Bombay Wali & Other Stories by Veena Gokhale

Author:Veena Gokhale [Gokhale, Veena]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Aging, Bombay, tradition, friendship, family, public and private, acceptance, alienation, short stories
ISBN: 9781550716726
Publisher: Guernica Editions Inc
Published: 2014-03-06T00:00:00+00:00

Smoke and Mirrors

I could plunge the knife right through her heart, thought Kavita, cold and clear, quick and clean.

She looked at her friend lying back on the plush, leather chair, which had been converted into a recliner by the girl who was attending to her. Shanti’s eyes were covered with cotton pads dipped in a cucumber concoction, supposedly to cool and cleanse them. Her round, fair face was smeared with a thick, limegreen paste, the garish lighting in the beauty parlour accentuating the weird effect. The white sheet that draped her large, middle-aged frame fell just short of her swollen-looking feet, incongruously encased in flimsy, golden sandals.

Kavita recalled giving them to her. After buying them, she had decided that she didn’t like them. This happened to her often. Shanti always wore the clothes, jewellery or accessories she received from Kavita; the reverse, however, did not hold.

Kavita ached for a cigarette. But she too was a prisoner of the avocado-aloe facemask that was the latest in skin firming from Paris. The parlour owner had gushed about its properties when they had first got there. Besides, the parlour had lately banned smoking. She tried to relax in her comfortable chair, but last night’s drama passed yet again through her mind.

She and Avinash had been on their way home, after a business dinner with some Japanese clients. They had had a little too much to drink and were lying back half dozing, in the backseat of the Mercedes that their driver drove through the streets of latenight Delhi, when Kavita’s cell phone rang.

It was Shanti, calling to tell her that Ravi, Shanti’s son, had got 96 percent in the all-important secondary school examinations. Kavita hung up after congratulating Shanti. Turning to Avinash, she gave him the good news. Avinash seemed to startle out of his alcoholic slumber and sit upright, but he remained silent.

Back home Kavita greeted Mehul, their son, who has just come in rather early, she thought. On her way to the bedroom to change, she saw Avinash fixing himself a drink at the bar. Minutes later, his livid face loomed in the dressing table mirror. She looked questioningly at him, as he glared at her, saying nothing at first.

“It’s great isn’t it, for Shanti and Ram,” he said, finally, his voice low but furious, as she turned around to face him. “But what about us?” Then he screamed suddenly: “Ravi will get into IIT. Go to the U.S.A. and do an MBA at a top school. And Mehul? Mehul will rot here.”

Kavita leapt to her feet and ran to shut the bedroom door. Most likely Mehul was in his room with his door closed and headphones on, but he might still be in the living room, within earshot.

“What kind of mother are you?” Avinash continued in a high voice. “You ruined Mehul’s life.”

Kavita stared at her normally sedate husband in shock.

“And Shanti, you know what Shanti’s done? Shanti has done everything for Ravi. Everything.”

Then he turned and left the room, slamming the door after him.

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