In The Lives of Mr. & Mrs. Saxena, Sequel to ‘The Love Game’, Season 3: Episode 4

 

Only people who have loved you the most have the ability to hurt you the most.

Prantik thought of that moment they’d taken the pheras. He was bound to the love of his life for eternity. He couldn’t let her go. If she’d go, he would get her back.
Truth be told, he couldn’t do without her and her indifference affected him a lot.

 

Hi Doctor Tripti, is it a good time to connect over a brief call concerning Mrs. Jahnvi Saxena?

Hi Prantik, good morning. Yes, it’s a good time to connect briefly. I was just getting into another appointment but with regard to Jahnvi, I always have time.

“Thanks Doctor.”

So tell me, how is she doing? We are actually speaking after five years. Is everything alright?

Yes Doctor, everything was fine until a week ago. But suddenly she has become completely quiet. She doesn’t initiate conversations at home and neither does she respond amicably when I talk to her.

“Hmm, tell me everything from the beginning. I’ll push my appointment to another half hour,” Dr. Tripti urged him to continue.  

Okay doctor, so honestly I don’t know how it began but she seemed a little unhappy since weeks ago. I didn’t pay much attention as I was very busy with work. Even now I am in office but rescheduled all my meetings to discuss Jahnvi with you. So for about a couple a weeks she’s not exactly the lovable wife I have known since we married.

Then the other day, we were having an argument over going for a mid-break this year and I said, “No Jahn, you hate stability. Vacations are monotonous too right? Honestly doctor I just wanted to be playful with her but I remember clearly that things started going downhill from there for her. She just sits with her phone the whole day and doesn’t talk. I got scared when she asked me how much money there is in her private account.

I see. So here’s what I am thinking Prantik. Let me put this clearly to you:

Jahnvi has gone through trauma of you deserting her years ago. All that time that I treated her for her depression, she grappled to bring any monotony to her life. There was no stability in her life then. You mean the world to her. When you were gone, she felt deserted. She felt like every day she woke up just to survive the day. The fact that you unintentionally brought up the word stability and told her she hates it, that time I think she went into what we say in psychiatry as post traumatic suggestive shock.

By you suggesting that Jahnvi hates stability, it must have sent her into a state of re-shock. You must understand that her life wasn’t stable without you. So when you brought up the issue of stability, she reclaimed that state of being she was in without you.

Prantik, you must understand this one thing about writers, Jahnvi in particular: Jahnvi as a writer is free spirited. But she is also very sensitive when it comes to you. Call me again tomorrow at this time and I’ll give you insight on what Jahnvi is going through and how only you can help her really from where I see it. I think I know what spurred this insecurity in her but I will talk to you at length tomorrow at 10 am.

Prantik was shocked to hear what Dr. Tripti had to say about what brought Jahnvi into a state of re-shock and he couldn’t believe that he was responsible for that! He just numbly thanked the doctor and hung up.

An idea was forming in Jahnvi’s head. It was forming since the issue of stability came into the picture with Prantik. The next day, after their discussion on how much dough she had on her, Prantik had whatsapped her online banking passwords to her. She normally never checked her private account and didn’t even know how much money she had saved over the years and Prantik had been the one to encourage her to not even look at their emergency stack. But desperate times call for desperate measures so she had immediately checked her account and was surprised to know that she had collected a substantial amount of money over the years by working with the City Times.

She knew it would be enough to execute her plan. Then she called their travel agent and discussed a few things he had to do for her, without informing her husband. Deep had agreed in exchange for a hefty fee. So that would take a couple of months, if all went well. Until then, Jahnvi had to escape reality everyday so she turned to the only app that would let her talk to strangers online which would help reduce her anxiety of survival.

Prantik couldn’t possibly focus on work after that so he took his car on a long drive in Airoli. He just drove and drove and drove silently thinking of ways to bring back his Jahn from the suggestive shock state.

At about 7pm he returned home. As he entered, he saw Jahnvi noticing him but she just smiled and went into their bedroom, eyes glued on her phone. He decided he had to do something to get things to normalcy. He went into their room, refusing the cup of tea that Neetu offered him.

“Hi babe, what’s up? Not writing today?” Prantik asked to start a casual conversation as he turned towards their walk-in wardrobe connected to their bedroom.

“You’re home early boo. I wasn’t expecting you so soon. There’s still time for dinner. Change and I’ll fix some nachos and salsa for you to munch on.” Jahnvi was about to get up from the bed when Prantik turned around and took Jahnvi in his arms.

Jahnvi just stood like rock in his arms. Prantik didn’t feel her return his hug. He didn’t say anything and suggested they do a couple of hours of Netflix binging hoping Jahnvi would love to do that with him.

“Ya, okay boo let’s do Netflix. I’m cool with anything.” Jahnvi responded momentarily. With that she went into the kitchen to fix something to eat.

Prantik felt like shit. He couldn’t believe that he had done this to Jahnvi. Again. “Okay Prantik, now think of ways you can bring her back.” He thought in spite of being panicked by his wife’s indifferent behavior with him and Neetu.

Prantik and Jahnvi settled in the living room for a night of pizzas and Netflix. He told Neetu  not to prepare anything for dinner and ordered Jahn’s favorite food for his family of three.

He could see that that lit up Jahnvi a little. She actually ran into his arms on the couch when he began to shortlist films they could watch.

So Jahn which one- ‘Handsome the Detective’ or a reunion through memory lane with the ‘Big bang theory’?

Jahnvi curled into his arms further and said with pure love that minute, he could feel it, “Boo the ‘Handsome the Detective’. That sounds soooo fun!”

Okay babe, let’s watch. Prantik said a little relieved for the moment.

They watched the movie but all that while, Jahnvi must have checked her phone a zillion times. He actually wanted to check her phone when she went to the washroom but he decided against it. He kept wondering what kept her with her phone so much.

Later that night, Jahnvi settled in bed, next to him, like everyday but was giggling looking at her phone. He couldn’t take the suspense anymore. His wife had never hid her phone password from him and vice versa. There was never a need to. They were both madly in love with each other. But tonight he couldn’t help himself. 

He had a doubt his wife was hiding something from him. He waited for Jahnvi to fall asleep and then for his own good checked her phone and found out his wife was on Tinder!