The Predicament

Vijaya can be cordial to her sister-in-law Saraswati if the latter refrained from passing adverse comments on the former. Sarawati comments that Vijaya goes on jolly rides with her husband on the scooter, that she is a fashion peacock and that she behaves impudently in the presence of her grown up children.

  As neither of the in-laws relents to patch up, Vijaya’s husband Bhaskar is the poor victim of their long wordy duels. 

  Vijaya feels that her husband should be on her side while Saraswati thinks that her brother should support her.

  Usually such wordy duels of the in-laws spark off severe storms in the otherwise happy married life of Vijaya and Bhaskar. The estrangement that follows such storms is quite unbearable for him and he prays to God that his sister Saraswati who lives nearby should visit him less frequently. His personal request to God would be that his sister should not visit him especially whenever he is about to have a pleasant outing with his wife Vijaya.

  But God seems to have a peculiar inclination to counter what the poor creature Bhaskar proposes to do.

  That evening Bhaskar returned home with a grand plan of going to a movie with his wife Vijaya.

  “Hai Vijji,” Bhaskar entered home and had given Vijaya a bear hug,”get ready, quick, we’ve got to go to a movie.” 

 “Movie!”exclaimed Vijaya,”I’d love to. But what about the kids? Anil and Sunil will be late home today as they’ve cricket match at school.”

  “Don’t worry my dear Vijji, give the keys to our neighbour. Ask her to tell our kids what to eat and what to drink. Go, dress up, quick.”Bhaskar said, releasing her from his embrace.

  Vijaya went into the dressing room and closed the door behind her.

  Bhaskar was pacing up and down the hall, looking at his watch every now and then.”Vijji,”he cried teasingly,”If you don’t dress up and come out quickly, I’ll rush in and give you another bear hug.”

 “Hush, don’t cry like that. What’ll the neighbours think?” Vijaya said, coming out of the dressing room in her favourite Georgette saree and tight silk blouse which suited her slim figure well.

  “Vijji,” Bhaskar said rapturously, “how pretty you are in this dress! So fresh as a rose! Nobody would think that you are the mother of two grown up children.”

  “Oh, darling, keep your romantic prattling to our bed time. Hurry up, by the time we reach any movie house, the show would’ve begun.”

  Just then the door-bell rang. Bhaskar’s sister Saraswati was at the entrance. Her husband was standing behind her.”Brother and sister-in-law are in the mood for an outing, I suppose.” Saraswati said, “We wish we hadn’t come now,”She said again,”But your brother-in-law insisted that we should visit you now. He wants to discuss some shares and stocks with you.”

  But it was Saraswati who proposed the visit to her brother’s house to upset her brother’s evening program. She knows very well that Bhaskar would take Vijaya out almost every evening. But Sarawati made her husband the scapegoat. She looked at her husband tauntingly, who sat beside her meekly. “Didn’t I tell you that my brother and sister-in-law would be going out in the evenings? But you thought that your shares and stocks were more important.”

Saraswati was secretly happy for upsetting her brother’s outing. But she said aloud,”You should’ve married a share broker instead of me.” She blew her nose in feigned anger. 

  Saraswati’s outburst embarrassed Bhakar. He was aware that his sister’s money mindedness made his brother-in-law unhappy too. It was Saraswati’s love of money which made her husband preoccupied with shares and stocks. This made him an introvert and he would not take his wife out during the evenings. Saraswati knew that it was she who drove her husband into the shares business more and more which ultimately became his first love.

  “Bhaskar,” began his brother-in-law, driving his fingers into his thin hair.”I want to buy shares of the ABC Mills for ten thousand rupees. Will the company come up or will it go down?”.

  Bhaskar did not give an immediate reply. His attention was not there. He was thinking about the conversation that was going on between his wife and his sister in the adjoining room. He did not have to eavesdrop to know what they were talking to each other. The result would be known when Vijaya would finish her kitchen chores in the night and come to the bedroom, blowing her nose and rubbing her swollen and reddened eyes due to weeping. She would sit on the edge of the bed and begin,”Your sister said that I was a filthy snob because I had become rich suddenly by marrying you. Why should she be jealous of me? Isn't she rich? She finds fault with me because I go on jolly rides with you. Am I a fashion peacock? Do I behave impudently before our children? Tell me.” She paused for a while and continued with sobs, “If your sister’s husband doesn't understand her properly, doesn’t buy a scooter and doesn’t take her out, it is not my fault. If she hasn’t borne a child till now, let her curse God for it, not me. Why should she say that our children look like scamps?”

  Bhaskar would advise her gently to adjust and patch up. But it would make matters worse. She would become furious and break down sobbing,”you always support her, because she is your sister.

  Bhaskar couldn’t be even a bit rude to his sister for she was his only surviving sister. His position was so delicate that he often found himself in a quandary, as to whom to side with.

  Good night,” his brother-in-law got up,’you look tired now. Think about the shares of ABC Mills and tell me your opinion.”

  A year rolled by without any let up in the quarrels between the in-laws.

  It was the first day of the new year. When Bhaskar returned home after wishing happy new year to one of his close friends, to his surprise, he found his sister chatting with his wife, and the two boys pulling their paternal aunt by her arms to play a game of carroms. 

  “Happy new year,”Bhaskar greeted his sister.

  “Bhaskar, why are you breaking in now,”Vijaya cried jovially.”while we in-laws are discussing the menu for dinner”

  “O.K. carry on, I shouldn’t have disturbed you.” Bhaskar said and left the room. He reclined on a cement bench in the garden. He smiled to himself. The previous night after his sister and brother-in-law left Bhaskar’s house after one of their usual visits, he did not go out to buy cigarettes only. He bought two new year greeting cards at a nearby stationery store. He forged the signatures of his wife and sister and posted them to each other’s address.

  The next morning, on getting the greeting cards by post,  each of them thought that the other person sent the card to bury the past on a new year’s day and became in-laws in the true sense of the word.

  What else could Bhaskar wish for on a new year’s eve?