Chapter 3
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Chapter 7: Zanjeer
" I want to go home. " "We are going home. " "I want to go to my home. Shantiniketan. " "You seem to have forgotton the minor detail that you are married to me right now. So your home is where I reside. And I had suitcases delivered to Shantiniketan this morning. To collect all your belongings. " "That's awfully presumptuous of you. " Pari was furious now. " Why? Because I think all your worldly possessions will fit in two suitcases?" Abhir answered, amused. "No. For your conjecture that getting my signature on a piece of paper, albeit illegal, gives you the right to control my life. My likes and dislikes. And making mundane decisions like where I live. " "It was enough to get your neck out of the noose, Paridhi. Figuratively speaking. " "No...It put my head in the noose." she snapped.
It was so easy to rile her, Abhir thought, smiling to himself. The girl he called Angelface had the temper of a hellion. "Who misnamed you?" he asked suddenly. "I mean who named you?" He thought she wouldn't answer, she was staring out through the windowpane. His question must have touched a raw nerve for her already ashen face turned several shades pale. " My father." she said tonelessly. After a silence of more than a minute, she continued, embittered, " He set a precedent. For a non - Virani male. And I have yet to encounter an exception. "
Pari closed her eyes and travelled back in time. As a six year old who won the first prize in an essay writing competition for the topic, "My father." Her mother had read her essay and admonished her with a cryptic " That's not your father Pari." " Then what is he like mama?" an honest question which was left in the shadows for way too long. Illusions she should have never been allowed to built, which were shattered by twelve year old classmates when they snootily commented about her "drug dealer, murderer father". She relived the hurt she felt and the injuries she caused when one girl simply wouldn't stop chanting the same. And her anger at mother's silent acceptance of everything.
A sudden stop to the fluid motion of the car jerked Pari out of her past. Abhir had pulled up the car near a dilapidated temple. " Get down Paridhi." "Why?" " I need help to change a flat tyre." Pari stepped out of the car, looking dubiously at Abhir. "You don't have a flat tyre. And what is this place?" "Its a temple. " "I'm not blind." " Really? " " Why did you stop the car here, Mr Bhasin?" Pari asked, thoroughly exasparated. " We're getting married, Mrs Bhasin. So that my 'presumption' about your obedience is sanctioned by both law and God." he said, trying not to chuckle.
A horrified Pari stepped back, shaking her head. She did not know her determined refusal rose from her belief that vows made before God were irreversible. Or that in some macabre way, God was mocking her for her 'Mannat' by granting it to her before she had a chance to undo the asking wish. "I'm not participating in any such ceremony." she said with an uneven voice.
Abhir didn't know why her refusal to marry him thus chafed him. " Did your teacher forget to teach you the word 'Yes' in the English vocabulary? Or do you conveniently forget it exists. Or I suppose you have to refuse everything I say or do on principle of being my wife?" he snapped, almost dragging her up the temple stairs. " I need pictures to circulate to the press ...To corroborate the claim that we are married. I'll get them backdated ofcourse. But I need photographic evidence. And no, I will not avail of trick photography. This has to be real. So even if I have to bind you, force you, drug you Paridhi, you will complete this ceremony. Whether you wish it or not."
" I want to go home. " "We are going home. " "I want to go to my home. Shantiniketan. " "You seem to have forgotton the minor detail that you are married to me right now. So your home is where I reside. And I had suitcases delivered to Shantiniketan this morning. To collect all your belongings. " "That's awfully presumptuous of you. " Pari was furious now. " Why? Because I think all your worldly possessions will fit in two suitcases?" Abhir answered, amused. "No. For your conjecture that getting my signature on a piece of paper, albeit illegal, gives you the right to control my life. My likes and dislikes. And making mundane decisions like where I live. " "It was enough to get your neck out of the noose, Paridhi. Figuratively speaking. " "No...It put my head in the noose." she snapped.
It was so easy to rile her, Abhir thought, smiling to himself. The girl he called Angelface had the temper of a hellion. "Who misnamed you?" he asked suddenly. "I mean who named you?" He thought she wouldn't answer, she was staring out through the windowpane. His question must have touched a raw nerve for her already ashen face turned several shades pale. " My father." she said tonelessly. After a silence of more than a minute, she continued, embittered, " He set a precedent. For a non - Virani male. And I have yet to encounter an exception. "
Pari closed her eyes and travelled back in time. As a six year old who won the first prize in an essay writing competition for the topic, "My father." Her mother had read her essay and admonished her with a cryptic " That's not your father Pari." " Then what is he like mama?" an honest question which was left in the shadows for way too long. Illusions she should have never been allowed to built, which were shattered by twelve year old classmates when they snootily commented about her "drug dealer, murderer father". She relived the hurt she felt and the injuries she caused when one girl simply wouldn't stop chanting the same. And her anger at mother's silent acceptance of everything.
A sudden stop to the fluid motion of the car jerked Pari out of her past. Abhir had pulled up the car near a dilapidated temple. " Get down Paridhi." "Why?" " I need help to change a flat tyre." Pari stepped out of the car, looking dubiously at Abhir. "You don't have a flat tyre. And what is this place?" "Its a temple. " "I'm not blind." " Really? " " Why did you stop the car here, Mr Bhasin?" Pari asked, thoroughly exasparated. " We're getting married, Mrs Bhasin. So that my 'presumption' about your obedience is sanctioned by both law and God." he said, trying not to chuckle.
A horrified Pari stepped back, shaking her head. She did not know her determined refusal rose from her belief that vows made before God were irreversible. Or that in some macabre way, God was mocking her for her 'Mannat' by granting it to her before she had a chance to undo the asking wish. "I'm not participating in any such ceremony." she said with an uneven voice.
Abhir didn't know why her refusal to marry him thus chafed him. " Did your teacher forget to teach you the word 'Yes' in the English vocabulary? Or do you conveniently forget it exists. Or I suppose you have to refuse everything I say or do on principle of being my wife?" he snapped, almost dragging her up the temple stairs. " I need pictures to circulate to the press ...To corroborate the claim that we are married. I'll get them backdated ofcourse. But I need photographic evidence. And no, I will not avail of trick photography. This has to be real. So even if I have to bind you, force you, drug you Paridhi, you will complete this ceremony. Whether you wish it or not."
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