An Ideal Wife (20 page)

‘That’s what you want?’

‘Do you care?’

‘Tell me that’s what you want?’

‘Yes,’ Sameer replied angrily.

‘Okay, I’ll do that too. Have I ever said no to you for anything?’ Payal left with tears in her eyes.

Sameer got really upset and went inside the bedroom. He was unable to understand the reason behind his anger. After sometime he picked up a couple of beer pints from the fridge and sat on the easy chair.

While sitting on the chair he went back to all the things that had happened to him and he started relating them to the events a small kid had to go through to play cricket with his friends.

He understood that even a kid had to make compromises to play cricket with other kids and those compromises also made him lot happier.

He realised that just like cricket, marriage is teamwork and one cannot dictate one’s whims and fancies on the other person. He also remembered that his friends and their spouses made compromises to run their marriage smoothly. He understood that for a successful marriage, both people ought to adjust to each other’s needs and wants.

He was feeling extremely bad that in spite of being in the wrong, he had the cheek to be angry at Payal whereas she had tried to handle the situation with maturity. He tried to call her many times but the call didn’t go through. He got restless and decided to meet her at once.

He didn’t even bother to call the lift and went running down straight to his car. The car had a flat tyre! He got more pissed to see that even the extra wheel in the boot was flat. He immediately ran out of his apartment complex and got into a taxi but he didn’t know where to go. He once again dialled Payal’s number and got really excited to see that it went through this time.

‘Come on Payal, please pick up the phone.’

Payal was extremely busy shooting and her phone was on silent mode, so she didn’t even realise that Sameer was calling her. After a few more futile attempts Sameer banged his phone in anger on the rear seat of the taxi.

‘Abb kahan dhundun usse!’

Right then Sameer heard a voice.

‘May I help you, Mr. Sameer?’

I turned towards Sameer with a huge smile on my face. Sameer was delighted to see that I was the taxi driver

‘Do you know where she is?’

I smiled again.

‘Oh gosh, what am I saying? Please take me to her.’

‘Seems like my bad days are about to end. Here I go full throttle.’

I drove very fast towards the shooting location. Sameer was amazed at my maneuverability.

‘It’s because of this skill I got promoted to god status,’ I explained.

Sameer smiled and I smiled back.

After about half an hour of driving, we reached the shooting location, Filmcity at Goregaon (East), but found that the shooting was over and Payal had already left for the airport.

I got another chance to display my skills. My hand, foot and eye coordination was doing awesome work on the road till we reached a construction patch, 3 km before the Mumbai International Airport, which led to a huge traffic jam.

The traffic didn’t move an inch for five minutes and with each passing minute Sameer was getting more worried. He opened the door to come out of the taxi but ended up hitting the door to another car. The driver of the other car came out firing all cylinders. He carefully looked at Sameer and me; thought for few seconds and murmured.

‘Jisse dhundha gali gali woh hamare ghar ke pichwade milli.
’

Sameer was confused seeing him murmuring. The driver of the other car then shouted to other occupants of his car.

‘Come out fast, they are here.’

Before Sameer could do anything all the occupants of the other car and I came out of our respective cars.

‘He is the one who is the root cause of our problems. We broke out of the jail for him only.
Aaj bach ke nahin jana chahiye,’
the driver of the other car continued.

Sameer and I were still confused, but after a few seconds I realised that they are the same criminals who beat me in jail when I was arrested from the rave party.

‘Sameer, run otherwise they are going to kill you,’ I screamed and ran.

Sameer wasn’t sure what was happening but without wasting any time he followed me. The criminals started chasing us and the chase took Sameer further away from the airport. During the chase Sameer and I also got separated.

Sameer somehow managed to reach the airport taking some shortcuts but before he could do something to stop Payal boarding the flight, he got a call on his cellphone.

‘If you want to save your friend then meet us near the Andheri Bridge in 10 minutes,’ a stern voice of one of the criminals pierced through his ears.

Sameer understood that the criminals had got hold of me during the chase.

‘Please don’t hurt him,’ Sameer pleaded.

‘You have 9 minutes and 30 seconds remaining.’

Sameer looked through the glass window panes and saw Payal standing at the ticket counter to collect her boarding pass. He tried her number again but once again it was switched off.

With no option left, Sameer ran to save me from the criminals and after few minutes he got another call from the criminals.

‘You have 5 minutes remaining.’

‘Please, please, don’t harm him.’

‘It’s in your hands!’ The criminal teased him before disconnecting the phone.

Though exhausted, Sameer was running like a mare whereas, on the other hand, Payal had moved to reach second in line to collect her boarding pass.

While on the run, Sameer made another attempt to reach Payal through the phone but no different was the story.

Right then he got another call from the criminals.

‘You have 30 seconds remaining.’

‘I am about to reach.’

‘You have 20 seconds remaining.’

‘I will give you 50 lakh rupees.’

‘You have 10, 9, 8.’

‘Please don’t hurt him. I am just around the corner!’

‘You are late…3, 2, 1,’ the criminal screamed and fired the gun.

Sameer heard the gunshot and my cries. Sameer just broke down and fell on his knees. At that moment, all his interactions with me flashed right in front of his eyes and tears started rolling down his cheeks. The onlookers were amazed to see Sameer crying on the road but no one cared to console him. Is it any wonder I just hate Mrityulok so much? Nobody, absolutely nobody cares!

After a few minutes, Sameer felt someone’s hand on his shoulders. He looked up and saw me smiling standing right in front of his face. He immediately got up and hugged me.

‘You okay?’

‘Look there,’ I pointed at another direction.

Sameer was relieved to see that the police was throwing the criminals into the police van and one of the criminals had a bullet wound on his hand.

‘For the first time the police reached on time AND THANK GOD THIS ISN’T A FILM!’ I explained how I got saved.

Sameer smiled but soon was sad to realise that Payal’s plane was about to take off in another 20 minutes.

Both of us ran back to the airport and tried to convince the airport authority in vain to allow Sameer to speak to Payal just once.

After an hour we picked up my taxi and drove back to Sameer’s home but this time around the drive was way longer.

‘Don’t worry, we will get her back,’ I assured Sameer.

Sameer just nodded but his face was telling a different story. Understanding his situation I accompanied him till outside his apartment.

‘Can I stay here tonight?’ I wanted to make sure that Sameer doesn’t stay alone, as he was very vulnerable today.

Sameer nodded and both of us entered the apartment. Sameer walked very slowly towards the easy chair when a sweet voice filled the air.

‘Where were you? I was so worried?’

Sameer turned and found Payal looking at him. Sameer was ecstatic to see her, ran towards her and hugged her. I was delighted to see Payal as well.

‘I am asking you something, where were you? I tried calling your number many times but it was switched off,’ Payal said, releasing herself from Sameer’s arms.

Sameer took out his cellphone from his pocket and realised that the battery was discharged.

‘But how come you are here?’ Sameer inquired.

‘I just couldn’t go before speaking with you as you were extremely angry last night…so I came back home. Where were you?’

‘Long story, let me first do something.’

‘What?’

Sameer went down on his knees.

‘Please forgive me for everything.’

‘I have already forgiven you,’ Payal replied with assurance.

Sameer was surprised to see such an easy reaction from her.

‘Wait I will get coffee for both of you,’ Payal spoke and left.

Sameer was surprised and looked at me.

‘Don’t be so surprised, at least one of your conditions that your Ideal Wife should forgive you easily for all your faults is coming handy here,’ I explained.

Sameer was all smiles till Payal came back with coffee. We all enjoyed the coffee and I finally left contented and happy.

As time progressed both adjusted their lives to adapt to each other’s likes and dislikes. Sameer started helping her out with arranging parties, cleaning house and he also stopped drinking. Payal also reduced the number of modelling assignments to spend more time with him.

And just like in fairytales, they lived happily ever after until one day, while leaving his office for home, Sameer, along with me, (it was my last day on Mrityulok and then I was moving back to Heaven) overheard a new recruit girl in his office telling her colleagues.

‘I never lose any bet, you don’t believe me…let’s have a bet that I’ll marry my Ideal Husband within a year.’

Sameer smiled.

‘Want to promise her anything?’ Sameer winked at me.

I just smiled and left for Heaven.

Back at Heaven

As I finished narrating the story I heard loud claps and whistles from all around. Adulations continued for quite sometime and as they subsided a little I started talking again.

‘So can anyone of you tell me the moral of the story?’

‘Any relationship requires adjustments from both parties,’ a kid explained.

‘We should not act in haste,’ another kid added.

‘Also, we can’t promise something which is impossible.’

I smiled hearing all the answers but more so for the last one.

‘Right, that’s why we have modified our code that no god can promise the Ideal Wife to anyone under any circumstance.’

As I was about to hand over the baton to another god to take charge of Heaven, some gods came up to me.

‘We have a request to make,’ one of the gods addressed me.

‘I am all ears,’ I said with a smile on my face.

‘We would like you to not take premature retirement,’ the god aspirant, who had lost out narrowly to me, said with a huge smile on his face.

I was surprised yet happy to hear this from him.

‘I am really humbled but I think it’s time to give leadership to someone younger.’

I handed the baton to another god to take charge and walked towards my home. The claps continued till I was out of sight. I was extremely happy that in spite of being ridiculed throughout my tenure as god, they had finally accepted me with all my shortcomings.