Late. Late again. He was never late for a meeting and he was today because his best friend set him up for a stupid date. What his friend didn't understand was he was way beyond the age for marriage and those who were ready to marry him were all for his money. He understood his concern, understood his friend's need to see him happy with HIS family, not slogging hard for his step family.
Last night's incidents' had shaken him hard from within. He was the one who provided for his family, gave up his desires and when an elder brother was supposed to oblige to his duties, he was impeached off his privilege and his step brother was chosen instead of him. Here, the difference between a real and a step brother embossed. Not listening to a word that was being said in the meeting, he grabbed a water bottle and emptied half of its content in a single sip. Wiping off the remains of the liquid off his face, he tried to concentrate on the meeting, impotent to do so; he called it off and switched off the lights. This is what that suited him the most. Darkness. He was fat first, old second and rich last. For gold diggers like the ones he had just met, the order just got reversed. Will he ever find true love like his best friend had?
Would he just settle for someone who was ready to sell herself to him for his money? Thinking and rattling his brain for some answers, he closed his eyes out of sheer tiredness and the night closed upon him.
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Priya
Aloo matar. Her father had made this simple wish to eat aloo matar for dinner. Being a dutiful daughter, she had obliged. She went to the kitchen and cut some vegetables for the dish. Her mind, being as wandering as William Wordsworth's imagination's cloud, drifted to the day's happenings. She was accidentally stuck in a lift with Hiten. Alone. Watching him fidgeting, she smiled. So he was embarrassed to be alone with her. As always. He then tried to initiate a conversation to which she didn't refuse and talked like normal neighbors would do. A few greetings and life's happenings had taken them to the topic which they both so desperately wanted to avoid. Soon, they both started to think what would have happened had they end up together. Soon, the lift ride and came to an end and there was Hiten's wife standing innocently, batting her eyelashes and malice in her eyes. Her eyes were speaking for herself and when she gave Priya her piece of mind, each word stung her heart badly. Hiten had tried to stop her wife seeing Priya almost in tears but in vain. Priya returned to her place and kept mum about the whole incident. Had she told her mother about it, hell would have broken loose and she would have to pray for Hiten and his family's wellness.
She had always been her family's son. She marred her own wishes and her dream to get her dream man to give her mother the lifestyle she wanted but always was criticized for her lack of interest in dating men. She was thirty three now. Too old for a woman to be dating men. Her friends were already settled with little kids all growing up and their equally proud mothers gushing about every activity of their children. She enjoyed her singlehood status. It gave her a freedom to do what her heart felt like. She could be all that she wanted to be, without a man dominating her life. But then again, societal pressures and norms had made her weak from inside; she could no longer roam around the society without getting pitiful glances. Is this what a woman is expected to do? Marry early and have kids? What about those who got divorced? Or widowed? They got another style of pity-looking. She had succumbed to the pressures around her, she took refuge in fiction. She wrote and taught literature. No longer she required a man to satisfy the romantic in her, she found love in Rhett Butler and Scarlett O Hara.
Quickly settling her thoughts, she garnished the vegetable she had prepared with so much affection for her father. The more her musings drifted, the better her food tasted. It was tried and tested. This time, it was going to be a real treat. She smiled at the thought and went to enjoy the last meal of the day with her family, with her feelings nicely locked in a trunk and shut tight.
To be continued.
Spree.
P.S Feel free to comment. Like/ Dislike.
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