Chapter 16
I t was late Thursday evening. Asmee was sitting in the dining room, doing her homework. Rachanna was cleaning up after dinner. Anirudh was fixing the cupboard in her kitchen that was falling off its hinges. They looked just like a typical family on a normal day.
Dinner together had become a regular thing with Anirudh and Rachanna. All it took was that one time. And then there was no stopping them. They realised that they just could not get enough of each other. They had dinners together and sometimes, breakfasts too. They caught late night movies, albeit at home, as Asmee had to sleep early.
When Asmee was at her grandparents’, they spent every single moment with each other, separating only when Asmee was just about due.
Rachanna had long stopped caring for what people might think. She was too happy. People, when they are insanely happy, generally tend not to worry about other people’s opinions. And Rachanna had stopped worrying. Of course, she made effort to keep their relationship under wraps but she quit the worrying. Entirely.
Asmee asked, “Is fruit masculine or feminine?” Just as Anirudh sat down on the sofa after fixing the kitchen cupboard.
Anirudh shrugged. “Neutral, I guess. We can check with our Google Uncle if you want.”
Asmee shook her head. “Nah! I know it is neutral.”
“Then why are you asking?”
“I am asking because some fruits are named masculine…” she said as she sat on the chair, her legs folded under her.
Anirudh frowned. “How is that?”
“Jackfruit! I don’t know why is it called jackfruit? Why not Jillfruit? Or Maryfruit?”
Anirudh started to laugh aloud.
“Jillfruit?” He repeated and laughed again.
“And mango? What about that? Why mango? Why cannot it be womango?”
Anirudh caught his stomach, bent over and started to laugh. “Womango? Rachanna! Are you hearing this?”
Rachanna came out of the kitchen. She was laughing too. “Yes, I am. Don’t encourage her, Anirudh. She will come up with all sorts of crazy things…”
“Take a good look at her, Rachanna! That right there is a feminist in the making! You should record moments like this!”
Rachanna laughed. Then, she turned to Asmee and asked, “Have you finished your homework?”
Asmee turned to Anirudh and said, “See? This is what she does! Anytime I ask a question that she does not have an answer to, she always asks me to study or do homework. I recently watched a Ted Talk where a guy talks about how school kills creatively…”
“Who is hell showing you Ted Talks?” Rachanna shouted.
“I found it myself. Google Uncle was very helpful.”
“You have to stop watching all that.”
“Why? Because now I know that school kills creativity and imagination?”
Rachanna was taken aback. Then, she said, “Well, yeah!”
“I would have figured it out anyway,” she replied and then turned to Anirudh. “Anytime I say something really thoughtful, she makes me study. It is like she is trying to dumb me down.”
“I know! Why are you asking her to study and trying to dumb her down?” Anirudh asked Rachanna, still laughing so much that there were tears in his eyes.
Rachanna turned and glared at him. “Don’t encourage her, Anirudh! I am serious!”
“But she is asking such a wonderful question! Jillfruit! Womango!” He said between peals of laughter.
“Go and pack your schoolbag now!” Rachanna said, trying hard not to laugh herself.
“Fine! I am going to start a YouTube channel, put stuff like this on that and am going to make money. I will invest the money in the stock market and soon, I will be richer than you. You will have no control over me then,” she said as she walked towards her room.
“I don’t care how rich you are! You will do what I say till you are twenty-one. After that, you can do what you want.”
“Twenty-one! So many years…” said Asmee as she walked into her room and shut the door.
Rachanna turned to look at Anirudh who was still laughing.
“Jillfruit! Womango! I am glad she forgot papaya,” he said and started to laugh afresh. Since Asmee wasn’t around, Rachanna finally gave way and laughed too.
***
After Asmee had gone to bed, Rachanna and Anirudh sat in the living room, talking.
“My thumb hurts,” said Rachanna, pressing her thumb with her hand.
“Why?”
“I banged it against the table by mistake.”
“Hmm…show me.”
Rachanna showed him her thumb. Anirudh looked intently at it for a few minutes. Then, he gently and softly kissed the thumb thrice.
Rachanna sighed deeply. Then she asked, “What about my other fingers?”
Anirudh looked at her, surprised. “You hurt them, too?”
“No. But you just kissed the thumb. The rest of my fingers are burning with jealousy. So…it is only fair that you treat them all equally.”
Anirudh laughed. Rachanna looked into his eyes and smiled shyly.
He took her hand and started to kiss the rest of her fingers. When he finished, he looked up and asked, “What about the rest of your body?”
“The rest of my body is jealous too.”
“Hmm… What must we do about that?”
“We can use the spare bedroom upstairs…”
Anirudh smiled. “That we can do.”
***
Rachanna was lying spent next to Anirudh. But she was too hyped up to sleep. She moved closer to him, resting on her elbows as she looked at him. She ran her eyes over every part of his face, studying his features one by one.
“Your nose…” said Rachanna, touching his nose with her forefinger.
“Yeah?”
“Very sharp.”
“Hmm…”
“And your stubble… You don’t shave on purpose, isn’t it?”
“No. Why should I shave every day?”
“That’s true. You look…very…very…umm…much better with the stubble.”
“Thank you.”
“And your hair…”
A half smile formed on his lips as he ran his fingers through his hair. His hair parted before it sprang back in place.“…is very thick and shiny…”
“Hmm…”
“And your eyes! My God! They are to die for! When you look at me, I am a goner!”
Anirudh laughed. “Are you going to compliment each and every part of my body?”
She smiled. “Maybe. Maybe not. Why? Do you want me to stop?”
“Not at all. I love your voice. Keep talking.”
“Humph! I can’t now! You’ve made me all self-conscious!” She said, lying on his outstretched arm.
He laughed.
“Am I being too forward with you?” She asked.
“You should be.”
“Do you think I am a sex maniac?”
Anirudh laughed. “A sex maniac?”
“Yeah. I am certainly not as coy as girls should be. I initiate…‘stuff’ as much as you do.”
He laughed. “Did you just say the word ‘stuff’ instead of sex?”
“You know!” Rachanna said, flushing.
“Alright, alright. No, I don’t think you are a sex maniac, okay?”
“Thank you,” replied Rachanna, a little mollified.
“And I am glad that you initiate ‘stuff’ as much as I do. It just means you love it as much as I do. That way, I don’t have to feel like a sex maniac. Not that I care about it, anyway.”
“Thank you.”
A few minutes later, Anirudh said, “You do realise that any guy would be lucky to have his girl be a sex maniac, right? It is not something to feel ashamed of…”
She sat up in shock. “Oh my God! So, I am one?” Rachanna wailed. “You think so? You just said I was not!”
“Oops! I am sorry. You are not one. Not one. Definitely not one,” he began to console her as he sat up too. Then, he laughed at her reaction.
Rachanna frowned and looked sad. “You are a very, very bad person.”
He stopped laughing and took her face in his hands. “You are not. All I am saying is that even if you are, which you are not, it is not such a bad thing. You are not a sex maniac, okay? And we are concluding that topic right here.”
She mumbled, “Okay. But still…”
“Darling! I love you. You should know…whether you initiate it or not, we would end up having sex because I just cannot get enough of you…”
She finally laughed. “Okay, fine. So, what do we do now?”
“Hmm…we will think of something.”
***
Anirudh and Rachanna were kissing in the elevator when it stopped at the second floor. They moved to opposite ends of the lift and stood innocently. Raji and Satish entered the lift. After Rachanna greeted them both, Raji turned to Anirudh and said, “It is nice to see you. You have really changed a lot off late.”
To Rachanna’s utter horror, Anirudh blatantly ignored Raji. He reacted as if Raji was invisible. Raji, wondering if he had not heard her, tried again, “I am a good friend of your grandmother’s, Anirudh.”
Again silence. Anirudh acted like Raji did not even exist.
Horrified by his reaction, Rachanna intercepted, “How are you doing, Raji? I heard we are planning a big celebration for Onam.”
Raji, who was staring at Anirudh in disbelief and shock, turned to Rachanna and nodded. They discussed a little about the Onam celebration before Raji and Satish got off the lift.
As soon as the lift doors closed, Rachanna asked, “Are you crazy? Why were you behaving like that?”
Anirudh rolled his eyes. “I don’t like her.”
“So?” Rachanna asked, shocked.
The lift doors opened and the both of them got down at the basement.
Rachanna followed him, looking shocked. “So what? Nobody likes her. That does not mean you can behave like that.”
“You told me what all that lady did to you. My question is why the hell were you acting all civil?”
“You cannot act like she does not exist.”
“Look! I don’t give a damn about her. She is a low life. My suggestion is you do what I did. Ignore her.”
“I can never act like you just did.”
Anirudh walked to his car and got in.
Rachanna followed him. “Do you know what damage she could do? She could go and talk about you in a thousand different ways.”
“Oh my! Really?” He asked, feigning shock.
“Yes!”
“Well then! I will be waiting with bated breath for the consequences,” replied Anirudh.
Rachanna stayed silent. Then she mumbled, “You don’t understand at all.”
Anirudh just smiled back.
As he started the car, he asked her, “But Satish seems to be okay, isn’t he?”
Rachanna did not answer. She looked uncomfortable and Anirudh noticed it.
“Isn’t he?” He asked again.
Rachanna looked at him helplessly. Then, she took a deep breath and decided to confide in him. “He…he keeps sending me messages.”
Anirudh narrowed his eyes at her. “What sort of messages?”
“WhatsApp messages on exercises.”
“Okay…” said Anirudh as the car left the building.
“It’s not always nice. Sometimes, he sends stuff like ‘hot yoga’ and things like that. I mean…I know it is not strictly wrong. But it makes me terribly uncomfortable. Especially the thumbnail pics of those videos…of girls in revealing clothes…”
“Well, ask him to stop sending them.”
“I did. I told him that I don’t have time to look at his messages but he said I can always look at them at night after Asmee had slept. He used the words ‘watch them late at night’. It was creepy…”
“Hmm…”
“It’s not actually bad. He might not have meant any harm…but yet…”
“You feel uncomfortable.”
“Yes! Terribly.”
“Idiots like him tend to remain in the grey zone, so they can feign ignorance when confronted.”
Rachanna looked at him, surprised. “You…you trust me?”
“Of course. And you should trust your instincts too. I am glad you do. Stay away from him.”
She smiled and sighed happily. It was nice to be trusted. Especially when she herself was not sure if she was justified in feeling the way she did.
After a few moments, Anirudh asked, “Has anyone else been behaving like this with you?”
She shrugged, “Yeah…”
“Really?”
“I am a widow. It does not matter how I behave or what I say. It does not matter if I am willing or not. It does not matter what I want. It does not matter that I am desperately trying to avoid them. All they see is a widow. It does not make a difference if the guy is an 18-year-old or an 80-year-old; I am a widow, so I am open game.”
Anirudh looked shocked. “You don’t truly believe that, do you?”
“It does not matter if I believe in it or not. It is something that is happening.”
“These are not archaic times nor are we living in some village. This is the 21 st century and we live in a city!”
“You honestly think we’ve progressed in this regard? Do you know how many guys have openly asked me for sex? And some guys, you won’t believe this, but they pretend like they don’t actually want to sleep with me but are offering sex because they pity me! As if they are doing me a favour!”
“You don’t say!” Anirudh exclaimed, shocked.
“I am so used to it by now. That is why I never invite any guys to my house. The rare instances I do invite someone, it is always with their wives. And even then, I am scared to talk to the guys. What if their wives think I am trying to entice them?”
Rachanna looked at his shocked expression before she continued, “I know! I know! This may all be in my mind only. But the fact remains that society has treated me badly enough for all this to seem probable. Even if I laugh at a guy’s joke, I wonder later if I’ve laughed too much. Did I encourage him? Was I looking at him more than I should have? Did he think I was interested in him?”
“My God!”
“We live in the city, and it is the 21 st century. But we still have a long way to go where our treatment of widows and single mothers is concerned.”
“You sound as if all men are perverts.”
“I am sure they are not. But the perverts I meet scare me of the rest of the population. How do I distinguish? There is no fool proof way of knowing which man is decent and which one is not. So, I treat everyone the same way. And I stay away from guys.”
“You cannot allow them to treat you like that!”
“As if my permission makes a difference.”
“No! You have to fight! Start with Satish!”
“It is better to pretend it did not happen.”
“No, fight it.”
“Leave it, Anirudh. And you don’t go fighting for me either.”
“I am definitely not going to fight for you. But I am going to have your back when you do fight this guy.”
“I am not…”
“Do you want him to bother other girls? He is not going to stop. Someone has to stop him.”
“I have no energy.”
“The guy is a pervert. If he keeps doing this, there is going to be a teenage girl who is alone and lonely, and will be appreciative of the attention this guy showers on her. And…”
“Okay, okay! I will do it.”
“Good.”
After a few moments of silence, Rachanna asked, “Are you really not going to fight for me?”
“Nope. But I’ve got your back.”
“Big deal!” Rachanna mumbled, slightly disappointed.