Enough

1

When Pragya first caught sight of Abhi pulling Puneet down the stairs, she was alarmed and confused. As she tried to get between them while Abhi kept screaming at and hitting her cousin, she had felt fear and doubt starting to overwhelm her. But now, listening to Aaliya posturing endlessly from her pretend position of moral superiority, Pragya was starting to feel furious.

Aaliya had turned to Mama-Mami and was taunting their parenting. "And you two, is this what you've taught your son? To respect his female relatives, but to mistreat other women?"

Excuse me, Pragya thought incredulously. Who is she to talk about anyone's sanskaar? Pragya thought about how Aaliya had manipulated Abhi into marrying her, and about how she was forcing Purab to honour their engagement even after he had been honest about not loving her. She remembered all the incidents of Aaliya talking with sarcasm and superiority to everyone from the media to policemen to sales clerks and even individuals like Suresh. How dare this Aaliya ki baachi talk as if she knows anything about moral behaviour! She is equally disrespectful to her brother, her fiance, or any man off the street, always wanting to use them for her own ends!

Aaliya was now turning her poison tongue on Daadi. "And Daadi, you! You don't have anything to say today?" Her voice took on a mocking tone as she imitated what Daadi had said at earlier times to stop her and Abhi from speaking nonsense.

She's so mannerless! Unbelievable, Pragya thought as her frustration mounted. Daadi did not deserve to be talked to like that, and Aaliya was undermining her own claims about having proper values by so openly disrespecting her own grandmother in front of everyone.

"You're always lecturing us about how middle class families have good values. Daadi, you're so naive that you can't even see how these people have double standards."

Oh, that's rich! Ms. Queen of Lies and Manipulation, talking of double standards? Even within her mind, Pragya was starting to lose all sense of restraint when it came to Aaliya. With each moment that passed, she was less and less able to think of the girl with any degree of respect, even if she was her husband's sister.

"First they get people like you on their side, and then they make fools out of you. They abuse your trust."

Pragya could almost laugh at the perfect dramatic irony of Aaliya saying such a thing. She's always manupulating Daadi, that's why sheb thinks everyone would too. How Daadi raised such a spoiled and selfish person, I will never understand.

Finally Aaliya stopped haranguing Daadi. She looked around the room with the perfect timing of a soap opera villain and declared, "I don't know about the rest of you, but I will not let him go so easily!" She grabbed Tanu and continued her naatak, saying with all the appearance of a modest girl enraged by her friend's victimization, "No one can misbehave like this with my best friend. Bhai, call the police. And then, lay a charge of molestation on this Puneet! When the police arrive, Tanu will tell them that he touched her inappropriately while they danced." Aaliya's voice held a disgusting note of triumph.

That was one step too far. In an instant, Pragya imagined all the implications of what would happen to her young cousin if this went forward. She could not let his life be destroyed, no matter the cost. All this time, she had borne Abhi's tortures, Tanu's taunts, and Aaliya's schemes for the sake of her mother. She had even allowed her sister to give up the love of her life just to maintain the fiction of her and Abhi's marriage. But there was a limit to tolerance, and now Pragya found that she could not let these malicious, fraudulent, black-hearted people get away with even one more dishonorable act.

"Nahin. Enough. Bahut ho gaya." Pragya felt all eyes in the room turn on her. She took Puneet's hand in her own and gave it a reassuring squeeze. She stared at Aaliya and Tanu and continued, "That dance happened in front of all our eyes, and we saw that nothing like molestation happened."