Paradox

Some Acts & Some Shocks

Chapter 4

Taranya was calmly staring at her laptop while sitting on the couch. The day's horrendous events were long forgotten and at that particular moment all she cared about was, to come up with a plot. A simple plot that she could at least get started with.

She had come up with multiple ideas and even took up the courage to write them down. But never was she able to actually move forward with them because every single time, the delete button on her keyboard lured her into giving up.

It is hard to be so sure about things when all your life you have been criticised for every little thing.

A sudden knock brought Taranya out of her deeply buried thoughts.

She softly said a, "Come in." and was shocked to see Mahi. She never got any visits from any of the members of the family. It was always the helpers and in certain special occasions Isha who came to her to just talk in general, when she didn't have Abhiraj in her hair all the time.

Mahi took wary steps. She was trying to gauge Taranya so that she could tend to her just like any of her patients. But her sister-in-law was just so hard to understand all the time!

Taranya saw the calculative look on Mahi's face and gave her a small smile.

"I'm okay Mahi."

Mahi, who was holding her breath as if her darkest secrets were about to be announced, gave a huge sigh of relief.

"Bhabhi, I am so angry at mummy ji! She shouldn't have acted out like that! And it's ironic how she's the most incapable person but she goes around telling the rest of the world about their incapability. SHE. IS. A. VILE. WOMAN!"

Taranya was astounded by Mahi's outburst. All her life, it had always been people yelling at for her supposed mistakes. Never for being right.

She calmly put her hand over Mahi's and tried pacifying her. But before she could say anything, they got interrupted by a serious, deep voice.

"And may I know why you are yelling at my wife?"

Both the ladies slowly turned their heads towards the door and were astonished to see Arjun, the man who you could only catch a glimpse of. In fact, out of the four brothers, you'd find his pictures, the least.

"The one time I talk freely in this household, I'm caught- for something I didn't even do!" Mahi muttered to herself.

Arjun stepped closer to them, folded his hands and sternly said, "Pardon! I didn't quite hear what you said."

Taranya shot upwards in Mahi's defence. "Sh-she wasn't yelling at me." This was the first time she had spoken back to her husband and one could easily detect the slight waver in her voice.

Arjun walked over to the bookshelf and picked out an Oxford Dictionary while he stared at his wife with his black eyes.

Mahi and Taranya kept staring at him oddly. Why would somebody pick out a dictionary in the middle of a conversation?

"This dictionary right here says, a loud, sharp cry of pain, surprise, or delight. Now that's what this dictionary calls yelling Taranya. Could you please tell me how this word doesn't fit in this situation?"

Mahi saw the slight waver in Taranya's façade. She had had enough of people trying to downplay her all the time. She opened her mouth to respond to Arjun but bit back her words when her sister-in-law pinched her.