you people should have sued them and made them pay for what they had done...

what good would that do for my daughter?

another relative quipped in, for the benfit of the concerned neighbour, "well, think of it this way dada,  when you fall down on the street slipping on a banana peel, do you think people sue the banana peel?

why cant we get the court or counsellors to make him say yes to an arrangement? I just want a baby.  I can if he is around in some way. she tried to show them stuff she had been reading. 'he would say yes, it is his family that is telling him not to listen to me'

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"she doesn't know what she is saying, dont listen to her" why? would the man I am married to listen to everyone but ME?

"do you even know what the inside of a court is like? you would die to just look at the place, you were brought up differently, sign that and go see this fellow thursday afternoon - he would pick you up at the gates of your school"

----------------

for surely they had known? 

yes, they had known. he did tell her. when they had arranged for them to meet up alone. she had not known. what it meant if a man about to marry her tells her he had had a fall.  it was all her fault. 

-----------------------

they were powerful people well connected people they knew everyone and everyone knew them and they did not want a scandal, so everything had to be very discreet -

she thought she was now free. she wasn't ... there was this whole year to pass. the wait. the counselling. she thought the counselling was for fixing things for real so she spoke her heart out at the sessions while they sat there and looked bored tired....

she took out cut outs from her bag and showed them newspaper articles - she asked for an IVF arrangement and not a divorce - not an outright divorce, "I like him"

he seemed a safer quieter bet than the aggressive leering tearing wild people out there.she just could not stand the idea of having to go through with that kind of ordeal once again with another man. it was far better to stick to this whatever it amounts to and be in it. no one wanted her opinion. no one was listening. turns out those so called "counselling sessions are 'for forms sake'.

they had arranged this. they had to fix it. they would do so in the best way they can think of. and so it was done.

---------------

people laughed at her. "what is she? crazy?" uneducated?"

the wait for a whole year to pass had been excruciating. there have been lots and lots of apologies in between. for a whole year. and in fact, for four years after that people had tried to 'nurse' the 'wounded' - "Helo, what are you doing?"

Correcting papers, sir.

"Charan Das Chor has come down from Delhi, and it has been twenty years since I walked in to a theatre -"

So you should go and watch, kaku. Have a nice time.

"O. I was thinking if you went this old man would have someone to help him cross the road - you know, I turned eighty two this summer, the audio doesn't work at all and the video system is - are you there?"

Yes.

"What are you doing?"

Correcting papers.

"So shall we go then?"

I dont want to go - have work to do.

"What work? What paper are you correcting? I could help"

No you can't.

"Yes, am old and tired, and we are guilty - we cannot help you I know that. I was hoping you would show this old man some kindness and let him believe that at least he had tried to make amends in whatever little ways it was possible. I hope you are kind enough to give me a chance - I hope I dont die seeing two of my children in misery"

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In the end she had left the town altogether. They and their tribe were all over the place and in this place she would always be the object of pity and always something she did not want to be.

-------------

"I did not touch you". "She doesnt have children" "She is still so young" "Her parents are still alive" "She has a great job" "She is qualified" "She is intelligent and tough" "She doesn't realize how lucky she is!" "She is a fool to be pining for what could never be" "If I were her, I would take this chance to do what I pleased"

--------------

All of which qualified her to launch into the life of a divorcee with glee. Or so everyone seemed to think. 

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"What happened?" I dont know. "O am so sorry"

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So she learned to lie.

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"So who is the lucky guy you are waiting for?" "What do you do when you feel the need" (intoned) "You are a divorcee. What do you expect? "

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The whole world.

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She is insane.

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No.

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