Is Love Enough ??

Chapter 10

Kamal paced the space of her room in agitation wringing her hands with a fierce frown on her forehead. What was taking so long?

She had called Preeti the second she had come to her room. It had been over an hour now. Where was she? Her sister-in-law. Despite the fact Preeti never had any constructive ideas or advice to give, Kamal had always sought her out everytime she had faced difficult situations. Preeti somehow always managed to calm her down. She was her brother-in-law Jeet's wife. They had been in a joint setup for a few years where all their kids had grown up together, and then they had found a place of their own when space had started to get a little tight and both Jeet and Preeti had wanted a house of their own. In Kamal's mind it had been the latter. Jeet and Preeti had wanted their own house with the authority to decide for themselves with less interference, space constarints had only been an excuse. But since it had all worked out amicably so Kamal had nothing to complain about. In fact, their relationships had gotten better. The strain and tension Kamal used to feel at times when they were living together had dissipated. They had been here that day when Kirti had left this house. Veer had been livid. Preeti's elder son. He had always been protective for both Kirti and Anika. And somewhere he had blamed himself for what had happened. But in actuality it hadn't been much of his fault. He still hadn't forgiven Kirti for insulting their family name the way she had. She wondered how he will react if he found Kirti was back to attend Anika's wedding and that the invitation had been extended by Anika. It had been difficult to control him two years ago when he had wanted to go after Maan and hurt him for brainwashing Kirti. They had managed...somehow. What if things got out of hand this time? She didn't want any commotion or unnecessary drama in Anika's marriage. She massaged her temples. This was more complicated than she had thought. What had Anika done? Kamal paused and looked at the clock again. Where was Preeti? And just as the thought crossed her mind the lady in question breezed in.

"What happened to you?" Kamal asked surprised to see her sister in law in such disarray.

Preeti looked a little out of sorts. Her always neatly plaited hair was tied up with a band behind her neck. Her kurta was partially wet. She was wearing slippers when she always wore sandals anytime she was stepping out of the house. A quick dash of lipstick and kohl around her eyes was all she had for makeup and this was when Preeti was very fond of applying tons of other things on her face.

"I had applied henna on my hair parjhaiji," Preeti said with a slight frown and adjusted her dupatta, "when your call came had to wash it off quickly," she told Kamal,"since you had said it was an emergency and you sounded so stressed, I just came as fast as I could," she said in one breath, "what happened? Is praji alright? Did Anika's in laws call with some bad news? Is Guddi not coming?" she asked without taking a pause.

"No, nothing of the sort," Kamal tried to explain in between all the talking Preeti was doing.

"Haye haye, parjaiji," Preeti said interrupting Kamal and switching naturally to Punjabi, "tussi te jaan hi kadh di," she said as she put her hand on her chest dramatically, "main te aina ghabra gayi si," she said and then using her dupatta started fanning her face,"tussi vi na," she said shaking her head and then went ahead and sat on the chair Kamal had been sitting on earlier when Suraj had come with the news of Kirti's return. As she sat she saw the half finished cup of tea on the table. "Tussi savere di cha nahi piti?" she asked. One thing she knew about Kamal was that she rarely did anything out of routine. She was a nice woman but very strict about day to day functionality. And that was where Preeti had struggled for several years, more so because her mother in law had been similar too. But that was all before they had moved into their own home. Now things in her house took place the way she wanted them. "Waise, Suraj kithe aa, aunu kaho jara mere layi vi thodi bana de," she said and smiled.