Nobody
loves me,
Everybody
hates me,
I’m
going to the garden to eat worms!
Big fat
furry ones, big fat gooey ones,
Gooey,
gooey, gooey worms!
Long
thin slimy ones,
Slip
down easily,
Big fat
furry ones stick!
Stick
in the juice and wriggle about and the juice goes slop, slop, slop;
Bite of
the heads and suck all the juice and throw all the peels away,
Nobody
knows how I survive on a thousand worms a day!
8th
Standard, Guide shenanigans, E- Company, The Alexandra Girls’ English
Institution
After 5 years and three months.
March
12th, Wednesday night.
“Prantik, I …” Jahnvi
approached her busy husband nervously somehow. She was mad at him and bored out
of her mind at his usual office party.
Prantik’s office party was at a
quaint boutique restaurant in Kemps Corner. The space was lit with CEOs and their
better halves, VPs and Sr. Executives. Prantik was managing director currently,
a position earned with sheer hard work and smooth operations. Prantik was due
to become the partner at his long tenured engineering firm, ‘Joyce and Reethes’,
and he was immersed in a conversation with his boss, the owner of the firm,
Raylon Bannerji and his wife.
Jahnvi was surrounded by a
group of wives she didn’t know names of or even if she did she didn’t quite remember
and didn’t care either. Prantik was enjoying his classic whiskey on the rocks,
predictably discussing expansion of the company with his ideas when Jahnvi
walked from across the room to him.
Jahnvi didn’t know why she felt
disconnected with her husband since a year now. They had everything they could
wish for and Prantik made sure of that but Jahnvi felt clueless at such parties
and lately ignored by her husband as well!
“Prantik, I…” He turned around
quickly and took her by the waist of her size four valentino they’d bought in
London two years ago when on a vacation. He kissed her on her cheek and resumed
his conversation. She was about to tell him that she needed to talk to him but
that didn’t happen seeing the effort would be futile because obviously, these
parties were his time to talk business casually. So she put on the trophy wife face and started
a conversation with Mrs. Bannerji.
April
9, Sunday.
It was a usual Sunday afternoon
at the racecourse, pretending to enjoy a stupid derby match when Mr. & Mrs.
Saxena could easily be cuddled in bed watching Netflix, according to Jahnvi.
Jahnvi didn’t even stand up to cheer for Prantik’s bet when it won the race.
Prantik, dressed in a sleek black shirt and brown dhoti pants and Gucci covering
his high eyesight with a wine glass in his hand was ecstatic! It felt so odd to
Jahnvi that Prantik didn’t even notice his wife wasn’t enjoying her time at the
turf at all. When his bet won, he cheered with his business associates; then at
a glance, he grabbed Jahnvi and kissed her courteously on her cheek.
June
23rd, Monday.
“Hey, you’re home early Prantik, quite unusual
for you.” Jahnvi said with spite as she walked out of the room to set the table
for dinner. Angrily she called their house help Neetu from one end of the room
and the poor girl came running from the kitchen.
“Khaana garam kardo.” Jahnvi
said to Neetu matter of factly.
At that time Prantik suddenly
noticed a change in Jahn’s demeanor. As he ran the shower he didn’t know but something
was amiss. But he had work to take care of and so he didn’t pay a lot of
thought to it. He got out of the shower, changed in his comfortable tracks and
t-shirt and went into the living room, all smiling, eager to tell Jahnvi that
his promotion was actually happening this year! His boss and he had had a
meeting in the afternoon to discuss succession planning at the firm where the
shareholders had voted him the next in line. His dream come true! But sitting
from across the table from his miffed wife, he swallowed the words and just ate
quietly.
After dinner, as he was about to
go into their bedroom to retire for the night, he caught her glimpse, helping
Neetu clear the table and he didn’t know what but he didn’t feel good.
By the time Jahnvi entered the
room to sleep, Prantik was on his side of the bed, AC on 22 degrees and fast
asleep, maybe dreaming about how to smoothen edges at work for even smoother
operations.
Jahnvi felt frustrated! It had
been months since they’d gone on a date! Teary eyed, she drifted off to sleep.
June
30th, Sunday evening.
After months of postponing their
hangout with Sim and her husband Roy, Prantik and Jahnvi were at Sim’s place
chilling in her living room on a Sunday afternoon. Here, Jahnvi felt at home because
Sim and Roy were like homies. She didn’t feel any pressure to portray a perfect
or even a happy picture. However, Jahnvi was quiet the whole afternoon while
Prantik was undeterred by it and enjoying a football game on TV with Roy and
Sim.
“I’ll just go check about the
food.” Jahnvi whispered to Sim as she got up from the sofa and walked towards
Sim’s kitchen. Sim caught the whisper emotion and followed Jahnvi. Jahnvi was
busy arranging the already arranged Canapes on the serving platter.
“Jahn! Roy and I, we’ve missed
you!” Sim said enthusiastically as she hugged Jahnvi wholeheartedly.
Jahnvi just smiled and they
started talking about learning to manage their homes respectively, post
marriage.
After Jahnvi and Prantik tied
the knot five years ago, following a year later, Sim and her longtime boyfriend,
Roy, married.
Roy was a fashion designer just
like Sim and they both headed the ‘Creation Co’ successfully for the last seven
years now.
Jahnvi still remembered the
beautiful moments of togetherness with Prantik at Sim’s wedding. He was so attentive
and he never left her side. They had this quiet romance going on and Jahnvi had
felt like the luckiest wife in the world! But now things were different.
Jahnvi looked up at Sim
despondently and was about to give her another one of her sad smiles when Sim
realized, she needed to talk to Jahn privately and soon. Knowing her, she could
make a mountain out of a moul and she loved her Saxenas.
They both settled the food on
the coffee table and Sim announced, “Enough of this Soccer, let’s play code names!” Sim said excitedly in
a hope to start engagement between Prantik and Jahnvi. “Okay so Prantik and Roy
one team, Jahn and I the other.”
Jahnvi couldn’t help but loathe
Prantik that minute who was busy stuffing his face and enjoying every bit of
his Sunday with his friends. She picked out a word. She said, “Plight is the
word,” looking straight at Prantik unflinchingly. Prantik was such a duh! He
still didn’t get she was dissing him of sorts. And he actually, but innocently
picked out the word that best described their situation. He said, “Ignorance.”
At that Jahnvi said, “Yes, You’re right, ignorance is the key to any plight
indeed, isn’t it Prantik?”
Sim and Roy looked at each
other. It’s like they just knew what was happening. But Mr. Prantik didn’t get it. He in fact said, “Ya baby,
whoever said ignorance is bliss?” and he side hugged her. Jahnvi swears that
minute she could have thrown the nearby flower vase at her dumb husband!
They returned home and Jahnvi
was quiet the whole 30 minute ride back home when Prantik finally realized
there was something going on in his wife’s head. And every time that happened,
he got scared.
In the room, as they both were
changing into night clothes, Prantik came around and hugged Jahn from behind
and said, “Babe, it’s time we plan a baby. How does tonight sound to you?”
“Okay that’s it!” Jahnvi snapped,
spinned around and yelled, “No Prantik, we don’t share that chemistry or
closeness anymore!”
Prantik stood in the middle of
the living room completely dumbfounded.
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