Poles Apart

Meera was trying to send a mail to her team…just the team roster for the upcoming week. But the internet was acting up and she was caught in the same preview page for 25 minutes. She silently cursed her luck and wished that she had sent it out last night. But last night was Friday and Meera had spent the evening watching the reruns of Big Bang Theory along with her husband, Vicky. Plus they were drinking and making repetitive lewd jokes about what Big Bang Theory should actually be about. So although she knew that she had one task pending she had decided to postpone it for Saturday. Meera had once sent out a garbled official email under the influence of alcohol and she intended to never repeat the same.

“It would just take a minute to send out the mail.” Meera had thought as she happily melted into the arms of Vicky.

And today Meera woke up with a bad hangover. A half asleep Vicky suggested that she should drink herself out of the hangover, an idea that infuriated Meera to a great extent. Meera was already feeling nauseated and wanted to stay in bed but they had to attend a friend’s pre wedding ceremony in a few hours and she reluctantly got up. She started her laptop meaning to send out her mail but the internet refused to be with her. She helplessly looked at Vicky who was still in bed; eyes closed and enjoying the slow unhurried pace of a Saturday morning. How she wished that he would get up and make a cup of coffee for her. But she knew that Vicky’s cooking skills were non-existent and he did not seem too bothered by her plight at the moment.

Meera sighed and popped two painkillers to get the headache in control. She flopped back on the bed meaning to rest herself for the next 15 fifteen minutes but got up after 5. She tried to send out her mail again. Luckily this time it went through.

“Eat something or else it would get worse,” Vicky murmured to her as he rolled over. Meera somehow felt a seething burst of anger towards him and her headache was suddenly doubled. It was his idea to drink so much. She still dragged herself to the kitchen and forced a few biscuits down her throat and then she fell back on the bed. Soon she was fast asleep again.

Suddenly Meera got up and saw that Vicky was sitting on the edge of the bed reading the day’s news. He was all dressed up and ready for the party. Meera looked at the clock and got a shock. A lot of time has passed and they had to start for the friend’s party soon. She quickly got up and rushed to take a bath.

“Take your time,” Vicky said without looking up.

Meera did not have the time to drape a sari and decided to put on an anarkali suit instead. She then started to put make up on her face when Vicky remarked, “Great! You are ready as well. See…I told you you’ll feel good soon. I’ll go and get the car out. Lock the doors properly.”

Vicky went out and before leaving he turned off the AC and the lights. The idea of the AC and the lights running in an empty room bothered him to no end and he just could not trust Meera to turn them off.

Meera did the rest of her face in the sweltering heat of the closed room and rushed after her husband.

Vicky was already in the car and Meera quickly settled herself beside him.

“It’s too hot.” Meera felt like she was getting baked.

“I’ve started the AC…give it sometime,” Vicky coolly said and started the car. A few minutes into the road and Meera started to feel giddy. She desperately tried to take her thoughts away from puking but the more she tried to think of other things, the more she needed to puke.

To make matters worse Meera had the problem of motion sickness since childhood. Buses, cars, trams, trains, almost every moving vehicle managed to get her nauseated. As a matter of fact that is how her love story with Vicky had started in the first place. Both of them were posted at Pune and one day they had to travel in the same cab to the office picnic. Meera had puked out of the window exactly after 7 minutes of the ride and instead of being annoyed Vicky had graciously stepped up and helped her to get clean and to feel better. And that sweet little gesture had led to a series of dates which eventually culminated into a marriage.

But that was a long time ago when the thrill of newness made everything seem perfect.

“Please stop for a while Vicky. I need to get some fresh air. I feel so sick.”

“We are already late. Why do feel sick all the time?”

Vicky kept driving, visibly annoyed with Meera.

Meera closed her eyes and tried to rest her head against the seat. She felt horrible. She did not know if it was her physical discomfort or Vicky’s insensitive behavior that made her so unhappy.

As tears welled up in her eyes, she had fond memories of her father rushing through her mind. She remembered how many times her parents had landed in a tough spot due to her motion sickness. And every time her father had treated her with love. In fact whenever Meera was in some sort of discomfort her father felt quite mad at everyone and everything around him till her health was restored. At one time she had puked in her father’s new car and he had kicked the new car because it made his daughter sick.

Meera has seen streaks of such single minded affection in Vicky in their dating days but things changed a lot post marriage. She glanced at the cold person beside her and wanted to cry.

But she shouted instead.

“You know why I am ill today? Because of you!”

“You suggested drinks night and I was stupid enough to follow your lead. I never drank before marriage.”

Vicky was startled by the outburst but he came back quickly with attacking retorts.

“I didn’t force you. You were boring and I taught you to have fun. And you know that you had this stupid problem much before marriage.”

“So what? You knew it and pretended to care for me just to woo me. Double standards!”

Vicky gave her a raging look and muttered something under his breath. He never took a fight to ugly levels. Instead he stopped communication till peace was restored. Today also he did the same and diverted his attention to the dashboard.

The car halted at a traffic jam and Vicky started to shuffle noisily through the random papers in the dashboard.

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Outside another car came to a stop by their side. A Caucasian woman in her mid thirties was seated at the window while her boyfriend was in the driver’s seat.

She was Ramona Smith who had come to India with her boyfriend Justin for 2 weeks. This was their idea of a perfect exotic vacation. No one had told them about the severity of Indian summers and they had somehow assumed that it would be just shades hotter than their balmy summers.

But the scorching heat is not the only thing that was going through Ramona’s mind today. She had been with her boyfriend for 6 long years and when he brought up the idea of a long vacation in India she was sure that he had planned to propose to her there.

A moonlit night in front of the Taj Mahal and Justin going down on his knees with a pristine ring in his hand…perfect proposal! Ramona had tried hard to not visualize the scene but her mind kept on doing the same over and over again till the point of time when she began to believe that it was a surety.

And then reality happened. Justin and Ramona both felt kind of roasted in the summer heat. The vacation was not even close to the rosy images that they had imagined. Today was the last day of their vacation and Justin had not proposed or even shown any inclination towards marrying her. No, he was not unpleasant to her. He simply talked to her about the routine stuff and how they should come back again in the winters. Not the kind of prelude that you would expect to the proposal.

A gloomy Ramona looked at the car next to theirs and saw the heavily decked up Meera. The Indian woman is obviously married. She usually found heavy make-up and golden jewellery quite tacky but today she was not judging. She just kept on staring at the married couple wistfully. They seemed so secure with their marital status. And then she looked at Justin and sighed. At that very moment he was looking at her with a fairly stupid smile that irritated Ramona to the core. She knew what it meant. They were stuck in a traffic jam and Justin had heard that kissing in public is banned in India. With a police officer in sight Justin meant to see if it’s true or not. He leaned in. The kind of thing that Ramona had fallen for in the beginning but had secretly hoped would go away with time. It did not happen; Justin did not grow up. He was pouting very eagerly. Ramona did not want to be rude and kissed him back.

At the same moment Meera looked in their direction and saw the couple kissing. Foreigners. How secure and happy they looked in love. It was a hot day in an unknown country and yet they did not care. The only thing that mattered to them was the passion that they had for each other. Meera stared at their uninhibited expression. Meera turned her head towards her grumpy Vicky and sighed.

After the kiss was over Ramona looked out again. And  this time their eyes met. Meera’s and Ramona’s. And in a split second they identified the grief they saw in each other’s eyes. They both felt confused.

But the signal had turned to green and the cars sped off in different directions.

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Was she not happy? Why? She was married to the man! Ramona was perplexed. May be she was the typical down trodden Indian wife who was being humiliated over dowry. Or maybe she was being forced to abort her unborn girl. Ramona’s mind was racing when she heard Justin saying something.

“Hey, my mom was suggesting that we get married in the small church where she ran away with my dad to get married. I know it’s a little run-down but they are emotional about it. What do you say?” Justin was casual. Ramona opened her mouth and quickly closed it.

This was the proposal. No poetry, no gloss of sugary sweet romance, not even a ring. But it still was what Ramona was waiting for…the marriage proposal.

She smiled a bit and nodded in affirmation.

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In the other car as Vicky drove ahead Meera was trying to figure out why the Caucasian woman was looking so forlorn with her lover. He seemed to be the perfect romantic lover.

“Here, take this”, said Vicky. Meera looked at him and saw that he was holding out a small pouch of ajwain towards her. “It will help to subside your vomit attacks…I kept a few in the dashboard last time you fell ill.” There was no trace of emotion in his voice.

Meera smiled a bit and thanked him. It was not all that she was looking for but it was something.

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Meera and Ramona stared into path ahead of them. They were not happy…nor were they unhappy. They felt a strong sense of dismay. Both of them silently resolved to never introduce fairy tales to their future daughters. Perhaps the root of all evils lay in unrealistic expectations.