The Bias

Chapter 13

"Like this ??? God sakes Siddharth, you are marrying Arya for all right reasons! What do you want?",she stood up, anxiety catching her up.

"Love ? Maybe?"

"Nahi ! Bacche the ship to that thing has already sailed. You are not twenty anymore,  you can't be wasting yourself away ,looking for love.Aur pyaar ka kya hai ,shaadi k band wiase bhi ho hi jaata hai. "

"But thats not what I want. Thats not something which will make me happy.And look at Arya ,mom ,she needs some one who wants her,and would keep her happy."

"Sid...", she sat down on the couch tears brimming in her eyes.

"Mom ! I know you love me and you are scared that I might be left  alone and lonely . But thats all right! Arya can't pay the price for it ,right? If I am meant to end with someone, I will ,if not toh aap aur mai toh saath hai hi na?"

Rita raised her head up ,looking at the picture at the wall, her dead husband.  Their son wanted to correct things , but the correct things were selfish.  He was being that ,even when he wanted everything right.She closed her eyes ,letting go of a sigh, as her hands went back massaging his head .

"I must take your leave,  shaam ko I will talk to Arya too !", he said getting up. This had been easier than expected.  His mother had been patient with him .

"Siddharth,  you said you can't marry Arya , without love,  because she can't pay the price. So when you talk to her, make sure that you don't either." ,Rita spoke walking right behind him.

He stopped ,looking back at her . "Matlab ?"

"Siddharth,  I would be proud of you if you come clean to her, but don't make any decisions for her. You say your truth to her . Thereafter ,it would be her decision if she wants the wedding. ...that would sort your problem out!", she wasn't  a woman to not weigh the outcomes of such rash decisions.Therefore she tried sorting it out in the simplest ways she could comprehend.

"Happy birthday bachha ! Jeeaondi reh .", her mother spoke from over the line.

"Hmm ...", Shehnaaz said taking a chair across the room .

"Your dad's a  bit busy,  but he told me to wish you!"Shehnaaz smiled to the irony of it . Her dad had never after talked to her ,let alone wish her on a  birthday. In fact she had absolutely forgotten about her birthday, had her mother not wished her . Well that was a new one, she hadn't wished her in years, and Shehnaaz had wished to keep it like that for whatever life she had been left with.

"Jhooth bolan di ki lod aa? Aah na hundi teh boot kuj sahi reha hunda..eh no janamdin di Mubarak nahi de sakda mai"  ( why would you lie? If she weren't here a lot would have been so better , I cannot wish her ) , she heard her dad say in the background.

"Let him know , that I don't want him to wish me either ,or for that matter both of you. Tell him  , that he's nobody to me , and tell him I will he better if he keeps it that way!"

" oh! I wish that were possible,  I wish you did not have my blood running in you ,or I wish I people around us didn't know that , darling I wouldn't have ever  taken your name. "

Her eyes watered at the statement. But it was all true , her family had chosen to keep contacts ,because they were a family and they had a reputation . If it were upto them ,then all of them would have chosen different things . The bitterness that ran in the family was deep embedded. She knew her parents resented her very existence. She had always known this and they had never shied away from showing that.Both her parents had neatly made it clear to her  ,that they would fulfill all their financial responsibilities as long as she commanded that. That meant if she was to put efforts into keeping the family name high , and respected,  her requirements would be fulfilled. Her extreme amount of devotion to ambition and carrier were the love children of the affair that her inherentance and the families high intellectual name had. But this also meant that other than this her parents were not to be seen in her life.