Parinayanantaram

Together

She swallowed and nodded her head. I knew that she was shocked. {Seriously? Does marriage affect a person to this extent? In that case, I never should have married.} I sighed.

There is no point in lamenting now. I stopped the car by the side of the highway and tried to hold her hand. But she moved her hand away from my reach, and I felt another stab in my heart.

“Why are you behaving like this? What harm have I done to you?”

This time, her eyes were on my face, but they showered fire on me. For a moment, I felt like I should not have asked her to look at me. Her eyes were full of hatred.

I could feel anger raise in me too. {Why god? Don’t you like me living happily? Why did you make me fall for a girl like this? Why did you make me marry her? Why god? Do you hate men?
Yes! You hate men.
That is the reason why you created women.
And you gave them the power to affect and control men.
You made us strong in every aspect except their matters.
They appear delicate and fragile, but they are very independent and they can survive well even without support of men.
But coming to men, there is this famous saying too … “Behind every successful man, there is a woman.” …
Beware god! I am not done with accusing you. You have much more in store for you. But before that …}

My trail of thoughts got interrupted when she finally decided to break the silence and graced me with her valuable words.

“I … I had no other choice.”

“What do you mean?”

“I tried my best, but was unable to cancel our marriage …”

“But why? Tell me the reason. Do you hate me? Or do you have someone else …”

She glared at me and I stopped immediately. I felt happy somehow, … maybe because she did not have anyone else in her mind. That means, I still have a chance to enter her heart. I felt new hope in me.

She bent her head and started slowly.
“I don’t know the reason, but I don’t have any positive opinion about marriage.”

“Do you believe in ‘dating … or living together relationship …’ something else like that?”

“No … I don’t actually like this whole concept of a male and female living together.”

Laughter exploded from my mouth. I had to hold my stomach to stop it from bursting due to laughter.

After a good 5 min, when I could finally control my laughter, I looked at my innocent wife.

“Are you crazy? God has created male and female, so that they live together. It is no sin … The world has to run that way.”
I did not know how to convince her further.

“But for a person to live, food, water, shelter is enough …” She asked innocently.

“But human is a social creature, which cannot live without the support of another human.”

“Okay! But why man and woman? Why not two men and two women?”

I looked at her with wide eyes. She looks so cute and innocent. I did not know what to say. So, I decided to drop the topic for the while and try to talk to her about it sometime later.

I started the car. And my mind raced to find different ways to make her comfortable with me.

“Okay! Let us say I agree with you. But can you tell me what is the harm if a woman and a man live together?”

“See …”
She turned her body towards me, as if she is ready for a long discussion with me. I was amused.
{I could at least, make her interested in talking to me. This is a good improvement}

I smirked and shifted my eyes back to the road. {I was driving, right? I should concentrate on that and not my wife!}

“Hmm … continue.”

“See … men and women have a completely different mind-set. The way they think, analyse situations, draw conclusions, interpret gestures … in fact everything is completely different. That is the reason why they don’t understand each other well. That is the reason why no couples can live ‘Happily ever after’ This phrase is utter rubbish. I only feel like laughing and mocking at it.”
She wriggled her eyebrows as if to say ‘what do you say?’

{God! Why is she looking so cute?
Her antics are making me want to take her cheeks in my palms and …
Shut up Hari!} To conceal the turmoil in me, I let out a small laugh.

“Yes! You are right. ‘Happily, ever after’ may not occur. But ‘together ever after’ does happen.”

“What do you mean?”

“They may not be able to understand each other totally. But is there a guarantee that two people of same gender understand each other perfectly?”

“No … but people with same gender have similar mind-set.”

“Having similar mind-set does not always imply better understanding. In fact, understanding a person does not depend on how much you have in common. It depends on how much you love that person.”

“I don’t get it.”

{You have never loved anyone. Why would you get it?} I started to explain.

“Your father is a male.”

“Yes …”

“Does he not understand you?”

“Well sometimes yes and sometimes no.”

“Your father is a male and you are a female. Still he understands you. Your mother is a female like you. But does she understand you completely?”

“Umm … no …”

“So, is there any correlation? Per your theory, your mother should be able to understand you completely and your father should have complete trouble wondering, what you and your mother think or feel. But that does not happen. Your father understands you almost as much as your mother does.
It is true that your mother understands you better, since there are few things men don’t understand about women and vice versa. But is that stopping your parents from leading a happy and comfortable life together? I agree that they do fight at times. Well, who does not? Any two people will end up in tiny conflicts if they stay together for a long while. But that is general human nature because no 2 humans think and behave exactly same way at the same time, to a given situation. For that matter, no one can understand the other completely!”

“What do you mean to say?”

“Whether you stay with a male or a female, it does not matter. What matters is, how much that person loves you and wants to understand you.”

“Ok …”

She started looking out of the window, immersed in deep thoughts. I smiled and turned on the music. For the rest of the ride, she was silent.