Page 28 of 12 Years
‘That’s your mother?’ I said.
‘Correct. The only fun thing we’re allowed to do at home is eat unhealthy food, as long as it’s Jain-friendly of course.’
‘Like what?’
‘Bhujia, laddoos, halwa, kaju katli. There’s an unending list of Jain-friendly foods that are unhealthy. No problem in all that. But boys and alcohol, bad.’
‘So, both these things, very bad,’ I said, pointing first to her glass and then towards myself.
Payal laughed. ‘Yeah. Pure-evil-level bad. Anyway, enough about me. Tell me about yourself.’
‘What do you want to know?’
‘You live in Mumbai alone?’
‘Yes.’
‘And your family?’
‘My parents live in Chandigarh. Dad retired from the Army eight years ago.’
‘Hmm … and that whole difficult divorce thing you mentioned in the show? Is that true? Or was it just show material?’
‘It’s true. My divorce literally came through a few days back. Although, Raashi and I have been separated for years now.’
‘Raashi, your wife?’
‘Ex-wife.’
‘How long were you married?’
‘Six years.’
‘No kids?’
I shook my head.
‘What happened between you guys?’
‘Long story. I’ll tell you some other time,’ I said.
‘Sorry, I didn’t mean to pry,’ Payal said, looking apologetic.
‘No, it’s fine. I’ll tell you in short: she fucked her rakhi brother before, during and after our marriage.’
‘What?’ she said, looking shocked.
‘I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have used such crude language. What should I say? Ugh … she was intimate with her rakhi brother? Or she made love to her rakhi brother?’ I said, somewhat agitated. ‘Does that make it sound better?’
‘Is this making you upset? Sorry … We can change the topic.’
‘It’s okay. Bottomline, she had a thing with someone. We also wanted different things in life. She wanted money, assets, the high life basically. And you’ve seen me, doing dumb things like quitting private equity for the sake of cracking jokes.’
‘It’s not a dumb thing. It’s a brave thing,’ Payal said.
‘You think so?’
‘Yeah. Chasing your dream is brave, not dumb. But people continuing in jobs they hate, that’s dumb.’
