All Strings Attached

Chapter Twenty-Three

Sita kisses me, her nose bumping against mine as she presses her full lips against mine, with tenderness and promise.

~.~.~.~.~

When I return to the house during the afternoon after meeting with a few local leaders in the morning, Sita is busy getting the house cleaned.

"Kavita," she calls out, "did you tell the cook to start making lunch?"

"Sita?" I call out for her, causing her to turn to look at me, her face brightening up with a smile.

"You're back," she exclaims. "Do you want, tea, coffee, water? Or do you want to wait for lunch?"

"I'll have some water, please," I request. "What are you doing?"

"Just cleaning up," she says, "the house looks so dull, so I got them to change the bulbs and then it looked dusty, so now we're cleaning."

"You don't have to do all of this," I tell her, "Thathayya has people who do this for him."

"It's her house as well," Thathayya's sister, Annapoorna Ammamma says, "let her do what she likes. What is your problem?"

"I have no problem," I defend myself, "I'm just telling her not to stress."

"It's not stressful to take care of your own house. Your generation gets stressed with anything and everything."

"Nanamma," Sita addresses her, taking Ammamma's hand within hers, "do you want some tea, coffee? Something cold, maybe?"

"I'll have some watermelon juice," Ammamma tells her. "Vaadiki kuda ivvandi. Ento stress anta." [Give him some as well. He speaks of some kind of stress.]

"Dhushyanth ki kuda istha." [I'll give some to Dhushyanth as well.]

"Sasi, koncham watermelon juice chesi ivvavaa Ammamma ki inka Dhushyanth ki?"

"Okay amma," one of the maids agrees, running into the kitchen. I seat myself on the couch adjacent to Ammamma's, and being going through emails from the company, when Ammamma catches my attention.

"Ammayi, Sita," She calls for Sita, who turns to her with her pretty smile. Ammamma beckons her over. "Nuvvu nee mogudu ni emaina piluchuko kaani andari mundu peru petti pilavaku," she instructs Sita, whose eyebrows rise in comprehension, an amused smile taking over her face. [Call your husband whatever you want, but only in private. Don't call him his name in front of everyone.]

"Emani pilavanu mari ayithe mee manavadini?" She asks Ammamma indulgently. [What should I call your grandson then?] She doesn't wait for an answer as she looks up at me, her cheeks tinging with a pink as her lips spill a smile. "Yevandi," she calls out to me, clearly amused. [Yevandi is typically how wives address their husbands in Telugu households.]

Huh.

An extremely weird feeling bursts forth from me, causing my heart to skip a beat and begin to thud erratically.

Leaving me breathless, she turns back to look at Ammamma. "Ila pilisthe sare na?" [Is this okay?]

I inhale deeply, looking around to see if anyone's caught wind of my warmed up ears. The maids look away as soon as I look at them, suppressing their giggles as their shoulders shake with withheld laughter.

Ammamma giggles as well, her eyes scanning my face before she turns to Sita, once again. "Naaku sare. Vaadini adugu." [I'm okay. Ask him.] She nods towards me.

"Enti andi?" Sita asks, her voice tinged with teasing. "Pilavana mari?" [What then? Should I address you as such?]

I clear my throat, trying to act unbothered as I shrug. "Nee ishtam." [Whatever you like.] The maid, Sasi, comes back with a tray holding two glasses of watermelon juice, and I take a glass, hiding my widening smile behind it.

"Nee ishtam anta amma," Ammamma conveys to Sita who looks at me with an increasingly mischievous smile. [He says it's your choice, dear.]

"Meeru cheppaaru kada Nanamma, alaane pilusthaanu lendi," she tells Thathayya's sister. [Since you've told me to, I will call him as such.]

"Lunch ki em kaavaali andi?" Sita asks, leaning to look into my face. [What do you want for lunch?]

"You must already have the menu ready," I say, looking away from her as I pick up the newspaper on the table. "I'm okay with whatever."

"Okay andi," she agrees, grinning, as she stands up. "Let me check if they've changed the bulbs upstairs."

Ammamma turns to me as soon as Sita walks up the stairs, her hips swaying gently in the pink cotton saree that is draped snugly around her physique.

"Okka roju lo andaritho kalisipoyindi," she says to me. [She took one day to become a part of this place.] "Mee amma ki ippudu kuda kashtame." [Your mother still finds it hard.]

I sigh. "You know it's not true, Ammamma. Who does everything for everyone if not Amma?"

"Your mother has seen five elections, Dhushyanth," Ammamma reminds me, "my sister-in-law has been dead for one of those. She's never stepped up to take care of anything in this house. She's never thought of this house as her own; I don't know if it's because she thinks her house in Hyderabad is the only one she belongs to. But this is our ancestral house, your ancestral house. My brother and I grew up here, your father was raised here, you were born here. You belong here before you belong anywhere else, but your mother has always considered herself above this place and its people; her education differentiates her from everyone here."

"Ammamma—" I begin to defend my mother, but Ammamma goes on, cutting me off.

"You think I don't like your mother, you think I consider her to be career-oriented, but that's not true. She is Mahendra's wife, but that's all she's ever been, she hasn't been a daughter-in-law to this household. Your wife came in and changed that in less than a day.

"She calls me Nanamma, she sits down with Thathayya to talk to him about the house and how to do things here. She has been taking care of Dhruv since this morning, checking on him and making sure he eats. She's been after Thathayya's life to get a sugar check-up. She's assured your mother that she has everything under control. She has become a part of this household and its people without a second's wait, and she's done it all with a smile on her face."

Ammamma smiles and lays a hand on my cheek, caressing my face. "Nanna, ilaanti ammayi ni ekkada nunchi thechukunaavo ee kaalam lo. Mahalakshmi ra." [I don't know where you found this girl in this age, darling. She's a goddess herself.]