Chapter 2
Things soon settled down to the routine and mundane. Raman's apprehensions over his return were soon drowned by the new workload and his time at home showed that the neighbourhood was filled with too many new faces to make him return to those painful memories of the past. His mother was less inclined to let the past go and not a day would go by when she wouldn't bring up Shagun's name. The reason for this was not that she wanted to deliberately hurt her son by hammering his past on his head. The reason was because she wanted him to move beyond his past. Not a day would go by that she would not raise the subject of Raman's marriage and when he stubbornly refused to even consider it as an option, she would start ranting about Shagun and how she had destroyed their family. Unfortunately, thus, despite her good intentions, Mrs. Bhalla hurt both her son and her beloved granddaughter. Ruhi was at an age when she could not understand the situation in her family clearly but to hear her daadi abuse her mother confused her and made her cry. Such is the way in which shortsightedness can make fools of the best of us.
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Mrs. Ishita Iyer had still not gotten used to living in Delhi. Before she could build a life for herself in the new city, her life as she had known it before her wedding had come crashing down. She had moved from Chennai to Delhi after her marriage to Subbu aka Subramaniam Iyer. It had been an arranged one with full blessings from the priests and the elders of both families. Tears of joy had come to the eyes of many a matriarch at the sight of the blessed couple. Life after marriage however, began less fortuitously and increasingly went downhill. Her father passed away a year after her marriage creating a void in her life she had no way of filling. He had been the one who was the most attuned to the needs of his daughter whom he had raised single-handedly since the death of Ishita's mother. With him gone, it suddenly became clear to her that there was no one left for her to open up to.
From the early days of their marriage, Subbu had been undemonstrative and brusque in his behaviour towards her. They rarely talked about things beyond the family or Subbu's work. His careless dismissal of the few attempts made on her part to open up to him had taught Ishita to guard her feelings before him. It was better to remain closed rather than subject herself to casual taunts from the person designated to be the most important individual in her life. She reasoned that this was how men behaved and looked forward to having a child with a intensity that even scared herself at times. She supposed everything would become better once the child came. And probably because she had hoped, wished and prayed for this, the child refused to come.
After two years of 'trying', the couple decided to consult a doctor and the results were disastrous. Ishita was declared infertile. The fact that she could never conceive came as a blow to the entire Iyer family. Ishita often thought that a death sentence would have been kinder. Her in-laws did not mean to be unkind but due to this infertility of hers, whatever place she had made in their hearts after her marriage had been destroyed. Her mother-in-law, the most vocal of the lot, lost no opportunity to drill into her the fact that she, Ishita Karunanithi Iyer, had single-handedly destroyed her son's life and any chances he might have had of happiness. Ishita wanted to tell her often that her son, Subbu, was not someone who could ever be happy. He had shown signs of being a curmudgeon from the very first day of their marriage and unless a baby was also a magic wand capable of bringing about personality alterations, she was highly sceptical of Mrs. Iyer's hopes for his happiness. Of course, she thought these things but never said it aloud. Vandita, her sister-in-law was the only one who tried to make her feel like she was a part of the family, joking around, teasing and trying to lighten her mood often when things became too much to bear.
And this made her love Vandu despite the rest of the family imagining that she would hate her because her sister-in-law, was blessed with a beautiful baby boy, Shravan. Vandita had been expecting at the time of Ishita's marriage. Shravan was born soon after. She was now expecting her second child and the family was over the moon. The only fear that kept Mrs. Seemanthani Iyer awake at night was that of the 'evil eye' and she felt the childless Ishita was the likeliest candidate to cast it on the impending joys of the family. She had lost no time in sharing her fears with her friends and Ishita was increasingly met with disapproving stares from most of the elderly ladies in the complex. It was not an exaggeration to say that Mrs. Ishita Iyer had still not gotten used to living in Delhi.
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Once Ruhi had enrolled into AGM Memorial, it was decided by the Iyers and Bhallas that it would be quite convenient for the family to let Ishita drop her off along with Shravan on the way to work. Raman was initially apprehensive about letting a complete stranger take his daughter to school but was assured by his family that Ishita was a dependable sort and took not only Shravan to school but also two other kids from the complex.
"Does she run a carpool then?" Raman asked.
"Well, you could call it that. Ruhi will get to make some friends as well." Mr. Bhalla told his eldest son. He didn't like the over-protectiveness Raman showed towards Ruhi. He never did believe in molly-coddling his children and wanted Raman to loosen his grip on Ruhi a bit.
And thus the matter was settled. Raman was free to go to work as early as possible and Ruhi to make some new friends and enemies.
Against the expectations of Mr. Bhalla, Ruhi did not become friends with the other kids in her carpool. She was the only girl among the kids and Shravan, Deepak and Parmeet made the mistake of trying to bully her on the very first day. The result was the guys all had some cuts and bruises to show for their efforts and Ruhi secured the front seat next to Ishita as her permanent spot in the ride to and from school. This led to a quiet bond being formed between the two of them.
Ishita liked the fiery little girl who could hold her own against the budding bullies in the backseat. Ruhi on the other hand liked Ishita with the fierce adoration that children can often feel for those they take a liking to. Ishita aunty, as she called her, was the pinnacle of beauty, style and grace in her eyes. And on top of all this Ishita aunty behaved like Ruhi was her friend. Ishita aunty never laughed at her unless there was something actually funny in what she said and always tried to answer her questions even if sometimes she had to admit that she didn't know. This made little Ruhi tell Ishita everything that was happening in her life and ask her questions that her father now seemed to have no time for. Unaware of all that was going on inside the little head, Ishita soon had created quite an impression on Ruhi's young mind.
In the time between taking the kids to school and bringing them back, Ishita worked in a clinic as the receptionist. It was a five hour shift and worked perfectly for her. The work gave her a relief from the passive aggressive atmosphere at home and also gave her a semblance of financial independence that she held dear. The clinic was run by the brother of an old school friend of hers and Ishita was aware that her job was more a gesture of friendship than anything else but she wasn't complaining. Her awkward relationship with her in-laws made it impossible for her to take up anything more demanding than this and the fact that she could take the children to school and back was definitely a big factor in their agreeing to her taking up the job in the first place.
Note: Thank you to all those who liked and commented. Do leave feedback on the way the story is progressing, and what kind of things you'd like to see in it. 😳
Edited by twerping - 8 years ago
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