Inconvenient Relations Read Free

goodbye. She listened quietly to all the good-natured advice, but let most of it float over her head.
    “I’ve heard over there everything is available on credit; don’t get carried away,” her father said.
    “Don’t wander off anywhere alone. Always have your husband with you,” this from her mother. “Cook his favorite foods and listen to what he says. Be an obedient wife.”
    And the usual conspiratorial aside from her mother’s annoying sister, “Don’t rush to have kids, wait for a couple of years. It is of primary importance to make sure your husband stays hooked. You cannot trust these men.” That one was unnecessary.
    Shaan was having a tough time though, not taking very well to the constant ribbing from her male cousins, and she really didn’t feel like stopping them.
    But then he took his frustration out on her. “You better take those off,” he said curtly, indicating her thick gold bangles, “unless you want to miss the flight.”
    And then later as she gazed at another new bride whose face was proof enough of her happiness, he startled her by putting an arm around her shoulders. He also grazed her forehead with his lips, which she thought was uncalled for. This sparked a lot of uneasy loud whispers.
    “He lives abroad, that’s why.”
    She flushed with anger and a yet unknown turmoil as he grinned, mocking her, conveying a warning in not so many words.
    It was distressing; perhaps she should have accepted his initial offer?
    Later in the huge 747 as she struggled in economy (he had refused her father’s gift of business class seats) to crouch as far away from a lanky middle-aged man with a particularly vile breath, he came to her rescue and exchanged seats.
    “I guess I should sit next to you since we are legally married, aren’t we?” His blunt sarcasm made her chest hurt.
    Then he chuckled when she started chanting the Hanuman Chalisa under her breath. “You would have to repeat that at least a million times before we are on solid ground again.”
    “But I hate flying!” She looked terrified as she wiped her sticky palms on her long kurta. The only flight she remembered being on had landed almost as soon as it had taken off.
    “The chances of us crashing are as remote as you climbing Mt. Everest, unless you really want to,” he said with a sympathetic smile.
    “How can you be so sure?”
    “Well…I happen to know this plane inside and out. It’s something I do!” he answered, a glint of pride in his eyes.
    She was intrigued, and the rest of the journey was spent in her getting a free lesson on the intricate mechanics of a jumbo 747. Her fears flew away as he eulogized the virtues of its engines as if they were the most wonderful creatures in the world. It had her wishing fervently that one day she would be the subject of his incredibly intense passion. But that scenario was far from likely she thought with a disconsolate smile on her beautiful face.
    Her only solace being that he seemed to find inanimate objects much more interesting than living ones. There appeared to be some light at the end of the tunnel.

Twenty-Nine Days
    T wenty-nine days , Ruhi thought as she solemnly sliced the cucumbers for salad that night. They were almost drawing to an end. She had given herself that much time to effect a change in him. She had tried, she had given her best or what she thought was her best to win his heart, but it hadn’t worked. Now at her wit’s end, she was ready to give up.
    She tossed the cucumbers with the rest of the ingredients in the bowl—a task she could perform in her sleep. It had become a tireless self-repeating ritual. Initially with the sole purpose to create an impression but later adopted as a sort of self-induced therapy, a balm for her wounds.
    She mused back on how it had all begun.
    Her experiences in this new foreign land had started positively enough, at least per her perspective. The longest and what she expected to be the most miserable journey of her life