Political Stories- 8 Marriage

Political Stories by Volga

Political Stories-8

Marriage

          Shocked at the news that Rajani was going to marry, Nirmala dropped the porcelain plate she was holding. She picked up the shattered pieces as her irate mother berated her.

          What had happened to Rajani? How could such a disaster have happened just in that month when Nirmala was away visiting her ammamma in the village?
Having just returned from the village, Nirmala was getting ready to go see Rajani. It was then that her mother handed her a snack on a porcelain plate and casually told her that Rajani had come by a few days earlier to see if she was there. “Apparently she wanted to go shopping with you.

          She was upset for a while that you weren’t home, and asked me to tell you that her marriage has been settled. The wedding is on the first of next month.”
The plate shattered even before she completed the last sen-tence. Nirmala got ready in a flash and rushed out of the house. Too impatient to walk, she looked around eagerly for a rickshaw, and got into the first one that approached her without even negotiating a fare. “Brodipeta, 2 line, 13th cross road,” she told the rickshaw puller. The rickshaw appeared to be going very slowly.

          Rajani was getting married! Marriage and Rajani! A bosom friend of Rajani for five years, Nirmala was struggling to take in the idea. She recalled first meeting Rajani on the first day of college. “I got into the philosophy group just to escape marriage. Couldn’t get admission to any other group with my grades. If I say no to this, my folks will nag me about marriage.

          Anything is better than marriage,” she had said. Nirmala immediately liked Rajani’s openness – her lack of shyness and timidity. From that day, the two became close friends. They went to the college together, skipped classes to go to movies, and participated quite actively in everything that happened in the college. They both finished their degrees and went on to receive M.A.’s.

          For about a year now they both had been hunting for jobs unsuccessfully.
Over the five years that she had known Rajani, Nirmals hadn’t noticed any change in how Rajani viewed marriage. During these five years, at least thirty of their female classmates had married. As soon as she heard that a girl was going to get married, Rajani would say, “There you go, one more wicket down, one more wonderful life destroyed for  Good.” She would go to the girl and say, “I don’t know how you will survive. You are so pretty and innocent, your husband is going to eat you alive,” and become teary eyed.

          She would never attend the wedding of a girlfriend, no mater how much she was beseeched. “I can’t witness torture. Will anybody but a fool go to observe a human sacrifice?

          Today an unfortunate woman is going to be sacrificed. If we go at all, it should be to prevent the marriage and rescue her. Does it make any sense to go all decked out to witness a death?” she would argue. She wouldn’t allow Nirmala to attend the weddings, either.

          Nirmala had tried to soften Rajani’s opinion about mar-riage. “It’s true women suffer a lot because of marriage, but not all marriages are like that. Don’t you think at least some married women are living quite happily?” She had argued.
Rajani would never concede. “If you want to become a sacrificial lamb, go ahead, but don’t try to convince me,” she would retort.

          “Ok, why don’t you find a nice guy, fall in love and then marry him?” Nirmala would ask.

          “Love? Are you kidding? From the day you love some-body, you can’t get a good night’s sleep worrying about when the guy might cheat on you and run away. Why turn a peaceful life into a nightmare?”

          With the problems women are facing today, it would be unusual if they didn’t come to feel this way. Today’s women know pretty well that they can’t get love in marriage. They don’t even think about it anymore. Now-a-days, they are also realizing that security is another thing they can not find in marriage. The time when marriages provided security is long gone. If women like Rajani question the usefulness of entering a marriage that offers neither love nor security, women like Nirmala have not yet become brave enough to ask, “What about sex?”

          The middle class has not yet gained enough courage to openly accept the idea that women also need sex and are eager for its pleasures. It has come to be accepted that a woman can somehow pull through her life even if she is not married. And society finds it quite comforting to believe that sex is not that important for a woman and that She can easily restrain her desires. So Nirmala is not much worried that Rajani has not been interested in marriage.

          It was up to Rajani what she did, Nirmala thought. And now, this news! Nirmala would not be able to rest until she talked to Rajani.

          Did she love somebody? Why didn’t she tell me then? Imagine her falling in love just when I was away! Maybe her folks found a march? Rajani agreeing to an arranged madil Unbelievable Nirmala wondered about these things as she paid the rickshaw puller and rushed into Rajanis house.

          “Nirmala Come, so you heard about your friend’s marriage? Rajani’s mother greeted her warmly.

          “Rajani isn’t home?”

          She just went to the tailor a block away, She should go back any time now sit down a minute. I will get you a cup of coffee.” She disappeared into the house.
Such a huge change in Rajani in just a month! You can get used to odd things happening in politics, but how can you imagine something like this happening? Nirmala wondered.

          After sipping the coffee that Rajani’s mother offered her, she went to the front door. The house had a small front yard where jasmine vines grew on a trellis. The flowers on the lattice looked like stars in the sky. Nirmala started plucking flowers absent mindedly.

          Once you begin something like that it is easy to completely lose yourself. Flowers can do that to anybody, and in this case, they temporarily took Nirmala’s mind off the maddening news of Rajani’s marriage. Nirmala plucked jasmines, carefully avoiding buds, and in no time her pamita chengu was filled with them. Her mind was at ease now. The jasmines smelled sweet.

          Rajani arrived just then.

          “Why did you pluck so many? You barely wear a palm length,? she said.
“I will make a garland with them, and you can drape them around the groom’s neck, ” taunted Nirmala.

          “Oh, so you heard,” said Rajani, as she walked into the house.

          Pretty soon the two friends collected the flowers on a wide platter, picked up a spool of thread and settled down on the terrace. Moonlight had just begun to spread across the sky. Rajani handed Nirmala four jasmines at a time and Nirmala knit them into the garland.

          “Ok, tell me” asked Nirmala.

          “Tell you what?” Rajani pretended ignorance.

          “You don’t know what? Shameless creature! You said you took philosophy to escape marriage. For five years now you talked as if you hated marriage. Now you are going to marry forgetting all of that? Tell me what happened to you? Why are you doing this?”

          “What can I do? What if some desires can’t be fulfilled unless you marry?” Rajan pretended to be helplessly sad. Nirmala flew into a rage. “Last vear Kanakavalli gave us this very same explanation as to why she was getting mar tied. Do you remember what you said then?” “What did I say?”

          “You were imploring her not to get married. It was then that she sheepishly admitted what you just did. Then you said that there was a danger of not having your desires fulfilled even after giving up your self respect and getting married. You could end up disgusted, you said, and reeled off a bunch of examples. Do you feel aroused in the embrace of the guy who regularly scolds you, beats you and treats you like a servant? Or do you feel repulsed and want to beat the guy up?’ you asked. Poor Kanakavalli cried for two days after that.?

          Nirmala paused after this emotional outburst, in which she clearly accused Rajani of hypocrisy.

          Raiani remained silent and pensive for a moment. She is thinking of some new excuse, surmised Nirmala and knotted the thread more tightly around the throats of the flowers.

          “I thought long and hard about marriage, Nirmala, and finally decided to accept it as a business venture, not for love or security. I will get into it as a business deal? said Raiani, posing like Buddha seated under the peepal tree.
What!” Nirmala was shocked.

          Rajani sprang up with new enthusiasm. “Trust me, marriage is nothing but a business. Just to prevent women profiting from it, they created these illusions like love, fidelity, motherhood and such garbage. But in truth, marriage is profitable for women, too. Just think of me. I can not feed myself unless I have a job paying me a thousand Rupees a month. But if I matry a guy making two thousand Rupees, I will be fine. It is true I will have to do household work, but it won’t be any harder than what I will have to do in any other job, and no job would compensate me any better anyway. Isn’t marriage a more profitable deal??

          “What if your husband scolds you?”

          “I will scold him, too.”

          “If he hits you?”

          “I will hit him back. If he understands me and treats me with respect, it will be fine, otherwise, I will kill him.?

          “Maybe he will kill you before that.?

          “I will leave a statement with my lawyer that my husband would be responsible should I die an untimely death. I will let my husband know about this.”

          “Why get married at all under such circumstances?”

          The two women were quite at ease now defending their opposing opinions, and made their arguments quite vehemently.

          “What is the alternative? There are no jobs out there. And my parents don’t stop nagging about marriage.”

          You can start a business with the money that your folks will have to give as dowry and spend on the wedding””

          What if the business fails? All the money will be lost! Trust me, a man is our best investment. It is in our hands what we extract from him as a return on our investment. In return for the dowry we give him, he has no option but to carry us on his shoulders for the rest of his life.?

          “I doubt it. He will fling you down with a thud.”

          “We shouldn’t let him do that. We have to hang on to his neck. If there is no other alternative we should strangle him, but not let him throw us down.”

          “If we can hang on like that, why would so many women be destitute today?”

          “That is what I am trying to tell you. Women don’t see marriage as a job or a business. They drown in sentiment when they think of marriage and that is where they are going wrong. I won’t do that. I will fight for my rights as an em-ployee. I will do whatever a business woman would do to make a profit, a good return on my investment. I don’t see how I can lose in this deal.”

          “What if you really love somebody after this marriage?” Don’t call it love. Lust is the word. If I lust for somebody itis easier to have an affair as a married woman. A married woman is not easily suspected. Even if you are caught, it is usually the man that is punished, not the woman. If an up-married woman is caught in an affair, she could be punished for prostitution.”

          When did you discover so much about marketing?
Nirmala asked. Rajani’s replies were like hailstones falls on Nirmala, who was now looking for a bail out.

          After I decided to marry,” giggled Rajani.

          Nirmala swung the jasmine garland across Rajani’s face feigning anger. Rajani grabbed it and arranged it in her hair. aTet us go downstairs. Vivek should be here anytime now. [will introduce you to him.” Rajani dragged her unsuspecting friend downstairs with her.

          Vivek had already arrived. Rajani’s mother said he had come about ten minutes ago. She had offered to go fetch the to women, but he had declined, not wishing to inter. rupt the conversation of the two friends. “He is in the kitchen, making coffee,” she said.

          It was immediately clear to Nirmala that Rajani was pulling her leg.

          Is it likely that some guy who is going to marry Rajani respects her friendships and privacy so much that he declines to interrupt their conversation? And he goes into the kitchen to make his own coffee?

          As they were walking into the kitchen, Vivek appeared carrying a tray with three cups of coffee.

          “This is my friend Nirmala,” Rajani introduced Nirmala.

          Vivek held on to the tray and smiled at Nirmala in lieu of a namaskaram.
Smart guy, Nirmala told herself. As they were sipping cof-fee, “Rajani told me a lot about you,” she.said, determined to evaluate him. “We are bosom friends. We know each other very well, so much so we can just look at each other’s face and guess what the other is thinking. We know each other’s tastes, interests and habits very well. For example, nobody knows better than me how much Raini detests marriage.”

          “Well, now I know that as well as you do,” interrupted Vivek.

          Nirmala shook her head to indicate she didn’t believe him.

          “Rajani thinks marriage is a business. Do you know that?”

          “Are you trying to break us up?” Rajani pinched Nirmala’s hand.

          “I do. In fact that is my opinion too. That is why we are not going to get married.”

          “Really!” Nirmala’s jaw dropped.

          “We want to live together, without getting married. But our folks don’t think that is respectable, so they are telling everybody that we are getting married. On the first of next month we both will move into a new house. Our folks are announcing that we are getting married that day. That’s all there is to it.? “It is like saying that grandma is an old woman. You both are going to live like husband and wife. Isn’t it?”
“Not really. We will live like two friends.” Vivek smiled smugly. Nirmala twisted her mouth in disapproval. Vivek and Rajan talked about their new house before he left.
“This is more dangerous than marriage. Getting into a Bust-ness’ marriage is far better than falling in love with someone like this. You will lose a lot more here. You know what sacrifices love demands?” Nirmala tried one last time to rescue her friend from her follies.

          “What if he is willing to make the same sacrifices?” Rajani said dreamily with her eyes half closed. “We will see,” said Nirmala as she walked out.

          “Well, now I know that as well as you do,” interrupted Vivek.

          Nirmala shook her head to indicate she didn’t believe him.

          “Rajani thinks marriage is a business. Do you know that?”

          “Are you trying to break us up?” Rajani pinched Nirmala’s hand.

          “I do. In fact that is my opinion too. That is why we are not going to get married.”

          “Really!” Nirmala’s jaw dropped.

          “We want to live together, without getting married. But our folks don’t think that is respectable, so they are telling everybody that we are getting married. On the first of next month we both will move into a new house. Our folks are announcing that we are getting married that day. That’s all there is to it.?

          “It is like saying that grandma is an old woman. You both are going to live like husband and wife. Isn’t it?”

          “Not really. We will live like two friends.” Vivek smiled smugly. Nirmala twisted her mouth in disapproval.

          Vivek and Rajan talked about their new house before he left.

          “This is more dangerous than marriage. Getting into a Bust-ness’ marriage is far better than falling in love with someone like this. You will lose a lot more here. You know what sacrifices love demands?” Nirmala tried one last time to rescue her friend from her follies.

          “What if he is willing to make the same sacrifices?” Rajani said dreamily with her eyes half closed.

          “We will see,” said Nirmala as she walked out.

*****

(To be Continued-)