Chapter 11 #3
“Yes, and it’s great, but we don’t even argue, we don’t banter, not in front of her and not when she is not around either…
It’s like we slipped into some new roles and completely lost who we were.
Everything is now with us on one team, which is how it is supposed to be with a kid, I know.
But when we were on opposing teams, the fun was different.
I just wanted to see if we still had it and if we could still have it… ”
“Slow down right there.” Justice Deshmukh sat up. “You mean to tell me that you two have not fought at all in the last five years?”
Zubin thought, as did Aditi. They both shook their heads. The judge pinned her with his gaze.
“I mean…” Aditi shrugged. “We might have disagreed on things and discussed them like adults to resolve them. My mother thought we fought too much when Aara was born, so we always made a conscious effort not to push each other’s buttons.”
“Fighting is different from bantering.” The judge looked at them incredulously, then broke into a low laugh.
“My god.” He looked amused as well as concerned.
“Fighting, yelling, being rude to each other in front of your children is unhealthy. But healthy arguments, bantering, conflict resolution are things a child should grow up seeing in their parents. They must know that their parents are on one team but even teammates disagree. What makes them teammates is that they always understand each other and come to a common ground. Of course, I wouldn’t recommend your extreme brand of fights in front of Aara, though it’s a prophecy that that girl will become Justice Daru to you both sooner rather than later if you let her…
” he chuckled. “But it’s ok to banter. I am no child physiologist but I raised three children, bantering on a daily basis with their mother.
They turned out well, with happy marriages of their own. ”
Zubin glanced at her, his dark eyes sparkling after so long. Aditi felt her heart fill to bursting at that look.
“See how I was the wise one, Doshi?”
And that heart burst into snarls.
“Take time out and talk to each other, fight it out if you have to. But it’s time to take your bantering inside your home and leave my courtroom in peace.”
Zubin bowed his head.
“This is not the courtroom, stop with your flattery.” Aditi rebuked. Zubin’s head rose, eyes shocked — “You call my respect for my old professor and current judge flattery?”
“I call out what it is, bull…”
“Out, both of you.”
They pushed their chairs back and rose to their feet, looking down at Justice Deshmukh, Professor Deshmukh, the man who had, in Zubin’s words, been the ‘fat little cupid’ in their love story. He was now looking at them with a smile that he only reserved for their daughter.
“Bring Aara home this weekend, I got a new goldfish for my tank.”
“We will, sir.”
“And Daruwala, what is with your client?”
“Excuse me, sir?”
“Her demands are absurd. Do you think there is another motive there?”
“Like, Your Lordship?”
“Like pushing her husband so far into a corner that he backs out of the divorce completely?”
Aditi blinked, honing in on that deduction.
“All she wants is to live a happy, peaceful life,” Zubin said. “She comes across as over-the-top and annoying, but her heart is in a good place. It is her husband, who one fine day came home, and decided to leave her.”
“It wasn’t one fine day, without any preamble. It was after a very nasty fight on the heels of months of fights of that intensity. Everything is in the appeal, My Lord,” Aditi pressed, glaring at Zubin. “Stop spreading misinformed lies.”
“He did come home one fine day and dropped the bomb on her, what does it matter if it is before or after the fight? How is that misinformation?”
“Then half information.”
“Aha,” Zubin snapped. “Lordship, she is doing it again. Using adjectives, then turning the moment they don’t land…”
“Silent!”
They snapped their mouths shut. Justice Deshmukh was looking at them as if he were at his tether’s end. Aditi wouldn’t doubt it. She knew Zubin and her were capable of driving him there.
“The hearing is over, stop it. I asked you a simple question, Daruwala, are you sure your client does not have any other ulterior motives?”
Aditi looked at her husband’s profile. It went solemn now. Justice Deshmukh held Zubin’s stare for a long few seconds, some silent conversation going on that she couldn’t read. Then the judge nodded.
“Thank you, sir.” Zubin pushed both their chairs in and they began to turn.
“Also.”
They stopped.
“How much does a couple’s counsellor make nowadays?” The judge asked.
“My Lord?” Aditi frowned, not sure she had heard it right.
“I should start charging you two and open my own shop. I’ll make a whole lot more than I make now.”
“Shaadi cha aadhi bhi, shaadi cha baadi bhi,[11]” Zubin grinned. Aditi winced.
“Bas!” Justice Deshmukh banged his desk. “Mi tula Marathi bolnyas bandi ghalto!”[12]
“Kashala, sir…[13]”
“Ekda nahi mhatla ki samjat nahi?Aata ek shabdhahi na bolta nighun ja, nahitar mi…[14]”
“Sir, jevan kha, sir…[15]” Zubin was laughing as Aditi pushed him out of the office.
They spilt out into the chambers, looked at each other and burst out laughing.