Bhabra

17. past

"Right." He waved over a waiter and ordered plain paneer dosa for Madhu and a chicken one for himself. They fell into amiable silence, sipping on their glasses of complimentary rasam, which was a tad bit too spicy for Madhu but still good.

"Your mom was vegetarian right? I remember how she hated it when Thakur sahib would cook meat in the kitchen," he said eventually.

Madhu smiled at the memory. "Yeah. She hated that I took after my father and grandfather instead of her. But hey, I'm clean now, guess she would've been happy about that." If not anything else, she silently added.

Her expression must've revealed something for Nakul leaned forwards, placing his elbows on the table. "She would've been happy with you in general. I read that interview of yours, about building employer-employee trust in an organisation. Pretty rad if I may be honest."

Many people had congratulated her about bagging a spot in the business section of a major national daily newspaper, but for some reason, the knowledge that Nakul had read it made her want to scream into a pillow. She was already conscious of the heat creeping up her neck.

"Thanks," she mumbled, avoiding his eyes to search for a change of subject. "How long would Suman stay with her mother?"

The easy look on his face tensed a little. "I'm not sure, she didn't say anything about returning anytime soon."

"She--she told me that Raju would come to get her himself," Madhu hesitated before adding the next part. "As if this wasn't the first time something like this has happened."

Nakul didn't look surprised.

The waiter came back with their food and it was only when he had left that he spoke again. "I've only known her for a year, so I don't know, but I suspect Raju isn't worthy of a husband of the year award by a long shot. I hope she doesn't return anytime soon; she needs to recover away from him. A miscarriage would be too much to heal from with his ass berating her constantly."

Madhu pursed her lips, feeling a twinge of guilt upon realising that he didn't know Suman had been thrown out of her own home. She wanted to tell Nakul everything, but she was afraid he would kill Raju after knowing the truth. Maybe that was why Suman had made her promise to remain mum. But Madhu didn't like it one bit.

"I've always felt that walking away from a marriage is easier than people think, yet Suman refuses to walk away."

"Maybe it is in Delhi. But here if a woman chooses to go on her own way, then she is an ungrateful slut. And if her husband divorces her, then she probably deserved it. She can't win either way."

Madhu didn't know what was worse. His words or the matter-of-fact way he said it while eating his dosa. She tried to eat hers in order to sort out her thoughts, the tangy taste of the stuffing exploding in her mouth.

"Why didn't you ever marry then? You're a man, wouldn't've have faced that problem," she asked before she could clamp down the question, swallowing her bite quickly and going for another.

"Couldn't find anyone." He shrugged.

"There must've been someone."

This time he avoided her eyes, playing with his food. "Her name was Vidushi and she was my best friend's sister. Pretty cliché but well, what can you do?" A wistful smile took over his face. "Her father was in the army and she hated it. Not the army but the life you know? The moving around and the long months of separation from loved ones. We always argued about that, but I thought we'd find a way. She was perfect. We were perfect. But then she asked me to choose and I chose my job."