"Where shall the traitor rest,
He, the deceiver,
Who could win maiden's breast,
Ruin and leave her ?
Scott, Marmion, iii, st II
"Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more,
Men were deceivers ever,
One foot in sea and one on shore,
To one thing constant never".
Shakespeare, Much Ado about Nothing, ii, 3
"But the noblest thing that which perished there
Was that young faithful heart !
Felicia Hemans, Casabianca, st 10
Life never waits for one to come to terms with reality. Time and tide waits for no man. Latha was first stunned when she got the lawyer's notice for Bhaskar asking for separation. She went on ruminating . What harm she had done to get this treatment ? She had earnestly done her duties as a loyal wife and showed love and affection to her husband and also raised a family. Does he not have any affection towards his child ? She wondered and felt terribly depressed. The shock was severe and was a bolt from the blue. Bhaskar always claimed that he came from a traditional family with deep roots in conservative values. How such a person with his background could even think in terms of divorce especially after becoming father of a girl ? These thought came again and again to her. She could never believe that these things were happening to her. Her mother was furious. Her father was despondent. After she was back in Madras, her father was with her. He had become more or less an invalid physically due to kidney trouble. Mentally he had sunk into depths of depression. The last shock of divorce demand had made him to withdraw more into his self, resulting in completely aimless existence. He started eating very little and and having broken sleep for very few hours and was avoiding any talk with anyone. Only her mother recovered soon from her fury and said to her, "Don't bother, my child. Let the fellow go with anyone he wants. If he wants to leave you, good riddance. You have a great job, beautiful baby and I am here to take care of you and my grand daughter." These were words of solace and Latha appreciated them. But she could not but feel that she had been deceived, treated shabbily and let down. As any wife would feel, she felt that her husband's behaviour, seeded and strengthened by his passages with Geetha was brazen treachery. It was natural for her to feel so, as no woman would tolerate her husband's interest in another girl. It is rightly so as this is one of the primary ingredients of married life. Some men may consider such a behaviour by men as not a serious matter. But such men would frown even about a kind word by their wives to any man below seventy.
Latha found that her gloomy thoughts could not be wished away. But she had to respond to the lawyer's notice forwarding the divorce demand by Bhaskar. Regretting the life she had to tread, she found no one to seek solace. Her old friend Krishnan was in Madras and was working in the office where she started her official life. He had been in touch with her after her re-posting to Madras. He had now become a middle level officer. He was married and it was an arranged marriage. He had a son and a daughter. He used to meet her some times and talk to her about her well being. There was no reference to their earlier days in the same office. He had always told her that she could call him for any help. Friendly relationship between a married family man and a married family man is usually well tolerated and appreciated by the families on both sides. If the spouses know each other, it is much better. There are no complications in such friendships. Possibly all parties feel safe and not threatened in such interactions.
Latha could think of Krishnan and called him to her house. He came promptly the same evening. As soon as he came, he asked, "Where is your husband Bhaskar ? Is he not at home ?"
Latha without a word gave him the brown cover that contained the lawyer's notice.
" What ? Again a posting order ?", he asked. The government departments invariably used despicable brown covers to send their letters and transfer orders generally came in such covers.
"Yes. It is a sort of transfer of status", Latha said.
"Oh ! You are getting promoted ? Can I read the contents ?"
"That is why I called you."
"I am sure it would be transfer to a good station or better still, a deputation to another department of Central Secretariat as Joint Secretary or a promotion order."
He opened the cover and found not one sheet as posting orders do come but a bunch of sheets. He started reading the pages. As he was going through the pages, his visage showed signs of startle, disbelief, anger and finally remorse. Latha who was watching him change colour and expression felt that he was after all a good friend to be so affected.
After reading the notice of divorce, he put it down, took his handkerchief mopped his forehead of its perspiration and looked at her. He asked her in somewhat frustrated angry voice, "What is all this nonsense ? What does he think of himself ? Having loved you and married you and got a child that too a girl, he is doing like this. Has he gone mad ?"
He could not contain his anger and anguish. " Why all this ? Has he found new pastures in Delhi to graze ? Is there another woman ?"
Latha tersely told, "Yes, one of our colleagues, who is old and not married and very liberal in views."
"What liberal ? Coveting and attracting some one's husband is not liberal or laudable. Why she could not find a free man or a crusty bachelor ? I am really angry. Even if such creatures walk on earth, what business Bhaskar has to cultivate her? Is he going to marry her after ditching you ?
"Yes, that is what it looks like. That seems to be her plan and Bhaskar has very much fallen into her net".
"You talk of this as an episode of a poor fish trapped by fisherman in his nets. It is nuts to say a grown up married man could do it. He is not a fish. This means that the fishy thing must have been going on for quite some time when you were both in Delhi. Is it not ? Is she also there ?"
"Yes to all your questions. I had all these time a feeling that Bhaskar was moving away from me and our family and straying out somewhere. Being quite busy and engrossed in office work and in my baby, I did not perceive the change and the fast down trend in our relationship. I took it as a passing phase. I was stupid. But you know I never believe in having designs on any one much less on my husband even prior to marriage, when I knew him"
Krishnan did not know what to say. Latha kept quite for some minutes. She looked pensively through the window, where the setting sun was turning into an orb of orange and disappearing behind the dark clouds at the horizon like passage of life and relationships plunging into nothingness.
"What do you propose to do now ? Can I meet him and talk to him ? Will it help ?"
"I very much doubt it. He may totally deny his escapade. He may even question your genuineness in talking about me to him."
"Is there no way to set things right ?"
"I am quite shaken. It is a bolt from the blue. I have not talked to him after he marched out of the house. When I tried to contact him over phone, it never went through as he did not take the call".
"What about your mother or father meeting him and talking to him to withdraw the notice ? And come back and live with you and his daughter like a decent man. He always professed himself as a devoute Hindu and that angle should be used to touch him ".
"It may not help. He always considered my father as an outmoded century old man with dead ancient ideas. He never had a smooth relationship with my mother as mother-in-law. Though she does not know it, I know it for quite some years. The male chauvinism dressed up in seeming equality and liberal attitude is only skin deep in his case. It looks like a dead end. In fact, he was not quite attached to his baby girl even."
"What a way to go ? What do you propose to do then ? Can I be of some help ?"
"There is only one thing to be done. Get a good lawyer and let me face the case in the family court, where it will come up. Do you know anyone who can take up my case ?"
"Actually, it is all new to me. Anyway, I will find out and let you know. You are a brave person. Don't lose spirit. Life is not coming to an end. You have a lovely baby girl, a good respected job and a place in the society. As a man I can tell you, we always consider a man who cannot manage to live with this wife and his family as a foolish retarded rogue."
After silently sitting for five minutes, he said, "God be with you", and left the house. The evening sun had set and dusk was slowly enveloping the firmament with darkness, with the sky waiting to see the moon rising.
End of Chapter 18.