Smitten

Chapter one

Kailash and Sadhna have been married for nearly a month and they were married to each other on the decisions of their parents. Kailash’s father Rajeev was too adamant on his wife Susheela staying with the couple as Kailash was not willing for the marriage, so that she would maintain a neutral environment at home.

Sadhna, being a girl who lost her parents at an early age was brought up by her grandparents, her grandfather requested Rajeev to take Sadhna’s hand for Kailash as Rajeev was childhood friend of Sadhna’s father. As promised, everything happened but Kailash was against the marriage as it was the pivotal time for his career and marriage responsibilities are being imposed on him.

From past one month, he never treated Sadhna as his wife, unknown to Susheela Sadhna sleeps on the couch in their bedroom and she is always at peace and never complains about whatever relationship she shares with her so – called – husband.

She herself is an employee of a software company luckily of flexible timings so she never bothered anyone and does her work silently as if she is the only person living in that house.
She wakes up and gets ready by 7 in the morning, cooks breakfast and lunch by 8:30, and reaches her office by 9. She again reaches home by 6, takes her time to relax, treat herself with some coffee and starts to cook dinner at 7 and finishes her dinner by 8:30 at night and sits in her couch after cleaning the kitchen reading some book.

Susheela has been observing her no bothering attitude for a month now and even Kailash is not at all giving any importance in his marriage. One thing she noticed is he feels guilty everyday in some point of time that Sadhna is not at fault and she is being punished for no reason, she doesn’t have to be so lonely, but then, his life decision has been forced upon him and he is in no mood to give into his feelings.

As usual, Kailash came home after a hectic day at office and sank into the sofa, the clock struck 10 and his stomach grumbled. He made his way into the kitchen and checked the utensils; he saw a stack of chapattis and some curry. He sat down and started to eat out of extreme hunger. His eyes glassed up for a second and he blinked back. His heart stung very sharply when he felt the loneliness, when he was eating alone. Susheela then made her way into the kitchen and caressed his head sitting beside him pouring some water into a glass for him.

After eating, he went into his room and sat on his bed glancing at her sleeping figure on the couch. His heart screams not to punish her
He remembers the night of his marriage, how he denied her as his wife
“You may have married me with so many hopes but I have nothing to give you. I have been forced into this marriage; I can’t accept you as my wife!”

He remembered those words and by the time he waited for an answer she took her pillow and settled herself on the couch silently. He felt relieved that she didn’t fight back.

He just lay on his bed gazing at the ceiling and slowly slipped away into sleep.
A week passed away in a blur when Susheela started to tense up regarding their marriage equation and spoke to Rajeev regarding what to do to actually make him give a chance to his marriage.

When the conversation was going on, it was half past eleven in the night and he was ringing the bell. Susheela went to check and it was Kailash partially drunk and partially sober swaying a little talking incoherently. She cut the call and pulled him inside, took him to his bedroom and then saw Sadhna on the couch. He then looked at her with lot of love like how a kid looks at a costly cake from the glass. Susheela then knocked him out of his trance by slapping him across the face and he landed on his bed. He held his cheek and looked at his mother, Sadhna jerked up from her sleep and looked what was happening. There was a lot of pain, anger, disgust in her eyes towards her son.

She left the room crying silently unable to tolerate the stupidity of her son. Kailash and Sadhna exchanged glances, she was looking at him with so much concern but under the effect of liquor, he slept off.
*
Next morning, he got up with a headache due to the hangover and found lemon water on the side table. He had it and got down his bed, freshened up and went into the kitchen where he saw Susheela watering the kitchen garden which Sadhna took up as a hobby.
“Maa? I am sorry!” he said to her standing behind her
Susheela didn’t respond, she was busy in her work,
“Maa, it was not my fault, it was Rakesh’s birthday and he forcefully made me drink”
And he tried to hug her which led her to push him away
“What do you think of yourself? Do I look like an idiot?”
“Maa?”
“I know, I know we made the decision of marrying you to Sadhna, but we thought you were matured enough to deal with the reality! We though you would accept the reality and give your marriage a chance! But what the hell are you doing? What did she do to deserve that couch?”
Susheela screamed on the top of her voice venting out all her frustration on him and he was dumbstruck.
“What do you know about her Kailash? Do you even know what situations she had to face? What all she had to go through?” she asked him.