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To Utopia and back
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During the course of the evening she also wondered about Dragon's husband. He was a handsome and well- mannered gentleman. He spoke nicely with everybody including servants. He smiled so sweetly at Prachi that her heart almost melted. "How could he put up with a wife like the Dragon?" Prachi couldn't help thinking. She also found herself envying the Dragon when she came to know that the dinner party was organised to celebrate her birthday. Big birthday celebrations were not a ritual in Prachi's house. And she had never seen her father expressing his affections for his wife so openly. Prachi for a moment wanted to be in Dragon's shoes, when that awful woman was kissed and presented with a diamond necklace by her husband in front of guests. "Someone can be so rotten, and yet so lucky," Prachi inwardly sighed when she saw the beaming couple.
Now the party was over. The last guest had departed. The other maids had left. The man of the house had retired to his bedroom. Prachi and her mother too had finished most of the work. But the Dragon appeared just when Prachi decided to take a moment of rest by sitting on a kitchen stool. "I thought you had come here to work. But now it seems I was wrong," the Dragon said with contempt. Her words slurred due to the effect of too much alcohol. Prachi bit her lips and got up.
"Hema, before going make a glass of lemon juice without sugar and bring it to my room,' the Dragon passed the last order and staggered out of the kitchen.
Hema sighed tiredly. Prachi jumped, "Mama, I will do it."
Hema was too tired to protest. Prachi made juice and after asking where the master bedroom was, took the tray upstairs. While climbing the stairs, she once again thought of the happy couple in their room. For a fleeting moment she visualised that handsome man sitting on the bed waiting for his wife. A small tinge of jealousy touched her heart.
Just as she was about to knock on the door, Prachi heard a crash inside followed by a small cry. Obviously the woman had slipped, taking a vase or something along with her to the floor. Prachi stopped for a second. But before she raised her hand again she heard the male voice coming from inside. "So drunk that you can't even see where you are going." There was sheer contempt in the voice.
"Just shut up, you too didn't drink less," Dragon shouted. Prachi froze. The verbal duel continued on the other side of the door.
"I drank but not as much as you did."
"That is because you were busy ogling at Rima's silicone valley."
"You are mad."
"Yes, any woman will go mad seeing her husband salivating like a dog after some other woman."
"You are sick.
"No, you are sick. And you had the gall to invite her to my birthday party. Don't you have any shame?"
"Don't be a fool."
"I am not a fool. I know all the games you play behind my back. Now it is Rima, before it was your secretary Stella. The whole world knows."
"But the world doesn't know what kind of woman you are?"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, I go for other women because they give me what you don't and can't. You have neither the beauty nor the brain. My parents forced me to marry you and now even they regret that they brought a daughter- in- law who has not managed to produce a single child so far."
"It is not my fault. The doctor says it will happen soon," now the Dragon's tone was defensive.
But the man's words became crueler. "It won't happen. Lovemaking with you was always boring and now it is unbearable. You disgust me."
"It is because you have other women."
"Alright. Then why don't you too have other men?"
"How can you say such things? You know I would never look at other men."
"It is the other way round. No other man would look at you. You are good for nothing. So just shut up, wear your diamonds and thank God that I am letting you stay in the house."
Just that moment Hema appeared at the foot of the stairs. "Come on now" she gestured impatiently to her daughter.
Prachi put the tray on the floor outside the bedroom and went down. She could hear sobs behind her.
"What happened?" Hema asked on their way back home. And then answered her own question, "They were fighting."
Prachi nodded her head.
"Poor woman" Hema said softly. Prachi looked at her mother in astonishment and then she began to understand what her mother knew all along. The Dragon was a woman, scorned and humiliated by her man. She in turn was trying to take it out on others. But her pathetic behaviour was not fooling anybody. Even Hema, her maid knew the truth and pitied her. Prachi felt her anger fading.
"I hope that your Papa likes the sweets I have packed for him," Hema mumbled. Prachi thought of her Papa waiting for them at home and all of a sudden she felt happy. Diamonds or no diamonds, her parents cared for each other. The feeling of envy that she had felt in that beautiful apartment vanished. She quickened her steps to reach her small house where there was love.
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Varsha Pathak
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