Serendipity

1

Chharodiya, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India

S.G.V.P International School

She ripped apart the thepla with her thumb and forefinger, dipped it liberally in her home-made raw mango sweet and sour pickle, and placed the morsel into her mouth. She scrunched her face as the sour flavour of the raw mango played havoc with her senses. It was too sour. And then she laughed. It was ironic. Her life had panned out rather unusual. Much like this pickle that had turned out too sour. She'd followed the recipe. Still.... It didn't matter. The only way to fix this pickle would be to make a new batch. Much like her life.

She looked at the class register placed on her table in the staff room. The label read Anupama Joshi. She'd insisted on having her old label replaced. The one that read Anupama Shah. That too had been six months ago.

She tore another piece off the thepla and dunked it into some more of her pickle. The sourness of the pickle once again took her back through memory lane. Life, as people say, was unpredictable. In her case, even the basic things of faith and comfort weren't a given. In the six months since she had divorced her husband of 26 years, she had often wondered if there was anything that she had done, which had pushed her life into this predicament. Sadly, not once had she come up with a convincing answer.

From quitting college to marrying the man her parents chose for her, to diligently serving his parents, taking care of the house, the family, raising the children, she'd done everything that could have been expected from wife, mother, and daughter-in-law. And yet, all she'd received in return was a betrayal.

She closed her eyes once again as she placed another morsel into her mouth. 26 years, she had devoted to this man her parents had picked for her, the one whose house and family she had taken care of, the one she'd had three children with, the one she claimed she loved, and what did she get in return? She took a deep breath and smiled. There was no point in thinking about it at all.

Her husband clearly had not valued her place in his life. An extra-marital affair that was nine years old. And she only found out about it a year ago. She sighed. Was she that gullible? Her friend had tried to warn her about it but she'd fought her off. Her family apparently knew about it, but no one thought to let her know. How much longer would this have gone on if she hadn't walked into them, in her very own bedroom. She'd decided then to file for divorce. For the first time, she'd gone against her upbringing, against the advice of society at large. Six months later the courts had granted her divorce. She was free. And that should have brought with it a sense of joy and relief. But all she'd felt then was a sense of void. An emptiness.

Her husband of 26 years - Vanraj Shah- had promptly gone ahead and married his long-time girlfriend in a short civil ceremony. There was no place for Anupama in that house anymore. And so she'd gracefully moved out, renting a small one-bedroom apartment in a different part of town and trying to make sense of her new life. A little encouragement from her father-in-law whom she fondly referred to as Bapuji and her daughter in law, gave her the confidence to apply for a job.

Having quit her education at 18 in order to get married, Anupama did not have any formal qualifications she could bank on. But she did know and enjoy cooking. And so she applied - to hotels, to cafes, to temples, and any other place where they might need a cook. Then one day, she found out that her daughter's school was looking for a home science teacher. As an international school, they deeply valued cooking as a life skill. She'd applied with no expectations and was pleasantly surprised to receive an offer letter.

The school bell broke Anupama's reverie. She sighed, closed her lunchbox, and made her way to her next class. She thought of the students. They had been insistent they wanted to learn how to make bread and their innocent requests always managed to bring a smile to her face. It was a respite. Considering her personal life was a complete mess.