Santhi is really puzzled and totally perplexed. She, the wife of a Senior
Executive is a very confused soul. She is unable to understand where she went
wrong in all her thirty years of marriage.
“I must be a fool” she thought bitterly. She felt like
banging her head against the wall. The happenings of the day before flashed
before her eyes.
Her husband, Madhav was being felicitated on his
retirement. She was also invited for the function. There, while listening to a
number of speakers, eulogising her husband’s various qualities, some
enlightenment dawned upon her.
“He is a very efficient and hard working person. We
seldom come across such a dedicated officer. Nobody can fill the void created
by his retirement”.
“He is a meticulous planner and a model decision
maker. Whenever we have any problem, we look to him. We are assured of correct
solutions.”
“He is a very pleasant and soft spoken person. We are
very lucky to work under him. He never gets irritated or loses his temper.
Whatever we want to say, he lends a patient ear.”
“He is very democratic in his approach. He invites
opinions from all quarters and encourages exchange of ideas. Also, his memory,
is really amazing. All the facts and figures are on his fingertips.”
“He never procrastinates or keeps things pending. He
is famous for quick disposal of matters.”
“He encourages his juniors a lot. Always gives a pat
if one is good at something but never a harsh word about failures.”
Thus speaker after speaker enumerated his various virtues.
The world seemed to spin around her.
Here she was having a gem of a person as her husband
and she never knew that! It was indeed unpardonable.
From that very moment, she is puzzled and totally
perplexed as to where the fault lay.
Never in all her years of married life, did she feel
that she is sharing her life with such an outstanding multi-faceted
personality. No, not even once. In her opinion, he is a... well, there is no
single word in her vocabulary apt enough to describe correctly her opinion of him.
She can recall a number of incidents from the past to endorse her opinion of
him.
On their first marriage anniversary, she prepared an
elaborate dinner and waited for him in the evening, with high expectations. She
was curious as to what gift he would be bringing for her that day. A silk sari?
or something more valuable and special, perhaps?
To her utter disappointment and disbelief he came home
at 10.30 in the night too tired to even notice the lavish dinner she prepared.
A fierce verbal showdown later, next morning, revealed that he had forgotten
about the marriage day completely! And to add insult to injury, he blamed her
for not reminding him.
Then onwards, she always took care to remind him about
their marriage day, her own as well as the children’s birthdays and other
important events not too much in advance-lest he forget again-and also not too
late-to allow him enough time to purchase a decent ‘surprise’ gift. How could
he be allowed to escape under the pretext of his own forgetfulness.
Yet, they said yesterday that his memory is, well,
amazing!
Some time back, her only brother’s marriage took
place. Being the only sister, she was thrilled. But he bungled everything up.
Even though they were informed a month in advance, he could not make up his mind
about the journey till the last minute. By that time, they could not get the
train reservations and had to go by air. She could not make all the purchases
she wanted and had to resort to some limited hectic last minute shopping, much
to her dismay. And he was annoyed that she was in a bad mood throughout the
function, that too after he was forced to part with a neat sum on flight
tickets for the whole family!
And, they called him a meticulous planner!
Suddenly she remembered one more incident. Their son, Raju
is a bright boy. He got selected in two of the city’s top engineering colleges
and had to choose between them. Agreed, it was a very difficult choice to make.
And as usual, her husband could not decide in time. Good that Raju went ahead
and paid the fees in one of them without waiting for his decision. Otherwise
because of his vacillation, the poor boy could have lost both the seats!
Being wiser, their second son, when the time came,
joined the college of his choice without even bothering to consult him.
That is how they manage their affairs. Poor souls!
They are so terrified of him that they won’t open their mouths in his presence.
They both are of the firm opinion that there is no use in trying to discuss
things with him. He is too rigid and obstinate to consider their points of
view. Of course, she also silently endorses the same view. The strategy of not
taking him into confidence works wonders: it works to their advantage.
But, they marvelled at his problem solving and quick
decision making capacity!
How come so many people were praising him to the
skies! Really amazing that those people find him soft spoken and pleasant! She
always finds him the opposite. Not that he dares to shout at her or anything
like that. Never. But he clams up in the middle of an argument and no force on
earth could force a further word out of him. Thus denying her of her right to
justify her point of view.
How can you argue with a person who stonewalls the
moment you open your mouth!
And they found him democratic and encouraging exchange
of ideas!
She sighed. Who can understand her plight! Whenever
she desires to buy something for herself, he vetoes down. Not only that, on
many occasions when she still wanted to go ahead with her plans inspite of his
objections, she found to her surprise that he keeps very little amount in their
joint account. What a disgustingly suspicious attitude!
Still, people praised him as if he is perfection
personified! How strange!
The doorbell rang. It is Meena, the friendly
neighbourhood lady. One quick look at Santhi's face and she immediately knew that
something was amiss.
“What is it, dear? Why are you so sad? Worried about
Madhav’s retirement?” She tried to joke.
Santhi shook her head and described the function of the
day before.
Now it is the turn of Meena to get puzzled. “When
people are praising your husband, why are you so unhappy? You should feel
elated.”
“No, no, not unhappy. But I feel troubled. How is it
that I missed all those virtues of my husband! As a wife, I should know my
husband better than the others. Shouldn’t I? That is a very disturbing thought” She
was almost in tears.
“Oh, poor soul! Don’t get so dejected and spoil your
mood.”
She was still pondering. “How could I fail to
recognise his praise-worthy qualities! If he is really such a gem of a man as
they made him out to be, it means that I could not evaluate him properly. What
went wrong?”
Just then, Madhav entered the house. He was surprised
at the sight of the two ladies with woebegone and long faces. He looked at
Meena questioningly.
“It seems, after hearing the praises showered on you
yesterday, Santhi feels sorry for not realising your true worth before.” She
briefed him about his wife’s predicament.
“Yes, dear” said Santhi, “I wonder at my ignorance
which closed my eyes to your greatness. I never imagined that a day would come
in my life when I had to be enlightened by outsiders about my husband’s
virtues. Pray, tell me, how are they able to recognise the other side in you
while I was unable to? How could you hide it from me?” She said in a worried
tone.
He could not bear to see her sad face. Eager to put a
stop to her obvious misery, he said gently “Look dear! No other side or nothing
of that sort. Don’t take seriously what all those fellows said. Believe me!
They say the same things at almost every farewell function. There is not a
grain of truth in their parrot like recitations.”
Having found some solace in his words, she looked
relieved and tried to smile. But she was still doubtful. “Are you sure? After
listening to all that blah-blah yesterday, I was really confused. Do you really
say that I need not worry at all?” she insisted.
He was about to nod his head vigorously in the affirmative.
But one look at Meena suppressing her laughter with the end of her sari, was
enough for him to realise the irony of the situation. His face turned beetroot
red and he vanished into the bedroom in a jiffy.
