Non-erotic Bonds of Love by sfraza
#6
Chapter 6


Aditya was having a horrendous time. His parents had gone off to a wedding in Rishikesh for two weeks. They had insisted they did not need to go, Aditya had insisted back knowing fully well how important these family weddings were to them. But now he regretted his decision. No one had prepared him for teenage daughters and their tantrums. He wanted to discuss this with Neeta in detail and during their routine calls his morning and her night. He had refused Anjali permission to go to movies with her friends and consequently she was sulking the entire week and giving him the silent treatment. He did not even know whether his wife allowed her to go to movies with friends at all and when confronted with the decision he had faltered. He asked all his friends with teenage kids and they have given such varied opinions that he was more confused than ever. So, he had chosen the safer option and refused. Consequently, his dear daughter would not talk to him; would be alone in her room reading a book and eat her dinner silently. He had offered to take her to the movie himself, but she promptly refused with so much disdain as her own mother that he almost laughed to her face at the remembrance.

He would have ignored her, but Anjali helped him with Rohit. And he was left alone now to manage an uncooperative daughter and a truant son. Of all the money, he spent on the maid he hardly ever got to see her. She came in the morning after the children had gone to college and he was rushing off to the office. She dismissed him summarily as if the home now belonged to her and not him and he would better be off wherever he was going. His instructions fell on deaf ears. But the house would be clean once he came back and the dinner cooked and that’s all that mattered. She had such an imperious attitude that to tell the truth he was mildly scared of her. This was the main reason why he hired her anyway, if he was afraid of her, the children would be too.

However, it was impossible to dish out dinner, clean up the kitchen counter and the house and check up on the children all during the limited evening hours after office. Rohit would play on the football grounds and sometimes Aditya forgot to call him back and he would be out till 8. He was sure homework was not being done. He had no idea what was going on with Anjali at all, she just seemed so engrossed with her friends and her laptop that it caused him more worry than his brattish son. The kitchen was smelling a little already and he was sure his wife would not approve of the hygienic standards in there, but that’s the best he could do.

Aditya was a desperate and he wanted his pretty wife to call him and guide him. He planned to shed his ego and beg her to come back early. Surely there must be some office provisions for family emergencies. Late in the night when both the kids had gone to sleep he lied alone his king-sized bed, missing her warmth. He could not sleep. It just all seems so dreary and stagnated and useless. He wanted all attention to be on him, but he drove those thoughts away, he would have his mid-life crisis when Neeta was around to appreciate it.

Neeta had settled in more now that she had a vehicle. She was having a good time driving it around the city, an empty city. Through deserted lanes, ghostly but well-lit highways, almost everywhere and anywhere. Driving was so pleasurable in here that she wondered how she would ever do this in India again without feeling deprived of its joys.

She also liked going to the public library occasionally watching the little kids pick up crayons and books. It reminded her of the golden years when Anjali and Rohit were toddlers and so much fun to be with. She would sit on one of the little-kids chairs and laugh out loud at some memory hidden in the cobwebs of her mind.

Once she picked up a Bollywood magazine lying around; it featured two beautiful female actors in a dancing posture femininely dressed in a sari, fully adorned with ethnic tika, nath and all of gold jewelry. It was the poster of a new movie coming out. For some reason, Neeta felt the same indignation she had been feeling for years at this objectification of women. This gross stereotyping of women as men viewed them. A goddess, a beautiful object to be admired, appreciated or ogled at. Why was not she allowed to be a simple human being first.

She wondered if men were stereotyped as well. And it was true they were. She herself had done it. How did Aditya’s work become a career and hers a mere job over the years? When the kids were young, and they were under financial strain, she herself had pushed him to work harder and longer; take up coveted positions; earn more. She had thought her responsibilities were not just work but home as well and to be a good mother first. But the priorities were different for Aditya; he was a good husband and father if he helped around the house but for him the focus was always to succeed first professionally. They both had mutually; if silently agreed to these roles and performed accordingly. And they both had worked and worked and worked without a moment pause waiting to ask what they wanted out of life for themselves.

But how different life could be for other people. This guy Milind she had met; he was 33; not married and not bothered about his parents or family. He did not seem much interested in his career either. He was right now in public relations but changed his roles frequently trying out new stuff, whatever he fancied and whenever he wished to. For the past two years, he was staying in this small city in the middle of nowhere so that he could ski in the snowy slopes of Rocky Mountains. Earlier she assumed only the very rich had the luxury to do what they wanted to do, now she realized it was all in the lifestyle one chose. Milind. He was free like a bird. She wondered if one could ignore the ties of the world and still be part of it. If one could just live for oneself and still be happy.

She and Kabir kept bumping into Milind now and then and he had almost become a friend. It was a small city anyway and he may have been lonely. She could not fathom how he and Kabir got along considering their frequencies always looked a little mismatched to her but hey men were men. They would buddy up with anyone for a drink. Sometimes she joined them for breakfasts, bowling or dinner. It was good fun just like college.

When Neeta came out of the public library it was already dark. Winter had arrived, and the wind was much chillier now. The trees had shed their leaves and the landscape had turned desolate with the naked branches hanging in isolation. The Rockies with hardly a vegetation on them stood in the background like a pretty picture postcard. She pulled the jacket close to her and hurried to her car. The kids must be off to college by now, Neeta figured but Aditya had requested for a telephone call and she had to hurry before he rush off to office.

When her car approached the hotel though she saw Milind coming out. They met each other in the parking lot.

“Hi there, where are you off too”, she called out to him. Neeta’s earlier antagonism had disappeared as they were meeting so frequently now, and an easy camaraderie had developed between them.

“Your friend K, abandoned me, his wife ordered a video call and he like a trained soldier had to obey the commander”

Neeta laughed. After almost a month, she had learned reliably that Kabir was not kidding when he said he lived in terror of his wife.

“Why don’t you come. We were going to the Piper pub and grill for dinner. I do not want to go alone”, he added.

Neeta knew she had to refuse, it was inappropriate for her to go alone with him. She came up with a lame excuse, “I think Kabir will not like that we left him alone and went by”

“Ok then we will not tell him”, Milind shrugged. He spoke so nonchalantly that it did not seem offensive at all. He had pulled his jacket up to his neck and was holding it there to keep the wind out. But the wind still blew directly into his face and his already small eyes were obscured out of view. He looked vulnerable as he bent outside her car window which was still half rolled up and waited for her answer.

What the hell, that was more inappropriate but someone else other than her in the car must have answered. “Let’s go then”. He got into the seat and they drove off.

Neeta never called up Aditya. He waited and then went to the office around noon. He thought it was a good thing after all. He was caught in a weak moment when he decided to ask Neeta to come back. And he did not like being weak or begging his wife for anything.

Images/gifs are from internet & any objection, will remove them.
Like Reply


Messages In This Thread
Bonds of Love by sfraza - by pastispresent - 06-03-2019, 06:51 PM
RE: Bonds of Love by sfraza - by pastispresent - 06-03-2019, 06:51 PM
RE: Bonds of Love by sfraza - by pastispresent - 06-03-2019, 06:52 PM
RE: Bonds of Love by sfraza - by pastispresent - 06-03-2019, 06:52 PM
RE: Bonds of Love by sfraza - by pastispresent - 06-03-2019, 06:52 PM
RE: Bonds of Love by sfraza - by pastispresent - 06-03-2019, 06:53 PM
RE: Bonds of Love by sfraza - by pastispresent - 06-03-2019, 06:53 PM
RE: Bonds of Love by sfraza - by pastispresent - 06-03-2019, 06:54 PM
RE: Bonds of Love by sfraza - by pastispresent - 06-03-2019, 06:54 PM
RE: Bonds of Love by sfraza - by pastispresent - 06-03-2019, 06:55 PM
RE: Bonds of Love by sfraza - by pastispresent - 06-03-2019, 06:55 PM
RE: Bonds of Love by sfraza - by pastispresent - 06-03-2019, 06:55 PM



Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)