Chapter 23
It was almost a month since the night of my conversation with Preethy in the hospital. I was folding the clothes when my younger one came to say “Maami is calling you”.
I went down and already there were many others either sitting or standing near the children’s play area.
“We are removing drishti” Maami announced. I was busy greeting everyone around and failed to notice Raghavan, our watchman. He was in front of the complex’s mini-temple, putting camphor on the ashgourd.
“Walk with it around the complex three times, take it outside the gate, then light the camphor” Maami instructed Raghavan.
“Too many bad things are happening in our complex. Too much evil-eye, breaking of the ashgourd will remove the evil-eye” Maami said to all of us. Many of them shook their heads in agreement.
“We should hang that ash gourd around our neck, then nothing will happen to us” Mr. Krishnan commented in a low voice to us.
“Honey, I told you not to come. Besides, I agree with Maami. Too many bad things happened of late. It may be a superstition, but if it works I have no problem with it” Lakshmi, his wife added.
“No one can change you guys. You may have a masters degree from one the best colleges in the world, you are still backwards. Anyway I am here to say hello to Vijaya” he said and turned to me and said “How are you doing,Vijaya?”.
“I am okay” I said, giving all of them my biggest smile.
I gave him a smile too. In the mean time, Sailaja came close to me and placed her hand on my shoulder and said “Nice to see you cheerful again, Vijaya”.
Raghavan broke the ash gourd with a big bang.
“Please, for the sake of the ash gourd, recover fast, otherwise Maami will continue breaking them” Mr. Krishnan said. We all laughed.
That night, I was lying on the bed after dinner. Physically I was normal and going about my life the usual way, but my mind was continuously wondering about things that happened recently. I learned at lot in the past few months.
My husband turned towards me and said “Preethy called. She will be flying from Vietnam to London, to meet Mr. Sivam. They are trying to finalize some deal. After that they will join Gayatriamma in America. They will be back to India next month. Gayatriamma’s blood pressure is very high. She is more comfortable traveling with Preethy”.
Tears came down my cheeks. My husband put his hand around me and pulled me close to him. I laid my head on his chest. It was a very soothing feeling. I am one of those who was brought up as “marriage is for life time”. At that time, I didn’t pay much attention to that but now I understand why. It is because it will take a life time to understand your partner. One cannot know about an other person by a few years of dating or marriage. Marriage is a continuous process. And every phase of life with the partner is like a chapter. After the initial excitement of marriage is over, a couple will go through anger, jealousy, sharing, fights, understanding, learning about each other, learning new habits and unlearning old ones, children, grand children, in-laws… each phase directly or indirectly strengthens the bond. I admired the way my husband stood by me and gave his support throughout the recent episode. He never pestered me for details and gave me space and time.
I started telling him what Preethy told me that night. Also told him that Maami’s and my presence in the Neeraja’s apartment was not a coincidence as many people think.
Neeraja on various occasions must have noticed Maami going to Gayatriamma’s apartment. And she must have also seen Preethy’s and Mr. Sivam’s heated argument in the club. So when she was leaving, she indirectly hinted it to Maami. The day of the accident, Maami must have noticed Preethy going towards the apartment. So she came in and took me to Neeraja’s apartment. That was the reason she was in the balcony trying to listen to the loud conversation. Even Maami didn’t expect anything serious would happen, but things did turn out differently.
My husband listened to everything patiently without interrupting. At the end, I felt calmness setting in and closed my eyes. He took my hand in his hand and kissed it. By the way, did I mention that my husband is a man of few words?
*** The End ***