“Yes Sir.” I wasn’t going to haggle over a couple of paintings drawn in spare time.
“There was something…”
“Yes Sir?”
“I will be away for three days a week from now on.”
I stayed silent.
“You don’t seem to care about the reason. But…”
“Why would you say that?”
“You didn’t even ask why.”
“I didn’t want to be intrusive.”
“Ah! Propriety. If propriety could be sold in market, you’d be a millionaire by now, won’t you be?”
“Propriety is never up for sale.”
“No. It’s not,” a visible smile softened his features.
“Why would you be away?” I asked irritably.
“I have taken up a job at Mysore University. Three days a week, I will stay there and take classes. Monday to Wednesday. I needed to tell you because when I am away you would be Annie’s guardian.”
A thousand questions swarmed in my head. Why the job? If he wanted to continue working, why had he shifted to this godforsaken village in the first place? Bangalore was definitely a better place to be at. But having made a case for propriety just a while back, I dared not ask him anything. I quietly accepted the responsibility he had put on my shoulders.
—
Protim
Ananya didn’t take much time in adjusting to my absences. She and Sarah grew closer. Before long she started looking up to Sarah to take care of parental duties even when I was at home. When she didn’t feel well she would seek Sarah and would sleep with her. When she needed someone to play a game with her, or to read her a story, she went to Sarah.
They were playing a board game when I came home one Wednesday night. Ananya jumped at me and demanded her gifts. Sarah had looked on, smiling, patient as ever.
“All right. Let me catch my breath and let Manjunath bring my stuff from the car.”
“What have you brought for me?” Anaya demanded.
“It won’t take more than five minutes for you to find out.”
“What have you brought for Sarah Auntie?”
I was caught unawares. Sarah’s smile disappeared as a blush of embarrassment crept up on her cheeks.
“Sarah Auntie? Why? Was I expected to bring a gift for her?”
“Why not? You have brought me gifts every week, but never for her.” Unlike Sarah, her student was unabashed.
“Do you like gifts Ms. Jacob? Were you expecting one?”
My leg-pulling brought her wits back. She didn’t hesitate in replying. “Who doesn’t like gifts? But I had no reason to expect one, nor a claim on one. Ananya’s understanding is, of course, limited about this.”
“Hmm… There… That’s your gift. Take it and run along to Kaveri Auntie. I need to rest,” I sent Ananya to her aayah.
Sarah also made to leave.
“I didn’t ask you to leave.” Damn. Couldn’t I be more tactful?
“I… I thought you wanted to take rest…”
“I am yet to have my dinner. Have you had yours?”
She shook her head.
“I hope the dinner is ready.”
“I think so.”
“I will be there at the dinner table in five minutes.”
—
“So, you don’t think I should have brought you a gift?” I asked as I picked at my food.
“Why should you?” she didn’t eat as hungrily any longer as she had done in the initial days of her stay at my house.
“But if I got one, would it be wrong?”
She looked puzzled. I pretended not to notice her gaze and kept eating.
“Would it?” The best way to fight awkwardness was to be a jerk and keep insisting on answer to an ill-framed question!
“Mr. Roychowdhury. I have been brought up in an orphanage. I am not exactly adept at the subtleties of social behavior. Why would you pose a question like that to me? You yourself would know the answer better, won’t you?”
A bile suddenly rose in me despite myself. I laughed. “If I knew the ‘subtleties of social behavior’, you think I would have been holed up with you at this house in the middle of nowhere.”
“I hope you are not expecting me to teach you social behavior. The best I can do is teach Mathematics, English or Drawing to your daughter. That’s the limit of my abilities.” She was angry!
“Have you never received a gift?” I refused to take the bait. I would not acknowledge that she was angry.
“I have known those as charity. People trying to unburden themselves by… I don’t want any more of those.”
“Too bad!” I fished out a mobile phone from my pocket, “I already got you one.” I held out my hand for her to take the phone from it.
“What for? I don’t need this.”
“I do. I want to talk to you… about Annie’s progress when I am not around.”
“There is a phone at home.”
“Not convenient enough. Now take it. It’s an order from your employer, if you must be persuaded.”
“But… I don’t have money to pay the bill.”
“When you get a boyfriend, in good faith ask him to pay the bill. Until then I don’t think you will use it so much that I can’t afford to pay it.”
She flushed.
“And for God’s sake. There is no social situation here,” I said when she did not volunteer to take the mobile, “It is not charity. Just work!”
—
Sarah
I tried my best to steady my hand as I reached out to get the phone. But they betrayed me. I drew away my hand rather quickly.
“Thank you.”
“It’s not a gift.”
—
I was happy that Ananya kept me busier than before. Because, to my surprise, Mr. Roychowdury’s absence had created an aching void in my life. When he was around, I felt active, challenged. He kept me on my toes. He would appear from nowhere all of a sudden and start a conversation that would need me to keep all my wits about me. Earlier I used to think that all he did was annoy me with his moodiness. But I realized that I had come to cherish even his banal bantering like calling me a ghost. I looked forward to his return on Wednesday nights as eagerly as Ananya did. But while she was free to express her feelings, I had to restrain myself. I couldn’t look anxious before he came, nor appear jubilant after he did.
And I had started looking forward to his dinner-time conversations. Only four-days a week now. He was still as moody as ever. He could still be crude and crass. How abominable it was that he should turn the conversation about mobile bill to an imaginary, future boyfriend for me. But I had come to like even his coarseness. With him, there were no sugarcoated talks about the mercifulness of Jesus, goodness of mankind or the ultimate sanctum waiting for us. With him, it was only cold, hard, harsh truth. Bitter, sarcastic, gentle or direct, he spoke the truth!
—
To be continued
One thought on “The Normal Life (Part 6)”
awesum…he booooought hr a mobile…she too has started to think of him