by Vani Mahesh
Anu watched Meena and her friend gorge on fried fare while waxing eloquently about their fitness regime. Well, clearly, food had won over fitness in their lives.
‘How much is this Pilates program at the Yoga Studio?’ One of the men asked.
‘Some 10K per month. Not much.’ Meena shrugged. Ouch, Anu thought. Not much at all to do something that old Chinese people do in a park! Okay, fine, that was tai-chi. Thank God I hadn’t blurted that and made a fool of myself.
Anu, the one who was seldom nasty to others, changed by the end of the night. Rather, the large Whiskey on the rocks she chugged down changed her. ‘If you eat the “Veg Food” (she made air quotes for emphasis), you won’t need to do the expensive “Pilates” (again she made air quotes). Even Kareena Kapoor turned vegetarian to turn size-zero. You should try, Meena.’
Suddenly a complete silence pervaded all around. The men too had stopped talking and gawking at her. Was she too loud or did she choose that precise moment to speak when there was a lull in the other conversations?
Oh please! I am not shaming her. I am only getting back at her. Anu wanted to scream at the men who now looked at her like she was a complete villain.
Meena was not the one to give up easily. ‘I would much rather afford a good meal than be thin!’ Now everyone laughed good-naturedly, nobody but Anu noticing the insult packed in her statement. She glanced at Sanju and he was sporting his look of disapproval. What did I do wrong?
Anu thought the miserable night ended when Dave asked for the bill. But far from it. When the bill arrived, Sanju picked up the fancy leather case where the bill was placed. ‘Tonight is on us. To our new beginnings at Verdant Green.’
Dave objected. ‘No Sanjay. Let us split the bill. It is too huge for one to bear.’
Sanju did not budge and quickly placed his credit card inside the fancy case. Anu was shell shocked even to say goodbye to Ginny, the only decent person at the table. Meanie and co. strode out without as much as glancing at Anu.
‘Sanju! You just spent eighteen thousand on strangers! Are you out of your mind?’ Anu was livid when she looked at the bill in the car. ‘You object when I turn on the AC in the afternoon for an hour and you splurged so mindlessly?’
‘Can you get angry with me after what you did? Just because you are not fat, you can’t shame someone.’
Anu did not know whether to laugh or to cry. ‘Sanju, have you ever seen me shame anyone? Is that how much you know me?’
‘I thought I knew you but tonight you proved me wrong. My mistake to think you would cooperate. You are vengeful because we moved against your will.’
Anu’s heart sank at Sanju’s accusation. She did not want to cry. She did not even want to explain to him why she did what she did. Ten years of togetherness and he did not even give her the benefit of the doubt.
That night as Anu stayed awake late into the night in the guest bedroom, she felt depressed and lonely like never before. They were not a couple who bickered. They had mild arguments but they had never gone silent on each other. As she tossed and turned, her mind rewound to how they had met, dated and married.
13
Sanju was the new kid on the block while Anu, Sameer and four others were born and raised in adjacent houses and knew each other all their lives. Sanju moved into their neighbourhood when Anu was twelve and in the sixth standard and Sameer in the seventh. Sanju was in the eighth—fair, lanky and bespectacled.
While Sanju was an awkward teen, Sameer was a charmer. Everyone wanted to be his friend. He rode a motorbike at twelve, played football with older boys, and listened to rock bands like Linkin Park and Coldplay. Both girls and boys envied Anu for the special status she enjoyed with Sameer.
Sameer was the first one to invite Sanju into their group. That should have made him get accepted easily, but it did not happen that way. Most of the time Sameer went off to play football and Sanju was stuck with Anu, two other girls and two boys who did not like him at all. He did not know the games they played or their inside jokes but he had tried to fit in. After a week of making efforts, he stopped joining them.
‘Anu, why isn’t Sanju coming to play with you guys?’ Sameer asked her when he remembered Sanju after a month.
‘Ask him. You know, he goes to NAFL! May be that is why.’ NAFL was a school for the rich kids with high IQ. Everyone else in the neighbourhood went to KLE or Vani Vidyalaya or some such.
Sameer somehow took to Sanju. It was a classic case of opposites attracting each other. He made sure to visit him once a day. ‘He is super smart, Anu. He reads books on astronomy in his passtime!’ Sameer filled her with details about Sanju. ‘He is not coming to play here because he is going for tennis classes in the Vijayanagar club.’
That was how it was between Anu and Sanju for at least three years. They never met, they never talked, but Sameer gave her accounts of Sanju. How he was working hard to get into an IIT, how he assembled a computer with parts bought from SP road, how he was building a website. Was Anu impressed? Of course, she was! That was mostly because if Sameer liked someone or something, he made sure Anu did too.
Then one evening, Sanju and Anu spoke to each other. She still remembered everything from that evening vividly. That was the summer vacation of the ninth standard. Most kids in the neighbourhood, including Sameer had gone on vacations to their grandparents’ or cousins’ houses. She had discovered Georgette Heyer in the neighbourhood library and was devouring all her books. Of course, Mills & Boons too had just happened but she had to hide those from her mother.
She met Sanju at the library and he smiled making her almost drop her books in shock. She never thought Sanju would be the kind to smile at girls! That evening she only picked Georgette Heyer and no Mills & Boons. Somehow it was important to her that he did not think of her as frivolous. He had waited for her to take her books and they walked back home together. He had taken Isaac Asimov.
‘Do you read a lot?’ Sanju asked.
‘I do but not any great literature. How about you?’
‘I read mostly non-fiction or science fiction.’ But he stated that as a fact and not in a I-am-superior-to-you way. Anu liked it. She liked him.
After that walk, Anu made sure to join him and Sameer whenever they went out to get ice cream. Then, a year later, Sanju went to IIT Chennai, but met her and Sameer whenever he came home for holidays. In the meanwhile, Sameer was busy being flamboyant and changing girlfriends every six months. He went to St. Joseph’s College because they were big on sports. Anu toyed with the idea of changing her college but decided against it and continued her thirteenth year in KLE.
After nearly eight years of knowing each other, one day Sanju asked her out. ‘Anu, shall we go out for lunch tomorrow?’ He had added hastily. ‘Just you and me this time.’
Anu was more shocked than surprised because she had given up on both Sanju and Sameer; they treated her like a backslapping buddy and never a girl. It did annoy her occasionally that Sameer had courted everyone decent in the neighbourhood but had never asked her out. But Sanju was different. He did have a few super brainy girls for friends but as far as she knew, nobody was special.
She agreed to go out with him. There was no reason not to. He looked good (not in a macho way like Sameer but in a decent-guy kind of way), and he went to IIT. IIT held a different type of glamour in Vijaynagar.
That lunch oscillated between awkward and more awkward for the most part. Sameer wasn’t there to keep the conversation moving. Then Sanju had asked her abruptly. ‘Are you and Sameer together? You know what I mean.’
Anu had laughed nervously. ‘We are good friends. But that is all we are.’
‘He likes you a lot.’ Sanju had added.
‘I know.’ She had smiled. ‘I am his agony aunt every time someone breaks his heart or something goes wrong with his hair or he loses a match.’
‘I am sure he is your agony uncle too,’ Sameer had tried joking but she could sense anxiety in his voice. He would have loved it
if she had denied her fondness for Sameer but how could she! Sameer was a part of her, like an arm or a leg.
‘He is more like my saviour when I am in dire straits.’
Then Sanju had asked her suavely. ‘If you both are just friends, will you be my special friend?’
Anu had blushed and then gaped at him open-mouthed. Is this really Sanju? The nerd of the century, the boy who loved astronomy, the guy who courted Computer Science?
‘This is a surprise!’ Then Anu had asked him, ‘Why me? I mean, you know—’
Sanju had added after a pause, looking into his water cup. ‘You are pretty, kind and uncomplicated.’
Anu still remembered her heart skipping beats and sinking to her stomach. Other boys had confessed their eternal love to her but somehow the way Sanju said it was very endearing. He had called her uncomplicated—that felt nice!
They had become ‘special friends’ from then on. When he did M.Tech in Chennai, they texted at midnight. They went out in his father’s car when he was in town, indulged in minor dalliances but all through their courtship, Sanju was a gentleman who respected her boundaries. She knew he was not happy about her friendship with Sameer but he never objected. For that matter, he never objected to anything she did.
In his own inimitable way, Sameer had refused to acknowledge her relationship with Sanju. They had continued to be friends but Sanju was never discussed between them anymore.
14
At around 1 a.m., Anu gave up on sleeping. She would have a cup of coffee and read something instead of chasing an elusive sleep. Then she remembered pinging a hello to both Sameer and Shwetha a few hours back and she had forgotten to check for their replies. There it was—a reply from Sameer.
‘How goes, babe?’
She was so tempted to pick up the phone and call him. There was a high possibility that Sameer would still be awake. Then again, Sanju could be awake too! They already had enough trouble brewing. She pinged back Sameer instead. ‘Free for lunch tomorrow, Casanova?’
She got an immediate reply. ‘Yes. Also for dinner now.’
She smiled to herself. Her tomorrow had already brightened. ‘Me too. But Drink and Dine closes by 11 in the night. So lunch it has to be.’
She gave up on coffee and curled up next to Vicky. She thought about Sanju sleeping alone in that massive master bedroom. A pang of small guilt peeked inside her but she was not in any mood to make up with him yet. Also, she was too sleepy.
When Anu woke up the next morning, for a moment she thought it was still midnight. Her phone showed 5.32 a.m. and she decided to get out of bed. Making her coffee, Anu stepped outside the house into the garden. Her breath caught in her throat. It was such a perfect morning! The sun had just about risen, the wind was cool and the garden looked so pretty. Settling down on the circular stone bench that was built around a tree, Anu sipped her coffee slowly and thought about Sanju.
How excited he was to move into this house and what a dampener she had put on his happiness. She thought of all the times when he had been supportive of her—how he had told her it was not the end of the world when she gave up on her master’s degree halfway, convinced her irate father when she did not want a wedding until she was twenty-five, consoled his parents when she wanted to leave Vicky in a daycare and not with them. Most of all how he had agreed to take up a different place and not live with his parents after the wedding. Sanju agreed with her on almost everything.
Just when she was about to get up to go inside the house, Sanju stepped out into the garden. He still looked grim and greeted her with a nod. He paced around but did not sit next to her. So he was in no mood to make up either. How was this impasse going to end?
Anu broke the silence. ‘I am going to Vijaynagar to get Vicky’s TC.’
He gave a curt nod. Oh, come on! I am making an effort to be nice here and it would be helpful if you tried too.
Just as she got up to leave, he asked her, ‘Are you coming back here tonight?’
Anu was taken aback. ‘Why wouldn’t I?’
Sanju shrugged. ‘You do vanish when you don’t like something.’ He was obviously referring to the time when they almost didn’t get married.
‘Are you spoiling for a fight, Sanju? This is not you.’ Anu felt exasperated.
‘See you at night, then.’ Sanju strode inside the house, leaving her half seething and half dejected. Till then they had never fought a real fight, never played mind-games, and never belittled each other. She hated the cold war that had started between them now.
Vicky got ready in record time when she told him he was going to Dew Drops. ‘Mumma, I want to show this butterfly to Chandan!’ He dangled the dead and stiff butterfly he had found in the garden.
‘You should!’ Anu played along. ‘You should also show that diamond stone you found.’
When Vicky had gathered all his prized possessions, Anu sat him in the car and fastened the seat-belt. She was as excited as him about the visit. Weering and cutting off through the mad traffic, Anu managed to reach Vijaynagar in an hour and fifteen minutes. Her car was too old to power the AC so by the time she got off, she felt her face was crusted with dust. There was a time when she reached the school in ten minutes looking immaculate. The moment they entered the school, Vicky ran off to meet his friends. Anu didn’t mind since she couldn’t wait to talk to Sumitra aunty either.
‘Anu! Welcome. So good to see you!’ Anu enjoyed the welcome, the hug, and the familiar smell of Pond’s powder emanating from Sumitra aunty.
‘Good to see you too, aunty.’ Anu sat down. ‘You won’t believe who I ran into!’ Anu narrated in a single breath the incident with Meena.
Sumitra had a hearty laugh. ‘Anu, such impossible things happen only to you! A parent did email me today asking why the teachers are pulling their kids out of the school! Your friend has a quick network.’
‘Aunty, I am so so sorry. I will ask her to stop this gossip-mongering.’ Anu had an urge to shake sense into Meena’s head. What does she know about the efforts and ideals of Sumitra aunty? She had quit the job of a principal in an esteemed school to start Dew Drops. ‘What is happening with the parents of the fourth graders?’
Sumitra took off the glasses and rubbed her eyes. ‘Not very good news, Anu. Almost half of the parents have given letters to withdraw their kids. The coming academic year, we will have a single section.’ Sumitra paused and added hesitantly. ‘You know how I bought high-end Montessori materials for that class. Now, half of that is a waste. The seller is refusing to take it back. It is almost five-lakh rupees worth of stuff.’
Anu felt a jolt. This should not happen to someone as good as Sumitra aunty. Anu’s head whirled when her mind generated a million thoughts a minute to make it better for Sumitra aunty. She spoke after a pause. ‘Aunty, new parents will come to you in due course. But for now, I will help you get the money back. We must create a demand for these products so that the seller comes crawling to you for a buyback.’
‘Thank you for caring so much, Anu. Don’t take too much trouble over this. Now tell me, how are your new house and new life?’
Anu smiled dryly. ‘Aunty, that place is for top Bollywood actors or ultra-rich politicians! We must be the poorest in that neighbourhood. The schools charge six lakhs for LKG! I don’t know that to do.’ Anu poured her heart out to Sumitra aunty.
‘Anu, this is India. There is no place where only the rich can exist. I do know a school in Hebbal, run by a friend. I don’t know how far it is from your house.’ When Sumitra aunty dawned that I-will-solve-this-for-you face, Anu started to relax.
‘Aunty, will you ask if I can also work there? Being at home is snuffing the air out of me.’
‘First things first, Anu. Let us now take care of Vicky. You relax in your new place for a while and settle down.’
Anu nodded and looked around longingly sipping the tea that was poured from a flask. Old-world bookshelves filled with books about Tagore, education and Montessori methods. Anu had helped Sumit
ra aunty set up the library and other rooms when she had started Dew Drops seven years back.
As Sumitra aunty had suggested, she was going to make an effort to relax and enjoy her life in Verdant Green. But there was a premonition that it was going to be a very short-lived life.
Anu left Vicky with her parents-in-law, so she could take as long a lunch break as she could with Sameer. He was going to pick her up from the school.
‘Did you make time for me or were you free today?’ Anu asked once they settled down with a drink.
‘I would have made time for you but I was free today. No shoots.’
‘Smooth.’ Anu smiled. ‘No shoots of both kinds?’ Sameer did some part-time modelling and also some professional photography. But his full-time occupation was lazing around.
‘So how is it going there? Settling down? Has Sanju started enjoying his luxury living?’
Anu scrunched up her face. ‘Let us not talk about it, Sameer. It is not a pretty scene.’
‘Done. Let us just drink to Anu’s happiness.’
They drank quietly for some time. Anu exceeded her normal two mugs and ordered a third and then a fourth. That was when she started unravelling. She told it all to Sameer. The snooty crowd, her fight with Sanju, and how miserable she was, the trouble Sumitra aunty was in.
Sameer listened quietly. When she finally calmed down, he shook his head. ‘Anu, don’t act like the martyr you are not! Big deal you got into a catfight. And it is high time you and Sanju fought. For how long can you remain the Romeo and Juliet of the twenty-first century? Now, go back and live. Go out more. Meet more people. You can’t brand an entire community snooty because of two immature women.’
‘Hey! Don’t trivialize my problems.’ Anu’s head started to spin with the extra beer.
Sameer laughed. ‘I am not trivializing them. I am saying they are solvable. Come on, Anu. You are a fighter. Fight to have a good time as you always do.’
