Our Mindset Episode 39
The entire field was thriving, the orchard be fruit, and there were a buffalo and two goats. If he left, who would take care of everything? Auntie said, “Make some tea while the three of us go to that man’s house.” They took my husband along.
After they left, my mother tried to reason with me. “What will you do there? Your two brothers still have to get married, your younger sister is coming home for her delivery, and if you go back to your first home, your husband will just end up with his aunt again. You’ll keep fighting every day. Do you think he will ever change? I have to deal with another wife at home, and you have to deal with other women outside. It’s just our fate. Now that the kids have started school, can you afford to keep running around? Instead, stay strong.”
Since yesterday, I had been thinking about how my mother came to see me out of concern. At least she didn’t say all this in front of my husband.
Auntie later said, “He wasn’t home, but we informed his parents. Also, Mangu took my parents to his house. They had a meal there, and I gave my mother a saree. In the end, Mangu even counted that saree’s value as 500 rupees in the accounts.”
The next day, I visited my sister-in-law. She asked, “Who came to your house yesterday?”
I asked, “How do you know?”
She replied, “You weren’t home, so I was the one picking the beans. That’s when I saw Mangu, Auntie, and your husband standing in the orchard, talking. Your husband was saying he didn’t know you had invited them. And Mangu was saying, ‘Should we ruin our reputation in the village because of your wife?’”
That meant they never even went to that man’s house. They juThe entire field was thriving, the orchard bore fruit, and there were a buffalo and two goats. If he left, who would take care of everything? Auntie said, “Make some tea while the three of us go to that man’s house.” They took my husband along.st wasted time in the orchard and came back.
At two in the afternoon, a young girl was walking through the village. My sister-in-law called her over. Her name was Aarti.
“Where are you going?” she asked.
Aarti replied, “A sewing class has started in the village from three to five. My mother works in the morning and returns home by two, so I take the afternoon class.”
I remembered that I had also joined a sewing class after marriage, but I had to quit when I got pregnant. I asked my sister-in-law, “Can I go with her? I’ll come early in the morning to finish my chores and then go to class with her in the afternoon.”
She agreed, saying, “Summer is coming. You’ll have to work in the heat all day anyway, so you might as well go.”
I thought, I don’t get home before six in the evening anyway. This way, I can do two things in a day.
I told the girl, “Ask about me when you go there today.”
In the evening, an old man arrived. Dark-skinned, well-built, wearing a dhoti and vest. I was cooking, and he sat down near my husband. My husband seemed to know him. The old man was drunk.
He said, “It’s been thirteen years since my wife passed away. My meals have been a mess ever since.”
He looked at me and held up two fingers. “I’ll pay two hundred rupees every evening for dinner. You both think about it and let me know. Money isn’t a problem for me. My two sons run a gold shop, so don’t worry about that. I’ll pay in cash—two hundred rupees.”
He kept gesturing toward me with two fingers while talking.
After he left, I told my husband, “Not every day, but when there’s mutton, let’s invite him for dinner. Let it be. He’s an old man.”