Anuradha lay on the ventilator, she had just suffered a heart attack, and a really gnarly one at that. It almost took her life away, leaving behind only a shell. “ICU” it said on a big white board. As always, the entire extended family had gathered at the hospital, Sundar Mama being the most prominent among them. Some of the relatives gave world-class Oscar-winning performances, from sobs to hysterics, they gave it their all. But it all merely lasted for half an hour, upon which they swiftly moved on to the primary question of essence “whose child was doing what and marrying whom”, and whether the person they were marrying belonged to a different caste group. It circled around from family gossip to political debates, Sundar and Santosh were Anuradha’s brothers and they had taken it upon themselves to transform what was supposed to a moment of silence into a full-fledged debate show.
Karan works for a big MNC in Bangalore, aloof to the happenings in Kanpur. He checks out at 5 and books a cab, and whilst he is getting a call from the cabbie to confirm the location, he also happens to get a call from his father informing him about the recent happenings back home. Karan as you would expect, freaks out. So there he is in the back of a Maruti Swift Dzire having a proper panic attack, he set out 5 minutes ago from his office to reach his bachelor pad and perhaps watch a season of The Office, but instead receives this horrific piece of information. Without batting an eye, he starts looking for flights online and books the next flight to Kanpur for 30 thousand. Yes, half of his monthly salary gone in a jiffy. While the cabbie changed the directions on his mobile app, Karan felt an undying need to blurt out his emotions, and so he does. He assumes the personality of a cry-baby and starts to weep, with sporadic words in between. He goes on and on about being a bad son, being a greedy person who left his family behind for a job in Bangalore and how he has never been worthy of such loving parents. The cabbie was an old man, roughly 60 years old, too old to give a damn about his antics, very rarely he would utter a couple of words, those being “it will be all right” and would follow that up with the yawn of man who hadn’t slept for 48 hours straight.
His only sister, Megha had been married off and sent away to Dehradun, where her in laws lived. She had a career in architecture but had to give it all up to assume this God-given role of a housewife, within 7 months she went on from being an independent woman to a trophy wife. An arranged marriage it was, plotted out carefully after matching the Kundli and meticulously orchestrated to give the image of a love marriage. Megha had relinquished her career, the next thing she had to relinquish was her body autonomy as the other point on the God-given checklist was fast approaching, to give birth. Babies in India aren’t born on their accord, they are born to complete the proverbial nest. Megha received the call a few minutes late, and from her brother, her father thought of her as part of a different family now and didn’t bother, Karan unaware of all this societal corruption called her rather innocuously.
Karan and Megha weren’t that close, primarily due to her decision to bow down in front of their father and give in to an arranged marriage. Karan however was of the rebellious sort, and this disgusting display of obsequiousness made him sick to his stomach, and so they stopped talking for those 7 months altogether. It took an ICU situation for them to arrive at speaking terms again. Upon receiving the news Megha tried to leave but was stopped short by her mother in law, who deemed that it was not appropriate from a daughter to return home before 1 year of the completion of their marriage. Megha tried to reason with her, explained her how these were silly superstitions, but her mother in law was adamant. Alas, Megha was a rebel deep down as well, and when her mother in law tried to physically stop her, she pushed the old hag aside whilst screaming “bhaad mein jaa budhiya”.
Karan is stuck in a traffic jam, and his rants aren’t getting any less intensive. The cabbie gets frustrated and asks Karan to stay calm. But Karan’s rants are relentless, upon further ranting, the cabbie resorts to telling Karan the story of his own life, and says “I had a private job 2 years back, I never even thought I’d be driving cabs for a living one day, my son left me here. I took a loan out for him so that could go to Europe and study there, but I believe he has gone for good now, he never picks up my calls”. Karan pretended to care about the cabbie’s story half-heartedly but was somewhere else mentally. The airport arrived, Karan paid the cabbie and was about to get off when he thought that one must not be this rude and so he said “really sorry about what your son did to you”, the cabbie replied rather boldly “don’t worry beta, it’s the sin of being born”.
3 hours later Karan finally makes it to the hospital and so does Megha, they hug each other and reconcile, a couple of minutes later the doctor comes out of the ICU and updates them on their mother’s condition. Their mother is stable now and off the ventilator. Karan meets the relatives waiting outside and informs them on the most pressing issues of the nation ranging from his CTC to his marriage plans. Megha avoids the relatives like a plague. Karan returns back to his family home to catch a wink, but isn’t able to sleep all night, all he can recall is “don’t worry beta, it’s the sin of being born”.
Comments