Adultery NEMESIS

[Neelkantha]

Part 34 – Poor Pihu Had To Pay My Debt

Pihu’s POV- According to me, the most valuable asset of every person is his home. This is the only thing that he really owns. Where he is born, grows up. And finally he takes his last breath in the same home. For us women, we don’t have our own home in reality. Since the time we open our eyes, our father’s house is our home. And after marriage, our husband’s house becomes our home. And that house remains our home till our last breath. It is the job of us women to make our husband’s house our home and decorate it according to our wishes. Being a woman, I left my parent’s house after marriage and came to my husband’s house. And I considered it as my own home for the rest of my life. My husband Bijan’s ancestral house was in the village. His parents, that is, my father-in-law and mother-in-law and Bijan’s other relatives live there. After marriage, I stayed in that village for a few days. And then I started living in the city with Bijan. Bijan had already told you all in the very first part of this story that he has a government job. And he is transferred to another place every few years. So, along with him, I also have to go to many cities and set up my household. Finally, we both came and started living in this city about two years ago. And we got a 2 BHK flat from Bijan's office to live in. We have to pay a hefty rent or maintenance every month. We both had been married for three and a half years, and we did not intend to have children yet. Because my husband Bijan's salary is not high. His salary is enough to afford an upper middle class lifestyle. We are neither too rich nor too poor in terms of money. I also run the house with this much money without troubling him in matters of money. House rent, grocery items, electricity and water expenses, and rising inflation have broken our back. And one day our landlord told us that he is going to increase the house rent due to inflation. And from the next month itself we will have to pay the increased rent. Otherwise he instructed us to vacate the flat as soon as possible. It was as if the sky fell on us after hearing this suddenly. Both of us could not think what to do. We were stuck in the middle. If we pay the increased rent, then our monthly budget will be shaken. And we could not leave the flat all of a sudden like this as well. Because we knew very well that even after sweating in search of a new house, we would not be able to get a room on rent at a cheap rate suddenly. Both of us were troubled in this situation, and were thinking what to do. One night, Bijan and I were talking on this subject. While talking, suddenly I said to him, "Bijan, I think we can do one thing." He asked me, "What?" I said, “Instead of looking for a new house in rent, why don't we buy this flat? What do you say? Think, we have worked so hard but in all these days we haven't found a good house to live. And we don't even sure if we will find suitable one or not. And we have been living in this house for two years. It is easy for you to go to office from here. And we have a lot of acquaintances here. If we somehow buy this flat, then it will be our own property in the future. What do you say?” Bijan was listening to me quietly. He didn't say anything even after I asked him, he kept thinking something in his mind. Then he looked at me and said, “Darling, you are right. But there are many problems in this.” I asked, “Like?” He said, “For example, the price of this flat must be at least 50 to 60 lakhs, it can be more than that, I’m not sure. Where will we get so much money right now? And the second and most important thing is that my job will not be at one place. After one or two years, I will be transferred far away from this city, then what will happen to this flat? It will remain all vacant.” I said, “Why so? If we want, we will let other people live here on rent. And when you will retire, we will live in this flat.” Hearing my words, Bijan laughed a little. His laughter clearly reflected his disappointment and worry. He said laughing, “That is fine, but what about the money? We have only 15 days left. In such a short time, where will we arrange the money to buy this flat?” I said, “You have some your ancestral land in the village. What if we sell one or two of them?” He said, “That will not work either. We will fall short of money.” I said, “We can mortgage all the jewellery I have. I think we will get the remaining money from that.” Bijan shook his head after listening to me and expressed his disagreement and displeasure with my statement and said, “No darling. I will not use your jewellery in this matter. It is your deposit and will remain yours forever. We will find some other way.” I explained to him, “You are misunderstanding me, Bijan. I did not ask you to sell my jewellery. We will mortgage it to someone and take money on interest. We will buy this flat with that money. And think, just like those jewellery, after buying this flat, it will be a deposit for our future. It will become our property. We will have a permanent place to live in our old age. And we will pay the interest using the same money that we used to pay as rent for this flat every month. And slowly we will redeem all my jewellery.” Still he did not agree with me, he said, "No darling, I don't think this is right. And anyway where will we go with your jewellery?" I said, "We can go to the bank. I have heard, they give money on interest in exchange of jewellery. Bijan, listen to me, this will definitely prove to be a good deal." After convincing him for a long time, finally Bijan agreed with me. He said, "Okay, tomorrow I will first talk to our landlord, so that he gives us some more time instead of 15 days. And in the meantime I will talk to my father about the land. And I will also talk to the bank about money in exchange of your jewellery." I happily told him, "Thank you darling, for listening to me." He hugged me tightly. But till then neither of us knew that this decision would give birth to a big incident which would bring our lives to a new turn. How? Keep reading to know.

But our good luck or bad luck, whatever you may call it, we got some more time from the landlord. Bijan also talked to his father about selling a piece of land. He agreed. Bijan also talked to the bank. They also agreed to give us money on interest by keeping our jewellery as collateral. Bijan went to the bank one day, his plan was to take out all my jewellery from the bank locker and keep it as collateral and the bank will take the money. I waited for him the whole day. Finally Bijan came back home in the evening. I was happy to see him, but his face was pale. Just by looking at him I came to know immediately that something has happened. I asked him, “What happened, Bijan? Why are you so sad? Did our work get done in the bank or not? Tell me.” He did not say anything, just nodded his head in negative. I asked him, “But why? What happened?” He looked at me and said, “We do not have an important document. That is why I did not get money in exchange for your jewellery.” My heart sank after hearing his words. I asked him again, “Didn’t you talk to them? Didn’t you request them? Didn’t you explain to them how badly we need this money?” Bijan said in a tired and slow voice, “How many times did I try to explain to them, requested them, pleaded, begged them. But they didn’t listen me. They clearly told me that without those important documents, I won’t get any loan from the bank.” I said, “We can try in another bank. Right?” He said, “I was doing that the whole day. But everyone said no. Nothing can be done without those documents. Now we will have to vacate this house. I don’t see any other option, Pihu.” I tried unsuccessfully to console him, "Don't lose heart like this, Bijan. Some miracle will definitely happen. See, on your request, the landlord gave us a few days' time. Your father also agreed to sell the land. In a few days, he will send us the money for the land. In the meantime, we will make some more arrangements for my jewellery." He said, "But how?" I thought for a while and then said, "A few years ago, one of my relatives also suddenly needed a lot of money like us. As far as I remember, he had borrowed money from someone against interest. We can also borrow money from someone like that." He said, "But how will we repay that loan?" I said, "Just like we were going to take money from the bank against my jewellery, in the same way, instead of the bank, we will take money from such a person by keeping my jewellery as collateral. And gradually we will repay it and get my jewellery released. What do you say?" He listened to me seriously and started thinking. And then he said, "Now we have to do this. We have no other option. Okay, I will find a man who will give us money on interest in exchange for the loan." Our search continued for the next few days. After two or three days Bijan told me, "Darling, I have found such a man. That man is a money lender and lends money on interest. I called him today. He has summoned me to his place tomorrow at 12 to talk." I said, "I will also go with you to him tomorrow." Bijan was a little surprised to hear this, he said, "But what will you do by going there? I am going, right?" I said, "Two is better than one. If he doesn't agree, then I will request him." He said, "Okay, let's go. Let's see." We reached the moneylender's place at exactly 12 o'clock the next day. But this place was not at all like what I had imagined in my mind, rather it was completely opposite. I had thought that the money lender would have a modern office, but this place looked less like an office and more like a haunted bungalow of an old cinema. An old building. The paint of the wall was chipping off and the bricks were coming out. And there was a strange silence all around. I asked Bijan, "Have we come to the right address? Have we making any mistake?" Bijan whispered in my ear, "No. We have come to the right place. This man is very cunning. He deliberately stays in such a place and does his work so that no one can trace him." We started going inside. But a burly man was standing near the door. He stopped both of us from going inside and said, “Where are you both going inside? Who are you people?” Bijan said, “We have some work with Sethji (respected sir). I spoke to him on the phone yesterday. He had asked me to come here at 12 o’clock.” After Bijan finished speaking, the man looked at me and asked, “Did he ask you to come alone or both of you together?” Bijan said, “Actually I was going to come alone. This is my wife. With me…” Before he could finish his sentence, the man stopped Bijan and said, “No random people can go to meet with Sethji at all. Sethji had asked you to come alone, so only you can go inside alone, no one else.” Saying this, he once again stared at me from head to toe. I said, “Look, we are in big trouble. Please let both of us go inside. We both have some work with Sethji." He said, "People come here only when they are in trouble or pain. No one comes here in their happiness. I cannot let you go inside. If your husband wants, he can go alone. Or else you both go away from here." That man's way of talking was very rough and insulting. I felt bad, but a dying man can do anything. It was our need, not them. So I requested that man and said, "Please, understand our helplessness. We are really in trouble. And it is very important for us to talk to Sethji. Please ask him once whether I can go inside or not. If he agrees, then it is fine, otherwise only my husband will go inside alone. I will stand outside. You can do this much, right?" Perhaps his heart must have melted after hearing my request. He said, "Okay, I will ask him. You both stay here." Saying this the man went inside. We both stood outside. After some time the man came back and said to us, "Go, Sethji is calling both of you inside." We thanked him and went inside.


The man we had come to was named Daulatram. He was a Marwari (originally resident of Rajasthan) merchant and moneylender. He used to lend money to people on interest. Bijan had told me only this much about the man. I knew that he himself did not know anything more about that. Anyway, we both, especially I, were very surprised and shocked after going inside. Because the building looked as old, broken and scary from outside as it was nice, modern and well maintained from inside. This gave us another example of the cleverness of that man. We were taken to a room right inside the building. It was a big room. The floor was made of marble stone, which was so clean that one could see his face on it. There was a central AC on inside the room, due to which there was a feeling of coolness in the whole room even at 12 in the noon. A big mattress was spread on one side of the room, on which a white sheet was spread. A man was sitting on the mattress with a pillow. He must have been between 45 and 50 years old. He was a little fat and dark in appearance. He was wearing a completely white kurta and pajama. Gold rings were visible on his fingers and a gold chain around his neck. We got a glimpse of his personality from his face itself. We understood that he was Seth Daulatram. As soon as we entered the room, he called us near him. His voice was very soft. But there was something in his voice that made the other person think twice before saying anything. He looked at us and said, “Come. Sit here.” Both of us went and sat in front of him. He first looked at Bijan and then at me carefully. And then said, “So this is your wife?” Bijan said, “Yes, Sethji. My name is Bijan. She is Pihu.” Daulatram did not pay much attention. He said, “I have nothing to do with the names. Tell me the real thing. Before that tell me how did you come to know about me?” Bijan replied, “I got your number from an employee in my office.” Daulatram asked, “What is his name?” Bijan told the name of that employee. Hearing his name, Daulatram said, “Yes, he had borrowed some money from me about a year and a half ago. Anyway, now tell me your work. Why have you come to me?” Bijan told him everything openly. He listened to the whole thing calmly. He did not say anything even once. After Bijan said this, I told him, “Sethji, we have come to you with great hope. If you do not help us, we will be forced to leave that flat. And we will become homeless all of a sudden. You are our last hope. Please help us.” After listening to me, he looked at me and then said, “How much money do you people need?” Bijan said, "After selling the land, we are short of Rs. 10 lakhs. Please give us that much money." Hearing Bijan's words, Daulatram sat up straight. And in a surprised voice he said, “10 lakhs!! This is a huge amount. But how can I give you so much money like this? You will have to mortgage something, right? Tell me.” Before Bijan could say anything I said to him, “Sethji, we have some jewellery. We went to the bank to mortgage them. But due to lack of documents, they refused to give us money.” Daulatram again looked at me and asked, “How much jewellery do you have?” I said, “It must be 10 tolas (a unit to measure gold). It can be more than that. You keep those jewellery as mortgage. And give us 10 lakh rupees.” After listening to me, he thought for a while and then said, “I cannot give you 10 lakhs in exchange of mere 10 tolas of gold. At the most I can give you 5 lakhs.” Bijan said, “Sethji, don’t say that. We are in dire need of 10 lakhs. If you will give only 5 lakhs, then from where will we arrange the remaining 5 lakhs, tell us?” He said looking at Bijan, “But I cannot give you more than this. You will have to mortgage something else for the remaining 5 lakhs.” Bijan said, “What else will I mortgage, Sethji?” He said, “Anything. Paisa, zameen ya joru (money, land or wife). Whatever you have.” I did not like this statement of his. There was definitely some hint in his words. Bijan said, “But Sethji, I do not have anything to give you right now.” “Yes you have. You have a lot indeed. If you want to give it to me.” Now Daulatram said looking at me. Now his hint was clear. And Bijan had also understood his meaning by then. He said, “W...what do you mean, Sethji?” Daulatram composed himself in a jiffy. And said, "You don't need to worry. I will give you 10 lakh rupees. But on one condition." Bijan said, "What condition?" Daulatram said, "You will have to sign a contract with me. Only after that I will give you the money." Bijan said, "But tell me what kind of contract it will be." He said, "You will know that later. You do one thing. Come back after two days. Bring the jewellery with you. You will get your money." I said, "Thank you Sethji. Thank you very much." When both of us reached the door of the room, Sethji called Bijan again, "Listen." Bijan said, "Speak Sethji." He said, "This time you come alone. There is no need to bring your wife along." Bijan said, "Okay Sethji. I myself will come to you after two days with the jewellery." Both of us came back home happily. Finally our hard work had paid off. We were about to get our money which we needed badly. And we were about to buy our own flat. After two days Bijan went back to Sethji with the jewellery and brought the money. By then we had also received the remaining money for the land. We had arranged so much money in just a few days. And what next? We gave that money to the landlord and got the flat registered in our name. Both of us were very happy. But we did not know that this happiness was soon going to be followed by sadness.


Time passed by in its own rhythm. The loan we had taken from Daulatram had to be repaid in a year. But only our loan had increased, not our salary. A major part of Bijan's salary was spent in clearing his money and interest. Inflation had already broken our back, and on top of that we had to repay Sethji's money too. Somehow 9 months passed. But in this time we were able to repay only half of the loan. That means in the remaining 3 months we had to repay the remaining 5 lakh rupees to Sethji, which was in a way impossible for both of us. Both of us were sinking back into worry and despair. Both of us started thinking whether the decision to buy this flat was right or not. But what is the point of regretting when the birds have eaten the crop already. Right now we had nothing left in our hands. But in the midst of all this, a new problem started appearing. As the time for repaying our loan was getting less, Sethji started realizing that we would not be able to pay back the money on time. But he did not show any mercy on us. He and his employee used to call us often and threaten us. We could neither ask for more time from Sethji, nor could we pay so much money from him. Nor did we have that much money saved. We did not ask for help from our relatives, otherwise we would have to face taunts, and we ourselves used to send money to our old parents-in-law. We were in a very bad condition. My husband was trying to arrange some more money from somewhere. But before that one day they came to our house with some goons. And started abusing us, and started taking away whatever belongings they could lay their hands on. Finally one of them said, “Pick these two up and take them to Sethji, he will decide what to do with them.” Saying this, they took me and Bijan to Sethji. After reaching there, Sethji told us that even after selling our belongings, he had about 4 lakhs left. And Sethji clearly said, “If I don’t get my remaining 4 lakhs in three months, I don’t even know what I will do with both of you.” I got scared after hearing his words. This man could do anything. He could harm us in any way for his money. He had left us that day, but he could harass us again some other day. So one day I went alone to Sethji without telling Bijan. Seeing me, Sethji said, “How come you came? Have you arranged for my money?” I told him, “I wanted to talk to you about that, Sethji. Our household is in a very tight situation, and if we had the money, we would not have asked for it from you. If you give us some more time, we will definitely pay off your entire debt including the interest. Please help us once more. Give us some more time.” Sethji said, “Look, I give money and time after looking at the condition of the creditor, and as far as your husband is concerned, even if I give him the remaining money to pay the interest, someone else will come and ask for time every time. Now, to run a business, we need fear in the market. That is why you will have to pay the money in three months only." I pleaded with him, "Look Sethji, we don't have money right now, and we don't have land either. We just have a flat, and that too is dependent on you. If you want, I can work for you. I have done B.Com, and I am also good at accounting. If you give me the work of cooking, I will do it. Just give us some time." Sethji said, "I have an accountant for accounting, and a maid for cooking. If you have to work, then there is another job, tell me what you will do?" His way of talking had changed. There was a different kind of authority in his voice, and now he was sitting in front of me, rubbing his gold chain with the support of a pillow. I was now beginning to smell something fishy. I asked in a trembling voice, "W...what kind of work? I will not do any such work Sethji." He came a little closer to me and said, "Oh, don't be afraid, I will not ask you to do anything like that. I have a special work for you." I asked, "What kind of work?" He said, "I will talk about that later. First you tell me. How long have you been married?" This question of his surprised me. I asked, "Three and a half years." He asked again, "How many children do you have?" I could not understand what the use of all these questions was. I said, "We have not had any children yet, Sethji." He said, "Oh, it has been three and a half years of marriage and you have not had a single child till now!!!?? We had twins in the first year of our marriage itself." And then he brought his mouth close to my ear and said, "Is your husband not able to fuck you properly? Is he impotent?” I was shocked but didn't say anything. I kept my head bowed in shame. He said again, "Well, it's your life, your decision, you only know. Yes, I have a job for you as I was saying. Do you know how to massage?" I was even more shocked to hear this. I couldn't say anything. I just shook my head. He said again, "My body has a lot of stiffness, will you massage me every day? Will you be able to do it?" I understood his gesture but pretended to be unaware and said, "Wh... What?" He came close to my ear and said, "Give me a good massage once a day and make me happy and repay your debt in 3 months." I was stunned to hear this. I couldn't say anything. He said again, "If you want the good of yourself and your husband, then agree to what I say. And come here tomorrow at sharp 12 o'clock. I don’t like to be waited for long at all." (Contd.)

 

[Next Update is on Tuesday (02.09.25) 11 am]