Serendipity

57

Leela stared flabbergasted at the picture on the floor. Her reputation, that she'd valued so much would be in tatters in less than five hours. And it wasn't because of illiterate and good for nothing Anupama. It was because of her educated and beautiful new daughter in law Kavya.

She looked at the photo in the newspaper and then lifted her head to look at Vanraj, her eyes filled with unshed tears, silently accusing him of falling in love with a tramp who had gone ahead and ruined the family's reputation forever.

Vanraj stood there stunned, vacillating between anger, guilt, and frustration. The picture looked oddly familiar, almost as if he'd seen it before. But how?

Toshu, his wife, Samar, and Pakhi stood there, muted, awaiting the thunderous reaction that they'd often seen Vanraj dish out to their mother on her smallest of errors.

Hasmukh, as always, stayed silent.

"How.. How.. how did you...??" Kavya stammered, perspiring. Her palms had suddenly turned clammy. Her eyes kept darting towards Vanraj whose refused to leave the newspaper.

"There are some perks to being Anuj Kapadia's fiancé, won't you agree?" Anupama retorted.

"But..but.." Kavya couldn't coherently string a sentence together anymore. She was certain she'd have a panic attack at any time. She almost prayed that she did.

Unaware of Kavya's frantic wishes, Anupama took a step towards her. "You're wondering how come I have a copy of tomorrow's newspaper? Like I just said, there are some perks to being THE ANUJ KAPADIA's fiancé."

Vanraj who was silently watching the entire debacle began to walk threateningly towards Anuj.

"How dare you, Anuj Kapadia. How dare you do this with my wife?"

Before he could walk three steps Anu placed herself between Vanraj and Anuj, her blood-red eyes warning him of dire consequences should he take another step forward in Anuj's direction. She lifted her hand and held her palm out straight. 

STOP.

Vanraj took a step back, for the first time afraid of what Anupama might do.

"Anu, you're supporting this cheater, this womanizer?" Vanraj asked pointing to Anuj.

She cocked her head and raised an eyebrow. Unable to understand her body language, Vanraj walked up to her and placed his hands on her shoulders.

"Anu, listen to me. I know I've wronged you but I never maligned your reputation publicly. This article, this picture," he said pointing to the newspaper on the floor, "everyone knows you're Anuj Kapadia's fiancé. Tomorrow morning you'll be a laughing stock."

When Anupama didn't respond, Vanraj shook her by the shoulders. "Anu are you listening to me. Anu..."

"ANUPAMA. My name is Anupama, Mr. Shah. Only my near and dear ones are allowed to call me Anu. And you're neither near nor dear."

He looked at her as if she'd slapped him.

"Anuj is not a cheater, far from it. But it's not your fault. A thief feels the entire world is filled with thieves. Similarly, a cheater thinks that everyone else is a cheater too. That's human nature.

"And as far as my reputation is concerned..." She pulled out another picture from her purse and threw it on the floor as well. The picture was an exact replica of the one published in the newspaper except that in place of Anuj stood Vanraj. There was a date stamp at the bottom right of the picture - 01/01/2017. Suddenly it all made sense to Vanraj, why that picture looked so familiar.