by Vani Mahesh
Back when Anu and Sanju were newly engaged, Padma aunty had had a private chat with Anu. ‘Look, Sanju is a very innocent boy. I can’t believe that he is … well he is …’ She had stopped, swallowed, and completed the sentence with great difficulty. ‘Going for love marriage. With you. Who is so different from him.’
Anu’s mouth had opened in dismay. Who spoke like that other than Cinderella’s stepmother? But Padma aunty neither saw her open mouth nor her shocked silence. ‘You know that all my property is going to Sanju. Hope you are not marrying him for that. Sorry to be blunt.’
Anu’s mouth had opened wider in shock. No wonder Sanju’s mother had warned her to stay silent no matter what Padma aunty said. She mumbled something incoherently but Padma aunty had continued. ‘Look, I know you asked Sanju to marry you. That is okay. You are our caste. But I prefer girls who are not so forward-thinking. Also, I would have preferred someone more academically oriented to compliment Sanju’s brilliance.’
Now, where did all that come from? Anu was about to tell Padma aunty two things—she was abnormal and rude. And, that it was Sanju who had asked out. But then she had stopped and stayed quiet. How did it matter anyway? If she wants to think her Sanju to be an innocent boy, let her. But that was only the beginning. Padma aunty, since then, had never let go of a single chance to be a nuisance in Anu’s life.
Breaking away from her thoughts, Anu followed Geetha to the kitchen when she arrived. ‘Geetha, make four or five types of vegetables. Anything you like but without garlic.’
Geetha pursed her lips thinking. ‘I will. But—’
Anu sighed. ‘Yeah, I know. I will pay you extra for the cooking. Three guests and us.’
Geetha perked up. ‘Don’t tell my mother that you paid me extra.’
Sanju’s parents were simple folks who were easily pleased. As soon they arrived, they gushed about how beautiful the house was. Looks like the White House, said Sanju’s father, though the house was painted pale blue. But Padma aunty, who as always returned Anu’s hello with nothing, walked around hawk-eyed. ‘This furniture needs to go, Sanju. This worked for your small flat but not here.’ Stressing on your because that flat was technically Anu’s.
Sanju jumped in. ‘Yes, aunty. We will replace all this soon.’ Anu almost asked Padma aunty if she was going to sponsor the furniture, but didn’t.
‘Beautiful house, Sanju. Someone with a sense for interiors would have done wonders to the place,’ concluded Padma aunty.
‘You should stay with us and deck the place up, aunty.’ Sanju purred, making Anu seethe silently. Is he really that thick? Can’t he see she was taking a dig at me?
Anu quickly got the dinner going. The sooner it was over the better. Padma aunty unleashed a barrage of verbal firing all through dinner.
‘So much food. We have to have a sense of proportion when we cook.’
‘Why keep a cook? I cooked even when I worked.’
‘Is Sanju even getting any proper south Indian food? This looks too fancy.’
The final firing was just before she left. ‘Vicky is such a bright boy but because of the school, he can’t even spell simple words.’
Anu was exhausted by the end of the night. Such hatred from Padma aunty because she believed Anu was not good enough for Sanju. Nobody on earth was good enough for Sanju in her view. But there was another reason too for aunty’s hatred. Anu had broken off the engagement when Sanju had insisted that they live with his parents. Then, after about six months, they had got back together when Sanju had agreed to move into a separate flat.
Padma aunty, who was much relieved when they had separated, was devastated when they got back together. Her Sanju was not only marrying beneath him, but he was also moving away from the house.
It was altogether another story that Sameer had proposed to her in the meanwhile and Anu had almost agreed to marry him. She often wondered if Sanju’s change of heart was because of that proposal, though he denied it vehemently. But that had marked the beginning of Sanju’s disapproval of Anu’s friendship with Sameer.
21
By the time everyone left for the night, Anu was a wreck. Setting up the table, getting extra salt for someone, pickle for someone else, cold water for some and hot water for Padma aunty—well, none of this would have left her this dead if the house wasn’t as big as the Mysore Palace. In the middle of this, Vicky had gone into superhero mode flying from the sofa to window to what-not.
Padma aunty did not leave before firing a final salvo at Anu. ‘Sanju has done so well all by himself.’ Then, for good measure, she added. ‘With a single income.’
Sanju’s mother was the only one who caught it. The father-son duo was busy arguing about the best route to get home. Sanju’s mother then mildly corrected Padma aunty. ‘Padma, Anu stopped working only now. Also, because of her flat, they have saved a lot on rent.’
Padma aunty’s nostrils flared. ‘Because of that tiny flat, Sanju moved out of our nice house. And, Anu, you should do a B.Ed and qualify as a teacher.’
‘Yes, ma’am,’ Anu muttered to herself, closing the door behind them. Vicky came bounding to her full of stories. Some of them got so intermixed, Anu didn’t understand them at all but that didn’t matter. She hugged him close and that was all he needed.
It was truly a manic Monday having to get Vicky ready for school after more than a fifteen-day break. By the time Anu managed to get him onto the car, she was ready for a nap. There was school transport, but Anu or Sanju would have to sell organs to include that in their expenses.
They had visited the school over the weekend and Sanju was over the moon. He took pictures of the building from all angles and shared them to the family WhatsApp group. Unfortunately, Anu was a part of that group. Padma aunty immediately sent friendly smilies and thumbs-ups. ‘Send a picture of you and Vicky at the school,’ she wrote.
There was a reason behind Padma aunty ignoring Anu even on WhatsApp. When on her travel, she uploaded a thousand pictures a day. Anu got so tired of seeing photos of Padma aunty in different salwar kameezes and the same sneakers, she had stopped downloading them. That Padma aunty had figured out and was now on a mission to ignore Anu digitally. Breaking away from her thoughts of Padma aunty, Anu parked on the roadside and walked inside the school building. It looked so much like a five-star hotel, Anu instinctively started to look for a pool. Vicky looked bewildered. When she asked the receptionist for his class, she gave a curt smile and called a coordinator. Vicky looked at the beautiful, smiling woman who offered him her hand. ‘Come on. Let me show you to your class.’
Vicky eyed her suspiciously and then declared. ‘I will go with my Mumma.’
Anu felt unnecessary tears sting her eyes. She always left him in his class and then went to hers. ‘Mumma isn’t working here, Vicky. You go with ma’am.’
‘But you should work here. I can’t go to school if you don’t.’ Vicky wasn’t making it easy. The coordinator distracted him with the 3D picture of a lion and signalled Anu to leave.
Anu decided to hang around in the area for the next four hours. What if Vicky got upset and they called her? Walking into a Coffee Day, Anu dug out her book. A Poirot mystery. Agatha Christie was her comfort read when she was upset.
So, what was she going to do now? How was she going to spend her time in that beautiful alien land called Verdant Green where the house still did not feel like home?
Anu shut the book after a few futile attempts to read it. She was done feeling unhappy. She could reserve that for when they went bankrupt, which could be a few months away. Until then, she was going to have a good time. Just then her phone rang. It was Sumitra aunty.
‘Anu! I have some good news.’
‘Tell me soon, aunty! I could really use some!’
‘The seller called. He said whatever games we played, it has worked in his favour. Says many schools have come to him for materials citing that Dew Drops recommended him. So, he says as a thank you to us, he is taking back the materials!’
Anu laughed. ‘I never intended it that way but who is complaining! I am so happy he came to his senses!’
‘Anu, thank you for the help and care. Take care, child.’
Feeling light and happy, Anu downed her Cappuccino and walked into the Internet Café next door. First things first, she needed a job and a resume to get a job.
She downloaded a sample resume for teachers off the net and filled in her details. She had worked in only two places, which meant her resume was about two-and-a-half sentences. Then she added an internship at her father’s office. She did give him coffee whenever he worked in his home office. So that should count. Anu decided to fill the rest of the page with a Statement of Purpose. She had helped her friends with those when they applied for schools abroad. It didn’t make any sense on a resume, but it had to be at least a page. It took her two hours and three visits to Coffee Day before she had her resume ready.
But Anu was very happy with her writing. She had explained how teaching young minds warmed her heart, how the kids loved her unorthodox methods of teaching, and listed how Indigo could and should make school more fun for kids. Anu dreamed the next sequence of events. She was going to walk into the principal’s chamber, hand over the resume and bowl her over. The Principal would smile at her witty statement of purpose and offer her a job on the spot. And she would also tell Anu how the teachers’ kids studied for free at Indigo.
Anu asked the Cyber Center owner to print her resume. He looked at it intently. ‘I have seen only black borders on resumes. Nothing pink and blue like this.’
Anu beamed. ‘Let it be. Nice on the eyes.’
Feeling all confident, Anu walked into Indigo International ‘I need to see the Principal, please.’
The receptionist raised her brows ever so slightly. ‘You need to make an appointment.’
Anu felt deflated but did not let that affect her. She had expected the same treatment the other day had Pete not joined her. ‘Can you please call and ask the Principal? It is important.’
The receptionist made a few phone calls in a very hushed voice. ‘No, ma’am. The Principal is busy. You can meet her on Thursday at eleven.’
Taking an off chance, Anu asked the receptionist. ‘Forgot to mention. Pete Dunsworth will be joining me too.’
There was a change in the pretty girl’s demeanour. ‘Let me ask again, ma’am.’
A few more hushed calls later, she smiled, ‘Please go straight down the corridor and take a left, ma’am.’
The Principal looked at Anu and nodded but craned her neck to look at the door. ‘Miss Anu, please have a seat. Will Pete be joining us soon?’
‘Oh, I am afraid not. I was the one who wanted to meet with you.’
The Principal looked visibly irritated. ‘How may I help you?’ She had turned ice cold. ‘If this is this about your son, please talk to the coordinators.’
Anu wanted to ask her if she was born cold and sinister or just groomed herself to be one. But she instead showed her the resume. ‘I would like to work here as a teacher.’
The Principal, without even glancing at it, pushed it back towards Anu. ‘We are not looking for one. I am very busy right now. Please leave the resume with the receptionist.’
Anu knew she had to shut up and leave. But words tumbled out of her mouth, ‘If Pete had asked for a job, would you reject him?’
The Principal turned red in anger. ‘Miss Anu! What are you hinting at? Your son studies here and that is where it all ends.’
Anu hadn’t felt more foolish in her life.
Pete laughed and laughed some more when Anu told him what she had done. ‘Why were you so desperate to work there?’
‘I wanted to be with Vicky. That is how we have been for two years.’ Anu sat down with the racquet by her side. Vicky was playing tag with Pete’s grandsons.
‘Nothing wrong with that intent.’ Pete sat down next to her. ‘You did what you thought was right. It is not entirely untrue that the Principal likes me a little better than others.’
Anu smiled for the first time that day. ‘You should become a motivational speaker, Pete. I feel better already. The Principal adores you. Why? Why not me?’
‘I don’t know. Maybe because I volunteer there?’
Anu felt even more foolish. She had convinced herself that the principal liked Pete because he was white. ‘Could be.’ She smiled and got up. ‘This place is turning me into a lunatic.’
Pete patted her back. ‘Hang in there. These are the stories you will tell your grandchildren.’
‘Or great-grandchildren. If the shame has subsided by then.’ Anu waved Pete goodbye.
22
What started the next morning, Vicky’s second day of school, was soon a pattern. He would start crying that he didn’t want to go from the time she parked her car. Then Anu would coax him for ten minutes, then bribe him with something new and different every day. A meal at McDonald’s, a pizza treat, a bike ride on the road, the best one that worked every single time was that he could pet the gnarly puppy that curled up next to the car at the school. Most parents flashed Anu a look that spelt part pity and mostly disgust at the sight of Vicky all over the puppy. Oh, come on! This is an adorable puppy, you snooty people! Anu wanted to shout at them but thankfully, hadn’t reached that state of insanity yet.
After somehow shoving a half-sobbing Vicky into school, Anu sat at her usual chair at Coffee Day and sipped Cappuccino with a book. The staff knew her well by then, the woman who entered the shop in a state of semi-daze but left looking normal after an hour.
That day, ten minutes into her coffee, Anu’s phone rang. Sameer! ‘Hey, sorry didn’t return your call yesterday.’ Anu felt happy to hear from him at a time when she didn’t have to rush anywhere or do anything.
‘What is new with that! Listen, can you meet me for dinner tomorrow?’
‘That is perfect! I am coming to Vijaynagar today evening. Meeting Shwetha today. Sanju is travelling, so I am spending the weekend there.’
‘See you tomorrow.’
The phone rang again. That was Kavitha who was put on bed rest. ‘Anu, I am dying of boredom, ya. Bed rest will kill me.’
Anu smiled. ‘You will have a healthy baby if you stick to the bed now. I will see you this weekend. Hang in there, soldier.’
The moment Anu entered Vijaynagar that evening, she started to feel better. The familiar shops, street vendors who sold anything from food to clothes to sunglasses that said Rayybon, a fender-bender accident that had a gathered a crowd. Home! Mom’s coffee, grandmom’s snacks, dinner with Shwetha and the grand finale—the new chick-lit she had just started to read. Life was going to be bright and beautiful. And that was only the beginning of the weekend. She was going to be there for two nights. Sanju was going to join them on Sunday afternoon, and they were all going to drive back together.
When she took her usual parking spot near her parent’s house, Anu knitted her brows. Parked a little ahead was her father-in-law’s car. What are they doing here? God, please, at least spare me Padma aunty. Then, some memory, buried deep inside the subconscious, surfaced for Anu. Oh no! Panic rose in her heart and reached the pit of the stomach. It was as though she was in a wild ride in Wonder La, where she was held upside-down and shaken.
It was her father-in-law’s birthday and she had offered to host a party for him at his favourite place, Jake’s Club. But she had made that offer fifteen days ago! In her overzealousness, she had even called her parents and invited them to the party too. And, her father-in-law’s two best friends. She had sent them Whatsapps asking to save the date.
But nobody had reminded her of that in the past fifteen days. Not even her mother! And they all miraculously remembered her offer? Why hadn’t her father-in-law said anything when she wished him in the morning? Maybe she was panicking for no reason. Probably, nobody remembered and they were there to see Vicky. That was it. They probably brought along some sweets too. Anu began to relax and let Vicky out of the car.
/> Vicky rushed inside when her phone rang. It was Sanju. ‘Hey Anu, heads up. My parents are at your parents’ house. Apparently, you are hosting a birthday bash at Jake’s Club for my dad.’
‘Yeah. Right. That is why I am here early. Wish you were here too, Sanju.’ Anu lied with sweat pouring down her back. She didn’t want Sanju to think she didn’t care or was forgetful.
‘Hmm … are you sure, Anu? You never mentioned it to me. Have you called the club? They won’t have seating for all of you on a Friday evening.’
‘Called the place and they have agreed even to do a bit of decoration. Don’t worry. I will send you the pictures.’
Anu wanted to turn around and run. Run fast and far. What on earth had she gotten herself into?
She called Shwetha and explained the situation quickly. ‘Anu! What will you do?’ Shwetha half screamed.
‘Hey, help me here, will you? Don’t wash your hands off me.’
‘Hmm, let me think. You know, you are the one who can wing such situations. I am no good at that. I am a planner, not a winger.’
‘Think, okay? I will too.’
Anu contemplated calling Sameer. But it was better to call the restaurant first. It was a club with a fair amount of seating inside and out. They could always put a table for eight or so people, right? It was not like they were a party of eighty. A smooth sounding man picked up the phone and Anu asked for a table for eight at eight.
‘Sorry, ma’am. We are full for the night. IPL night. RCB is playing.’
‘This is for my father-in-law, please. Can you please accommodate? It will mean a world to him. He is a really big cricket buff.’ Anu tried to sound sweet though she was both panicking and getting frustrated.
‘No, ma’am. Sorry.’ The man was now waiting for a chance to hang up on her. He was of no use.
Anu called Sameer who did not pick up. So much for close friends. She called Shwetha back. ‘Listen, get some balloons, streamers, and a cake with the picture of a cricket bat. Come to Jake’s at eight, okay?’
