ENDLESS

14

"I cooked some rice and lentils for lunch." Mrs. Radhika quipped as she gobbled down haldiram's bhujia. Riddhima smiled.
"I think Aunty gave me parathas and cauliflower curry in lunch." Riddhima said. Mrs. Radhika nodded and continued eating. Mrs. Radhika hardly got any time in the morning to even have a quick breakfast, hence she regularly resorts to feast on some snacks while on her way to university.
"Driver bhaiya drive slowly please, roads are already beset with potholes." grumbled parineeti sitting on the back seat. The driver chuckled. They all were inside the bus which was on its way to university. As I mentioned in the last chapter, University had a bus service for both students and teachers. Occasionally the bus bounced since the mountain roads are always rather bumpy and hard to travel on.
"Riddhima your husband is a billionaire, why do you still travel with bus then??" asked Nitya, her big glasses resting on her nose. Riddhima shifted uncomfortably on her seat. Why did the conversation always ended up on her relationship with her 'so called' husband!!!! Vikramaditya was not her husband. Should she needs to yell it from the Shiva temple on the peak of Himalaya?? But then, Was Riddhima so brave to do so!!! Heck No.
"Nitya why don't you mind your own business!!! Unlike you there are quite a lot of women who don't want their husband's money." Mrs. Radhika, her unofficial saviour, came to her rescue. Nitya was irritated. What's so wrong in splurging your husband's money??? Aren't men the one who are supposed to earn and provide for their family??
"Mrs. Radhika, men are born to earn for their family and woman. There's nothing special about that." argued Nitya. Mrs. Radhika watched her blankly.
"Ofcourse, and woman are responsible for cleaning the house, cooking, watching after the kids and remain subservient to their man. That's how the conventional man-woman household functions. And in that case, Nitya will have to leave her job and take up the responsibilities of a homemaker. And....if in any case Nitya's husband decides to leave her for any reason, our smart Nitya will be on the streets with no identity of her own. Right Nitya." Mrs. Radhika countered. Nitya fumed. How dare people bring facts into the argument!!!! Nitya wanted to counter her with something more fiercer, something that always works. Should she call Mrs. Radhika Anti- Gandhi??? Or perhaps a dogmatic?? How about Islamophobic?? Will a Pro- Israelite remark work?? Can she try calling her a misogynist?? Or should she go with traditional homophobic attack on her?? However, instead of the above mentioned topics, which are always successfully used to counter any factual information, what Ms. Nitya used to counter her with was absolutely hilarious.
"You view homemakers as a fourth class citizen. Huh!!! You're evil." and she would say no more on that. She didn't had anything to say after that so it makes sense. The teachers around laughed her off. That was seriously a stupid argument. And this is actually the main problem with these pseudo feminists out there, you want man's money but still will affront anybody who call you a gold digger. Hypocrisy at its best. Equality shall start existing only when woman will stop seeing man as a walking ATM.
"C'mon Riddhima don't feel about her. She's just an idiot." Mridula whispered in her ear. Riddhima chuckled.
"Driver bhaiya you.....WHAT THE FUCK!!!" yelled parineeti as the bus screeched to halt abruptly. Riddhima was hardly able to prevent bumping her head against the front seat.
"Riddhima..." Mrs. Radhika whispered. Riddhima looked at her and saw that she was gesturing her to look into the front. Riddhima threw her eyes in the front and there, right in front of bus, she saw him through the windshield of the bus. He was dressed up in a forest green suit, his sunglasses matching the shade of his suit. That was childish but honestly he had picked a sunglass casually while he was getting ready to go out, and it was all by pure coincidence that the colours of the shades and his clothes were complimenting each other. Riddhima gulped. She could feel his eyes on her. The same cold, dark eyes that turn her feet cold. Driver didn't dare make a move. You don't want to piss Vikramaditya Raghuvanshi off.
"Wow Riddhima your husband is here!!" parineeti chirped happily. Someone please ask parineeti to start reading less romance books. With slow predatory steps he stalked towards the bus and shamelessly walked into the bus.
"Jai Shree Ram." he sweetly, or should I say over sweetly, greeted the people inside the bus including the students.
"Jai Shree Ram." they all said in unison. It should be noted here that the formal way of greeting people in and around Devbhoomi was in the form of Jai Shree Ram. Traditional Namaste was predominantly reserved for foreigners since foreigners aren't usually aware of Sanatana Dharma. And let's also not forget that the religious people here disapprove greatly if they are greeted in any other form. Anyways, Riddhima could feel her legs shivering. She would've jumped out of the window had she not seen the fathoms deep drop just on the bus's right.
"Thakur ji I was asking Riddhima why didn't she travelled with you to the university!!" Nitya said, beaming broadly. Vikramaditya was in no mood to respond to knuckleheads. He wanted Riddhima and HE SHALL HAVE RIDDHIMA.
"Riddhi, come I'll drop you to the university." Vikramaditya offered, more like ordered. Mrs. Radhika sensed something wasn't right, but she just couldn't embroil herself in the matters of a husband and wife. Riddhima gulped.
"Um... I'll come in the bus.... these are my friends..."
"Riddhi." and she went silent. The moment he removed his sunglasses, she saw his dark eyes welling up with anger and impatience. Without pissing him off more, she quietly alighted the bus and went and sat inside his car.