Anjali and Adarsh Part II

People with whom Adarsh and Anjali stayed as tenants before they bought their own house would remember the routine. Anjali would normally be home before Adarsh, having picked up the kids from the crèche. There would be a great deal of laughter and mirth to be heard from the house and sometimes the loud voice of Anjali chastising the children. Invariably contained in the chastisement would be a judgement that the kids were turning out to be exactly like their father, thereby implying that it was not a desirable state to be in. Rather than turning out to be a direct reference to the shortcomings of the child or suggestions for improvement, it turned out to be a charter of grievances against Adarsh. Soon Adarsh would be back home and invariably with a frown on his face. The kids now knowing that the battle was to begin, went about their own work with trepidation and contempt. Like a shower of the North East Monsoon, the ground would be set with a darkening of the eastern horizon. A few rolls of thunder and some lightning, the rains would begin as a sudden heavy downpour. It would last for over an hour with all the usual ferocity of a NE Monsoon shower. Uprooted trees, flooded roads, electric poles blown away, a few buildings collapsed and several dead. All sorts of demeaning statements were hurled from either sides, many of them carrying so much venom that it would have driven a normal family to divorce or suicide or worse. It all stopped as suddenly as it started. There was then dead silence till bed time.

The landlords wondered when the cooking took place if at all, when the children did their homework, when did the family dine etc. Mundane chores like washing and hanging out the clothes to dry, and purchase of sundry grocery items all took place during the storm. It is wisely said in Uttara Karnataka “Genda Hendati Jagala, Undu maluguva tanaka”, meaning the fights between a husband and wife lasts till they go to bed after dinner. The landlords wondered, was that what was happening? For there were two children to support this theory. But sadly, they were wrong. Adarsh and Anjali carried their fights to bed. They were too educated to let things be. There was no point in giving up dinner and a good nights’ sleep just to oblige the bastard or the bitch as the case may be. So a period of ceasefire and truce during Ramadaan, and hostilities to resume after the Eid – meaning the next day. The routine was repeated with sickening regularity for days after months after years that everyone including the dramatis personae lost interest and performed just for the sake of performing. In fact though the Tom and Jerry routine bored all concerned, it had to be kept up. It was a trap into which the couple had pushed themselves and their kids into, and from which there was no turning back. James Hadley Chase talks about it in his novel “Paw in the Bottle”. Did you know how they caught monkeys in Brazil? They tied a narrow necked bottle with a single peanut inside, to a tree trunk. Monkeys put their hands inside the bottle, which they could easily do. They then grabbed the peanut, in which process their paws became fists. Once their paws became fists they could not take their paws out of the narrow necked bottles. It never occurred to them to let the peanut go and escape themselves. So they were stuck there with their paws inside the bottle till the hunters came for them. Thier greed for the peanut did them in. So it was with Anjali and Adarsh. Their egos did them in. They waited for the hunters.

…………..to be continued