Poles Apart

Chapter Sixty-Four

I curse myself for giving my mother-in-law stupid as fuck ideas, but only smile outwardly at her. "I will be back soon," I assure her. "I'm going to leave now. Arjun's still sleeping, can you please tell everyone not to disturb him?"

Gayatri Athayya smiles, her eyes twinkling with mirth. "It's okay if he wakes up, you know? It's not too early."

"He's tired..." I defend him. "And he never sleeps in."

"Of course," she says, her face turning blank. "You're the wife, you know better."

"Athayya—"

My mother-in-law laughs at my nervousness and wraps a warm hand around me. "I was just kidding," she says. "Now go on to work, I'll make sure no one wakes your husband up."

"I'll see you in the evening, then," I bid my byes to her, giving her a quick hug before running out of the house.

~.~.~.~.~

"I have decided," Kaushik says. "I'm going to get married."

I drop my fork to slap my forehead with my hand instead. "Where did this come from?" I groan. "I thought you were focussing on yourself."

"And I am," he says, defensively. "Why can't I do it with a partner?"

"Good point," I acknowledge. "You definitely can do it with a partner. But wanting to marry because you're lonely isn't why you should do it."

"You're saying marrying for companionship is wrong?" He poses, his eyes narrowing at me.

"I'm saying marrying because you're lonely is not the ideal way to do it," I phrase it as I mean it.

"Pray, tell me, why should one marry?" Kaushik mocks. "My mother sitting on my head and begging that I marry is not a good enough reason?"

"I should think not," I retort. "And you don't need my permission to marry. You know I will discourage you from doing it. It's why you are telling me. You know what you want, so stand up for yourself."

"I'm not so sure what I want," Kaushik confesses, looking down at his plate.

"Are you genuinely considering marriage?" I ask him, leaning down so he looks at me.

Kaushik looks up at me. "I think it's about time—"

"Don't get married for Atha, Bava," I tell him straight away. "You shouldn't marry to please your family."

Kaushik chuckles bitterly. "Anything I've ever done is to make my parents happy, to make Deepthi happy, to live up to everyone's expectations. When I look back at my life, I don't see myself, Arvi. I don't know what I want, I know what would make everyone else happy."

"Kaushik Bava—" I hold his hands— "We've never talked about Deepthi, you'd never told me about her while you were together but I understand you've been with her a while. Now that you're not with her, it is bound to be a big change for you—"

"I'm not marrying someone else because I want to forget Deepthi, Arvi," Kaushik clarifies. "What I had with Deepthi was magical; I loved her, she loved me, everything was perfect. That's what it feels like when your world is limited, when it is contained to the two of you.

"When we were in college and in love, it was just us. It was her and me, our friends. You don't realise how sheltered your life has been until you move away from college, your families get involved and you need to think about your relationship real time.

"It didn't work out. What's beautiful between two people will fuck the same people up when families get involved. I don't have it in me to go through all of it again, so maybe finding a girl whose family likes me and who my family likes is the best way to be?"