For Better, For Verse

“Apratyashit. It means uh…unexpected.” She patiently clarified.

“I haven’t even read three lines of this poem. It’s beyond my understanding.” He firmly handed the book back to her.

“Try to pen down something in English. None of the people I know would understand your poems, I bet. We are well-versed in English. We do understand Hindi but your language is archaic. Who speaks like that?” He shrugged mockingly to end the one-sided discussion and got back to reading on his Kindle.

She walked away from him fearing that he’d see her tears. It would irritate him further and he’d call her an emotional fool.

Putting the book away, she began mentally preparing for the party the following evening. They were entertaining some of his office friends. She brushed her tears away and checked the grocery list. At least her menu for dinner would make him happy, she tried to console herself thinking so.

The following evening Kajal draped an elegant saree. She was just toying with the idea of how to style her hair when her husband walked out of the bathroom. A glance at her attire and he gave an approving look. She caught his expression through his reflection in the mirror and blushed.

“You look stunning! And the food smells delicious too. Umm…just a request…” he hesitated before speaking. “Please be careful when you interact with the guests.” It wasn’t a request. It was an order. The words stung hard erasing the smile from her face. Before she could react, the doorbell rang.

“Nevermind. Please, get the door. I’ll get ready soon and join them.”

She duly stepped out and welcomed the first set of guests, not before putting on a radiant smile while suppressing her bruised feelings.

Within an hour all the guests had arrived. Kajal got busy with instructing the servant about serving the appetisers and drinks. Between her rounds to the kitchen, she’d exchange a few pleasantries and have small talk. She wasn’t accustomed to speaking fluent English, a language that dominated the conversations in the room that night. So her frequent trips to the kitchen were more of an excuse to steer clear of a lengthy discussion or rather an awkward situation.

“Kajal, you’re so busy! Come, take a break. Anyway, you’ve fed us enough for the evening.” Jai’s colleague Varsha patted the empty chair next to her. They were a group of four: Varsha, Ellen, Amit and his wife, Shreya.

“The view from this window is beautiful. You can see the hills on the horizon,” observed Ellen.

“Yes, it looks more beautiful when the sun rises,” replied Kajal. She hoped to just sit there and listen to them rather than talk.

“Jai had mentioned that you taught in a school before marrying him. Why did you quit? Jai doesn’t approve of you working?” Varsha laughed as she asked this silly question.

“No. Family first.” Kajal kept her answer succinct.

“Well, I wouldn’t be able to stay at home even for a single day. How do you spend your time when Jai’s at work?”

Too many questions made her uneasy. She tried her best to stay calm and mask her nervousness.

“I write poetry.”

“That’s nice,” Ellen commented.

“What kind of poetry?” This time the question was posed by Amit. Varsha seemed no longer interested in the discussion. She excused herself on the pretext of checking her phone and walked away.

Kajal paused for a moment before she replied, “I write in Hindi.”

Ellen seemed a little disappointed. She stayed quiet. But Amit and Shreya seemed to show genuine interest.

“Really! You won’t believe it but Amit and I are fond of Hindi literature. We had attended a Kavi sammelan held in Agra a few months back. But such events are rare here and we have a very busy schedule.”

The excitement was evident in Shreya’s voice. Ellen slowly disengaged herself from the trio.

Though Kajal was still conscious of committing any grammatical error, she felt comfortable talking to this couple. Slowly, she shed her inhibitions as she discussed her collections with them. She even recited a few lines from her favourite poetry. A few minutes later, the three of them were conversing in Hindi.

Jai was watching her from the corner of his eye. As he entertained his guests, enjoying every bit of their attention, he also wanted to ensure that Kajal didn’t create an embarrassing scene. He had noticed Varsha and Ellen leave. He was thinking to rescue Amit and Shreya from his boring wife. But he was surprised to see them indulging in an animated conversation.

Curiosity got better of him and he approached them.

“I could sense some interesting discussion going on here.”

“It’s a rare coincidence that a few Hindi poetry lovers bump into each other,” Amit fondly explained.

Confused by his colleague’s reply, he looked at his wife.

“They love Hindi poetry too.” She simplified.

The earlier statement made by his friend was not incoherent but he couldn’t fathom that someone shared his wife’s dull hobby. He could scoff at his wife but how could he ridicule Amit and Shreya?

Ignoring her remark, he politely asked her to set the dinner table for the guests. Shreya volunteered to help her with it.

Dinner was served. Again the conversations were out of Kajal’s league.

“Do you recall how Jai stunned the clients with his speech when they threatened to move their project to another company?” Amit mentioned an incident that occurred a few months back.

“What speech? I was merely stating the facts and figures. You guys just place anyone on a pedestal. It was my responsibility to retain them.” Jai tried to humbly play down his achievement.

“Oh no, Jai! You’re too modest. The truth is that no one can win a war of words with you. Forget the dictionary, you are a walking thesaurus for sure!” Varsha’s statement sent a roar of laughter around the table while Kajal wondered how did a dinosaur become a part of the talks. Maybe that was the joke, and thinking so she grinned along.

The food was very much appreciated. The only moment when Kajal felt that Jai looked upon her with pride.

All the guests left by half-past eleven. Shreya exchanged numbers with Kajal and made the latter promise to send her writings to her.

Kajal was tired but happy about how the evening shaped up. After she helped the maid to clear the leftovers, she retreated to the bedroom.

She expected Jai to be asleep already. But he sat upright with his iPad in his hands.

Seeing Kajal walk in, he immediately put down the iPad and watched her as she changed. He had something on his mind, she knew. But she waited for him to bring it up.

“Did you enjoy the party?” he asked.

“Yes, I did. It was perfect.”

“Why were you clinging to Shreya and Amit?”

“We were having a great discussion. They were enjoying it.” She defended herself.

“Or were they just being polite?”

She was angry with his perception but held back from lashing out. She never did have the guts to do so.

He ignored the sullen look on her face and went to bed. Slowly, her anger subsided and was replaced with despair. She lay next to her insensitive husband. Sleep evaded her. She picked up her phone to divert her mind. The entire day was so chaotic that she had not a minute to spare and browse her phone. A text received an hour ago from Shreya surprised her.

We really had a great time tonight. Would love to catch up again. Let me know if you’re free this weekend. And don’t forget to send me some of your work. Good night.

She couldn’t help smiling. All the despair melted away and she wished she could throw this text in Jai’s face. Oh, what strong emotion that was! Something she had never felt before.

Now she began imagining herself as a knife thrower with Jai as the target. Her weapon wasn’t a knife but words from the text she received. And unlike the actual show, she intended to hit the target rather than miss him.

She giggled at her ridiculous imagination. It did make her feel better. Soon she fell asleep.

The next day she got busy with her household chores after Jai left for work. As she was dusting the bookshelf, the title of a tome caught her eye.

Thesaurus.

She lifted the book and leafed through it. Soon she realised what it actually was. Now she felt silly about her thoughts on Varsha’s comment. Well, this was a good reference book to improve her speaking skills. She smiled to herself and carried on with her dusting.

Having done with her morning schedule, she checked her Instagram account. Her husband had posted several pics from the previous night.

Already there was a stream of comments on all the pictures. There was one particular picture of her husband where he seemed deeply lost in some thought. It had the most number of comments.

Varsha: Thinking about your promotion? Lol

Amit: Perfect pose for a philosopher

Shreya: Lost in thoughts about your lovely wife?

Ellen: And miles to go before I sleep…

Many other interesting comments followed. She too had an urge to comment. Some poetic thoughts in Hindi crossed her mind. But since nobody had commented in Hindi, she refrained.

She opened up Google Translate and typed in a simple sentence: Itne gambheer kyon ho?

As she typed, the translation was instant: Why so serious?

Staring at it, another idea crossed her mind and she rushed to grab the Thesaurus. She looked up ‘serious’. There were a lot of options to choose from. So she tried to pick a word that sounded good.

Deciding on a word, she left a comment on her husband’s photo with great satisfaction. She had her lunch. Still in a good mood, she sat down to pen something.

An hour later she checked her phone. She had dozens of notifications. Most were related to her comment, while two messages were from her husband.

She checked the comments first. Everyone had liked her comment and many had even replied to it.

Hilarious!

Your wife has an amazing sense of humour!

The wife said it!

And many more comments with a few rofl emojis too.

She thought to herself, “Wow, they found it funny.” She didn’t expect it to be so popular. It made her chuckle.

She opened her husband’s message.

“What the hell were you thinking?” Followed by, “Do you even know what your comment means?”

The blood drained from her face. What had she done?

She opened the comment once again to check whether she had a typo or posted on the wrong image. The comment read: Why so sober?

No. Nothing seemed wrong even after reading it several times. Why was Jai offended by the comment while everyone else had liked it? She’d wait until he came home. It could be a misunderstanding and discussing it over the phone would complicate the issue.

She brushed it off her mind for the time being and got back to her writing.

Jai returned home in the evening. When she opened the door, she was greeted with a big frown.

Again the same question: “What were you thinking?” His tone was reprimanding.

“What is wrong with the comment?”

“Why so sober? You don’t find anything wrong with it? Do you even know the meaning of sober?”

“Yes. It means serious.”

He waited for a moment and then shook his head. “Ugh, a little learning can be dangerous! Take the dictionary.” He commanded, yet the frustration in his tone had simmered down.

She pulled out the book from the shelf. Without waiting for further instructions she looked up the word sober.

Her palm covered her mouth as she read in disbelief. She read further. Jai stood with his arms folded, waiting for her to say something.

Her expression changed. And she began laughing out loud. Her husband was dazed by her reaction. “What is so funny about it?”

“Now that I understand its meaning in the other context, it is really funny! And everyone else found it funny too, didn’t they?”

Jai was at a loss for words. He relaxed a bit. “If you didn’t check the dictionary, then where did you stumble upon the word?”

She explained to him how she used Google Translate. “Then I wanted to change the word to something different and I used the Thuh-so-rus. I liked the word sober.” She shrugged to indicate there was no more explanation.

“It’s thi-sor-us. Why did you go to such lengths just for a comment?”

“Honestly?” She finally thought to speak her mind. Having met people who appreciated her knowledge and talent raised her self-esteem.

She confessed, “To impress you. You and your friends talk in very good English the same way I can talk in Hindi. Pure Hindi to be precise. But you are embarrassed of me. So I thought why not improve my language. I may make mistakes but I’ll try not to hurt anyone.”

Tears welled up in her eyes but she didn’t seem weak as she usually did. There was a newfound confidence in her demeanour. Jai’s attitude towards her changed looking at her transformed personality. He accepted his mistake.

“I’m sorry. I was so very wrong. I didn’t realise that I am a person who belittles his wife over a language.” His apology was genuine.

“Not one, but two languages.” She corrected him.

“Yes, of course. And my Hindi is worse than your English,” he joked.

She laughed along with him as they embraced each other.

“Forget the Thesaurus. I’ll personally give you English lessons.”

“Thank you! Yes, I don’t need a Thesaurus. You are my dinosaur.” She burst into peals of laughter.

A puzzled Jai asked, “Did you mean darling or dictionary?”

“No, you heard it right. That’s another funny story. And I’ll tell you that over dinner.” She winked and walked into the kitchen.