dilapidated house? How do you breathe in this environment?” she did not seem to be conscious of the fact that her words could hurt my feelings.

I pulled the curtains and light filled the room. I was under the impression that she would be mesmerized to see my well maintained house but it was not so.

“You must have saved money! How much do you save in your bank every year?”

“We have never counted. We have life insurance policies and that is all we have saved.”

“Either you are lying or you don’t want to tell me. How much is your policy worth, a million?” said she sarcastically.

I was staring at the bird in the courtyard where a little bird was pecking at the grains I had thrown.

“How much gold do you have? Is this necklace real or fake?” she touched my necklace.

Before I could answer her one question, she was ready with another. She had questions and questions.

“It is pure gold,” said I with a brief smile on my face.

“This finger ring is also real?” she looked surprised, as if without my own house I had no right to own gold ornaments.

“Yes…pure gold,” said I.

By that time, I was somewhat disturbed. The bird had already flown away. A few dry leaves in the yard were flying in all directions. I wanted to talk about something else. I wanted to talk about our childhood, our school, our parents, our friends but she was not in that mood. She was only trying to find faults with everything that she saw in my house.

“And, do you have good relations with your husband? Do you quarrel? Who starts first?” now she was talking about our relation. She was trying to prove that she was really my well-wisher.

“It is but natural. There is difference of opinions sometimes but these things are part of married life. Our interests are same: reading books, listening to music, going to theatre, etc. We love going out,” said I with enthusiasm.

“What will you do with these books? If there is emergency in future, you can always sell your land to raise money, but these books…” she seemed to be squeezing my heart in her fist.

I had never thought about it. She had introduced me to the bitter truth of life. Yes, I had never thought about any such circumstances where money could help the most.

“You are stupid like those days. You are a working woman and I am a housewife. It was in my destiny. My husband does not like it. He does not want his wife to work. His ego is hurt if I talk about working,” said she with quite obvious supremacy. She was vicariously pointing towards my husband. I did not want to hurt her so I did not answer back.

Pretending to be sympathetic towards me, she said, “Do you go on holidays, or work like a machine the whole year?”

“Never got a chance because family and the responsibilities never allowed us to go away,” said I.

“What the hell! You speak as if there is no world outside your family!”

I remained quiet for a little while; I wanted to say something but the very thought that I was meeting her after twenty years did not allow me.

“In your office, you must have come across many men. Do you have a boyfriend?” she laughed.

“I am past that age. I am obliged to my husband and my children,” said I in a very firm voice. I was gradually gaining strength that was nowhere to be found a few minutes before.

“You have become a wonderful orator. O.K. now tell me, is your husband happy with you? Does he still like you?” she was moving towards our personal life.

How I could convince her that I was very happy! It seemed there was something which she was hiding from me.

She began to tell me about her life. She had a big house, two cars, and four servants. She said that she enjoyed all the luxuries in her life.

I tried to force her to stay with me for one night but she was not ready. When she had left my house, I was sure that my children were going to shower me with many questions.

After about two months, I got more information about her. She did have all the luxuries at her disposal but the most important thing was missing and I came to know about it only through a letter from one of my friends whom I had written after her departure.

It transpired that her husband had another woman in his life. He had separated his days between the two of them. She was trying to find her happiness in the materials and luxuries but she had missed the world.

I was relieved that I was right and I was proud of my husband. Though I felt sorry for her, there was delight in my heart that I had a very loving family.

I looked at her picture with sympathetic eyes and entered the kitchen. I was going to cook the choicest dishes for my husband.

I felt as if a storm had passed over my head. I was flying like a bird in the blue sky.