From Cover To Cover
Nimi Kurian
22 August 2009, 17:28He got back from office early. The only reason he did that was to find out what his wife was doing. Actually he had no doubt as to what she would be doing. He knew.
But he loved to come home when she was not expecting him and catch her out. It gave him reason to shout and scream and vent his anger. He felt justified doing it, especially today as it had been a frustrating day in office.
He wished his secretary would not intimidate him. He disliked the way she would come up to him and ask him how he was and try to chat him up. He did not have the social skills to handle women like her. So he would end up being very curt or very rude. He was conscious of the fact that he was a topic of discussion at the secretaries lunch table. That further irritated him.
To make matters worse, this morning his boss had called asking for the report. Of course, it wasn’t done. How would it be done, when he was told about it only at 4 o’clock yesterday. He thought he would be able to sit up and work on it, but then his game of golf had tired him out completely. After that heavy dinner that Meena had prepared he had just dozed off while watching TV.
All in all it was a bad day at work. He had done a shoddy job of the report and managed to put it on his boss’s table when he was not around. He came back and told his secretary he was not well and so was leaving early for home.
He cheered up when he thought of being able to catch his wife red handed. Feeling considerably better he drove on. He drove into his apartment and parked in his parking slot. He took the lift to the fifth floor, making sure he got out quickly, before the automatic voice machine got activated and start saying ‘please close the door’. He had to be quiet or Meena would know he was back. And then he would not be able to catch her. He tip-toed to his door. Very gently he inserted the key into the lock and turned it. He was quiet. There was not a sound. He got in and shut the front door. He left his briefcase on the sofa, removed his shoes and very softly walked to the bedroom.
The door was ajar. He peered in and found her on the bed. He flung open the door in one noisy hurried motion, startling her. She sat up and tried to hide the book but it was too late. He had seen her reading.
“Reading again?” he smirked. “How you waste your time! Can’t you think of something better to do? All the time you are reading…”
“But Ashwin, I just finished all my work…” she said, looking at him. “It’s not like I have been just lazing around or anything.”
“Oh Yes! I know. You work hard,” he said. Then mimicking her, he said, “I get up at 5 a.m. and am on my feet all day long. I have to make tea, I have to make breakfast. I have to pack your lunch. You won’t allow me to keep a maid so I have to do all the cleaning as well. You won’t give me the car, nor money for an auto so I have to walk…”
He watched with pleasure as her eyes filled with tears. He knew she was incapable of talking when she was upset. He knew that words failed her. And if ever she said anything, she was bound to cry and make a fool of herself. So she never said a word when she was upset. He knew her well. And he knew just what to say to upset her and from that he found joy.
“I don’t know what kind of an upbringing you had. You are very lazy. But then your family itself is lazy. I have never seen your father do any work. Or for that matter your brother either.” He laughed mirthlessly.
“On the other hand, my mother, how hard she worked. She brought up five children and she was a doctor.”
Suddenly, something snapped within her. She looked at his face. His glee in berating her, talking badly about her family, shouting…all because she was reading a book! She decided that she was going to put a stop to it now.
“Yes, I know your mother was a doctor,” she said, without raising her voice. “ I also know she had five children. But what I cannot understand is that with a father who is a scientist and a mother who is a doctor, how did they manage to have five children? Did they not know about contraceptives?”
“Don’t talk like that about my parents!” he shouted.
“You say, you have never seen my father do any work. My brother neither. But at the time of the wedding I saw you and your mother greedily falling over the money my father gave you.”
“Dowry is the custom in our community. You know that. And its not as if your father gave us that much!” he sneered. But Meena could see he was very angry. He had not expected her to react.
“Oh yes. Dowry is a custom in our community. So you must abide by it. But did your mother and you know that treating your daughter-in-law/ wife well is also a custom in our community?”
Now that she had started, she could not stop. She saw him getting angrier by the minute and she continued.
Realizing that she had no plans to stop, he scuttled out of the room, went to his study and closed the door. She went into the kitchen and made his tea. Then she reached up to the top shelf. There hidden behind all the masala powders was the bottle. She took it down and added a liberal dash of it to his tea. She took it to him in the study.
“Here have this. Let’s forget all that has been said. Let us try to respect each other and live together as a married couple.”
He nodded weakly and took the cup. She waited till he had finished. She took the cup and went out. She washed up, wiped the kitchen counter and went into her bedroom, closed the door and resumed reading.
At around 6.30 she came out of the bedroom. She walked around and then went and knocked on the study door. There was no answer. She opened the door and went in. She found him slumped on his chair. Immediately she called for the ambulance. But the hospital he was taken to declared him dead on arrival.
Much later, the cause of death was found to be poisoning. The police were called. They questioned her a lot. But all she could say was that she was reading in her bedroom and she had not heard her husband come home. She had got out of her bedroom only at 6.30 and finding the study door shut she had opened it and found her husband.
When they questioned his colleagues at the office, none of them had much to say. They hardly knew him. But his secretary was very forthcoming. She told the police a lot about the man she worked for. He was quiet, sometimes very rude and also a bit weird. How weird? Well, he was very closed, never had any friends, never spoke much, was what she said. And then finally, she said that that day he had left early because he was unwell.
The other residents of the apartment block said almost the same thing. None of them knew him well. They all knew Meena, and liked her very much. As to what time he had come home that day, none of them could say, because none of them had seen him.
The police questioned his mother. Is it possible that your daughter-in-law could not have heard her husband come home? they asked.
She scoffed. “You don’t know my daughter-in-law,” she said. “Even if the whole world were to fall apart around her she would read!”
