An Ideal Wife (17 page)

I wasn’t amused at Sameer’s lengthy answer to my short and innocent query so I just shook my head in disbelief.

‘You just do as I say,’ Sameer spoke wrapping up the discussion.

Sameer pressed with all his might on the brakes and his car screeched loudly. Despite having anti-brake system installed in his car, it slid and hit the rear side of one of the parked taxis. At that moment, Sameer realised that instead of taking the Western Expressway, he had taken the service lane where many taxis were parked.

Before he could react many taxi drivers circled his car and forced him to get out of the vehicle by banging their hands on the bonnet. Sameer tried to reason out with the crowd but they were not ready to relent. One of them shouted to wake the owner of the taxi Sameer had hit.

I emerged rubbing my eyes with my hands. Yes, he had hit my taxi.

I shook my head in disgust whereas Sameer felt relieved to see me.

‘Not again. At least let me sleep in peace, man. How much more do you want me to pay for my sins of giving you a promise?’

‘Thank god, it’s you.’

At last someone is thanking me,’ I sneered at Sameer.

With no options left, I convinced all my taxi driver friends that I knew Sameer. After a couple of minutes of discussion with Sameer, I realised that Payal was sloshed in the rear seat of Sameer’s car.

‘Is she all right?’

‘Yep, I am paying for my sweet wish.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Long story, some other day.’

Sameer thanked me, reversed the car and left. After another 20 minutes he stopped his car in the parking lot of his apartment complex. He struggled to drag Payal out of his car and picked her up in his arms.

As he walked past the security guard, he got up to salute him but just kept looking at an unconscious Payal in

Sameer’s arms. Sameer continued to walk without caring for the looks from the guard.

Sameer reached the lift but was unable to press the button to call the lift as Payal was in his arms. The security guard ran towards the lift and pressed the button. Instead of saying ‘Thank you’, Sameer glared at him. The guard went back to the post but was quite surprised to see an otherwise friendly Sameer look menacing.

Sameer was anxiously waiting for the lift to arrive but it was taking an eternity to reach the ground floor. While waiting for the lift he kept looking around in order to make sure that no one saw him holding an unconscious Payal in his arms.

It seems Murphy’s Law was aptly formulated for such occasions. An old Parsi couple, returning from the Navroz party, ended up meeting Sameer near the lift. Sameer tried his best to avoid eye contact but couldn’t succeed.

‘What happened Sameer?’ the old lady inquired.

‘Nothing Aunty, just…’ Sameer was not sure how to handle this situation.

The old lady turned towards her husband and spoke.

‘Looks like she drank way too much. Have you ever lifted me like this? I always have to carry you whenever you over drink.’

Not just the old man but Sameer also felt embarrassed to hear this from the old lady.

‘No Aunty, it’s not like that… she doesn’t drink, it’s just that…’

The old lady cut him short before he could complete.

‘I know son, it’s a new age…girls want to do whatever they want…they don’t know the consequence of their actions but you are a sensible man, you should have stopped her from drinking beyond her limit.’

Sameer was speechless, as he couldn’t tell them that he was the one who forced her to the alcohol. There was an awkward silence, which was finally broken by the bell that announced the arrival of the lift. The uncomfortable silence continued till the 11
^th
floor, the floor where both Sameer and Payal, and their Parsi neighbours lived. Since Sameer was holding Payal in his arms, the old man slid his hand into Sameer’s pocket to fish out the house keys and opened the door of their house. Instead of feeling grateful, Sameer was more embrarrassed.

‘You want us to help you with anything else,’ the old man asked.

‘Thank you uncle, I think I can manage,’ Sameer didn’t want to prolong his embarrassment any further.

‘He is a big guy, I am sure he can handle it,’ the old lady passed her judgement while dragging the old man.

The old man handed him the keys, Sameer entered his apartment and shut the door with his foot.

After tucking Payal in, he came back to the living room. He was quite upset with the turn of events and once again went to sleep on the easy chair.

15

The perfect host

S
ameer woke up early in the morning and prepared two cups of coffee. He went to his bedroom to give one cup to Payal but found her sleeping.

‘It’s all my fault, shouldn’t have forced her. I guess I still need to grow up,’
Sameer murmured and left.

After an hour his BMW was zooming past Mumbai traffic on the New Link Road. Contrary to the usual traffic chaos, Sameer was quite relaxed; he had made peace with himself for the previous night’s fiasco.

Though it was a Saturday (usually an off at work) the office was buzzing with people, working urgently on an upcoming client campaign. These were the same people gyrating the previous night, stupendously drunk. Work hard and party harder seemed to be the motto.

Sameer as usual was extremely busy making campaign plans clear to his colleagues but after sometime he realised that they weren’t paying much attention to him. He also overheard someone comment that there was something wrong with his marriage.

Sameer stormed out of the presentation room and walked towards his cabin but stopped near a colleague’s cubicle as he heard a whisper about his marriage.

‘Not sure if everything is alright with Sameer’s marriage,’ Rajesh addressed other colleagues.

‘How can you say that?’

‘We always shared everything with each other, even our honeymoon details,’ Rajesh explained

‘Yeah, you have a point especially after last night,’ Meetu suddenly realised something.

‘What’s your point?’ Sheena was lost as usual.

‘Didn’t you notice last night Payal tried to kiss Jimmy,’ Neeta added this logical reasoning.

‘Oh yeah, now I get it,’ Sheena was finally able to put two plus two.

Sameer had avoided discussing his honeymoon with his colleagues, as he was too shy to talk about Payal’s humongous sexual drive. So obviously these folk had made their own sweet assumptions and after last night, all they could think was there was trouble, big-big trouble in paradise.

He was really upset to hear what his colleagues were thinking and went straight to his cabin. Throughout the day he felt uncomfortable and, to make matters worse, the client landed up on a surprise visit. Needless to say, they were completely put off by the many glitches in the campaign. The client let go a vile blast of abuse at Fatty, threatened to cancel the contract and stormed out of the office.

Fatty was now fuming at Sameer, and during a heated argument, he literally shouted out what everyone had been thinking – that Sameer’s marriage had taken a toll not only on his personal life but also on his professional career. What a bummer! Sameer had no argument to present now. Fatty simply ordered Sameer to take a day off, as he knew that it was not possible for Sameer to deliver anything good at the moment. Visibly frustrated, Sameer left his office.

After driving for an hour on the busy Link Road and Malad Marve Road, Sameer finally reached his favourite beach spot near Madh Island.

Contrary to the turmoil in the office it was completely calm and serene there. This is exactly what he needed. He sat there a couple of hours pondering over the changes in his life after marriage. He wasn’t able to comprehend the tumult in his life despite getting a charming, beautiful, cheerful and successful wife. With no answers presenting themselves, Sameer drove back home as the sun set in the horizon.

The scene at home was rather unexpected. The entire house was decorated exquisitely with flowers and candles. While he was still trying to take in the beauty of it all, another sight overwhelmed him. Payal walked out of the bedroom in an elegant red dress and as usual she was looking drop dead gorgeous. Just one look at her and Sameer forgot all his tensions.

Both walked slowly towards each other, love and passion burning in their eyes.

‘I am sorry darling,’ said Payal, as she held him close.

‘About what?’

‘About last night.’

‘No, I should be sorry. I shouldn’t have forced you.’

‘Did I do anything silly yesterday?’

Sameer was somewhat confused at the question. He released Payal from his hug and looked at her with a question mark on his face.

‘Tell me na,’ Payal cajoled him.

‘It was nothing.’

‘You are trying to hide something,’ she confronted him.

‘I am telling you, it was nothing.’

‘If it was nothing then why have I received more than ten calls since morning to know if I am fine or not?’ she raised a pertinent question.

Sameer just kept looking at her.

‘I am pretty sure I did something silly yesterday.’

‘
Tum bhi na, rai ka pahad bana rahi ho…
tell me what’s there for dinner today?’ Sameer steered away to a different direction.

‘Your favorite,
rajma chawal.’

‘Wow… I’ll just freshen up and come.’

‘You are just trying to divert the topic again, Sameer; just tell me what it is! I am so damn sure something weird happened yesterday.’

‘Give it a rest, baby,’ Sameer was a little reluctant to tell her what had happened. It would just kill the mood they were in and she would feel awful about the whole thing

Payal got upset, as she didn’t get any clarifications from Sameer. Looking at her glum face, he realised telling her would be the lesser of the two evils.

‘Okay, okay, we’ll talk as we eat. Fine?’

Payal nodded in agreement.

‘But you will have to promise me that you won’t get upset after I tell you what happened yesterday?’

‘You got it!’

Sameer left to change his clothes and Payal went inside the kitchen to set the dinner on the table.

As Sameer started talking to Payal while having dinner, he kept his fingers crossed under the table expecting an outburst from her. As soon as he finished, she burst into laughter. Sameer was amazed at her reaction. He did expect an outburst but definitely not one of such mirth.

‘Oh my god, I just don’t believe I did that,’ she continued to laugh.

After sometime she looked at Sameer and realised he was looking at her with complete surprise.

‘Okay
baba,
let’s do one thing…call your friends next weekend for a party at home. I think I need to clear the mess I have created.’

Sameer felt a little comfortable to hear this from her.

‘But, what about your ad assignments?’ he asked.

‘I haven’t committed anything yet and in any case I was planning to take a break. This is the right opportunity to do that.’

Sameer was elated to hear that she was going to take a break from work, as he wasn’t too comfortable about her working even though a working wife was one of the top priorities in his wish list for an Ideal Wife.