Page 40 of Red Flags and Rishtas
I spun around, ready to leap in the direction of my room.
‘Beta ji, come and take a look at the card.’ Taiji’s shrill voice made my escape impossible.
‘What card?’ I asked, slowly turning around to face her.
She laughed as if I had asked the silliest question in the world. ‘Harshita’s wedding card, what else?’
Don’t ask me who Harshita was.
I congratulated the woman, forcing a keen smile onto my face.
‘It is your turn next,’ she blurted the customary line and directed the next statement at my mother. ‘You should start looking, you know. It’s so hard to find decent boys these days.’
‘Ji, that’s true,’ my mother’s tone was sympathetic, but her eyes were nervously flitting from right to left.
For a brief second, I truly felt for my poor mother. Caught as she was between the values of two different generations, it was difficult for her to assert her own beliefs. Her parents had taught her that girls had to get married at the right age and run their husbands’ houses. Her daughter had exposed her to the idea of a woman putting herself first, in and outside of a marriage. Her own life was a confusing mess of the two opposing schools of thought.
My dad and she had met in college and had been friends long enough to decide that they should get married. Their relationship was built on that friendship, but it was still not an equal partnership.
‘Sarita, can you get a drink for bhaisaab and me?’ my dad called out.
Mom hurried away into the kitchen, happy to run any and all errands that would save her from uncomfortable conversations.
Unfortunately for me, that meant Taiji’s undivided attention was now on me.
‘So, a pretty girl like you … you must have a boyfriend,’ she whispered, nudging me in the ribs.
As you may have gathered, this was a bit of a sore point for me. I didn’t care for a random aunty’s judgment about the lack of romance in my life, especially today.
‘No, Aunty,’ I said as I fake-laughed and shook my head.
‘Taiji,’ she corrected, before continuing with her interrogation, ‘you don’t have to hide it from me … I’ll convince your parents. I’m very pro-love marriages.’
I looked at her for a few seconds before answering. I had no doubt she would go back home to her circle of good-for-naught aunties and talk shit about me. So, I decided I might as well give them some real juice.
‘Okay,’ I said, sighing, ‘there is someone, but it won’t work out.’
‘Why, beta?’ she asked, her eyes glinting in anticipation of fresh gossip.
‘His family doesn’t approve of us,’ I said, glancing down at my feet.
She squeezed my arm tightly, taking a step closer to me. ‘They’ll come around. You just need to talk to them sincerely.’
‘We tried … but his wife refuses to listen,’ I said.
‘Try harder, beta, this is your life—’ she stopped mid-sentence as it hit her.
I burst out laughing as her face contorted with annoyance and hints of anger.
My mother appeared at my side just then and began dragging me away, saying, ‘Don’t mind her. She’s got a strange sense of humour.’
I had the brief satisfaction of watching Taiji struggling to regain her composure before my mom shoved me inside my room.
‘What did you have to do that for?’ she demanded.
I knew she wasn’t mad at me.
I shrugged and said, ‘It was the quickest, and most fun, way to get away from her.’
