A responsible guy

“I want to die. I don’t see any meaning in living. I lost all the hope I had,” Anbu said to Jothi.

She was stunned by his deprivation of living a life. She had never seen him so dull and lack of positivity from the day she had married him for about twelve years now. They had two children Keshav and Raghavi who two years elder than her brother and studying the fourth standard. A wave of past memories just sped across her mind as to how they began dating each other. It was still like a dream to her. She had met him when she had gone to pay tribute to her friend’s father who passed away in a bike accident. It was an unbearable part of life because a college student who drunk and drove the car had crashed into his bike and all of a sudden he was gone. Sowmya’s family couldn’t take this because the day before her father’s death her engagement was done and the date got fixed for her marriage. Her Dad was in the joy that her daughter is getting married coming month. Actually, that day (when the accident took his life) he had gone to the bank to get a loan to buy gold for his daughter’s marriage. The loan was sanctioned but he was no more. Anbu is the closest friend of Sowmya from schooling. In fact, she wanted to get marry him, but Anbu didn’t show any interest in her proposal. He said a friend is a friend and we can’t marry to lose our good relationship. Period. Sowmya didn’t force him and asked her parents to go ahead with their search for the bridegroom.

Jothi knew how Anbu had struggled himself for Sowmya marriage had to happen. Even though her father died, Anbu had promised her that her marriage won’t stop and he would take care of it. He gave all the financial support to her family. Sowmya’s mother cried and fell on his feet on the day when Sowmya’s marriage was done. That’s how she showed her respect to Anbu and she always called him Marumagane even though he wasn’t wedded to her daughter. Jothi heard all about this from Sowmya and she started loving him. But she never talked to him until one-day Sowmya had invited both of them to celebrate her son’s 1st birthday in her home. She invited her relatives but only they two got an invite from her friend’s circle. Not because she avoided others, but to recognize them as special guests.

“Hey, why you invited me alone?” Jothi asked Sowmya, who brought bovonto in a glass tumbler, and handed it to her, smiling. Sowmya tried to evade but Jothi didn’t let her go and grabbed her right hand.

“C’mon Jothi, you are not the only guest to me. Many have come now.”

“But they are your relatives. Why not our friends?” Jothi threw her hands up.

Sowmya smiled at a guest who entered the house, and said to Jothi, “Have the drink first. You gotta meet a special person today.”

“Who’s that?” Jothi said slowly because she didn’t want others to overhear their conversation.

Sowmya’s mother held her grandson and showed him to her relatives who returned smiles and talked to him entertainingly. Children took birthday caps and a few fought for the color of the capes. Sowmya’s husband pacified them.

“Just wait, you will come to know,” Sowmya said to Jothi, who couldn’t resist her temptation.

“No more suspense. Who is that guy?”

Sowmya plucked her lips and said, “OK, one clue. You knew him already.” She jogged out of this place to invite other guests on their arrival.

“Shall we cut the cake now? It’s getting late,” Sowmya’s mother’s brother said.

“Just wait for five minutes, one of our guests has to come,” Sowmya was a little nervous as it was getting late and Anbu didn’t come yet.

Her relatives wanted to know who still got missed, as they knew everyone on the board.

“Are we missing anyone from our side? I think everyone is here,” Sowmya’s aunt said, her father’s sister, who came with her two daughters and her grandchildren.

“I think everyone has come,” Sowmya’s uncle said, as he looked around the house.

“So who is that person to wait for? At least can you tell me,” Sowmya’s aunt said in a distressing tone. She wasn’t happy at all to wait for the unknown person, who was claiming a VIP status in this event. She felt like that she hadn’t received the importance she had anticipated.

“The person who gave us life,” Sowmya said abruptly, to shut them off.

Now Jothi knew who she was talking about. Anbu.

“Oh, that guy who doesn’t even know how to talk to others. Should we even wait for him?” Her aunt said, laughing pompously. It was a nasty thought to put on. Yes, Anbu would halt while talking. But the tone she said was really disturbed Sowmya.

“Anni, I don’t allow anyone here to blame him like that. I can’t tolerate it. You know what I mean,” Sowmya’s mother said, lost her patience. She talked slowly not to fear her grandchildren. At the same time, she wasn’t going to let anyone talk filthy about him.

“Is this how you respect us? This is my mistake to come and attend this birthday party with my daughters.”

“Anni, don’t get upset. I’m just asking you to wait for few minutes to let him come here.”

“I can’t stay here anymore to see that you give utmost respect to the unknown person and blame on me,” She said and tossed her head away in disapproval.

All of them left suddenly, and got into their cars only to see Anbu coming on his bike and entered to the front gate. But all of them threw their faces on the other side and left the place.

Anbu thought that the birthday celebration was over and said to Sowmya, “I’m sorry, I couldn’t attend this event on time. I got stuck in traffic. There was an accident.”

He had seen only Jothi stayed there along with Sowmya and her family.

“That’s okay Anbu. The birthday party isn’t over yet and we are just waiting for you.” Sowmya said, smiling as usual. She was happy despite what had happened earlier.

“But I saw your relatives on their way…..”

“Just leave it.”

“They never understand about good people and don’t know how to treat them ever,” Sowmya’s mother said.

“Sorry Jothi, we just made you wait for a long time,” Sowmya said and looked at Anbu, “Meet Mr. Anbu, who is my best friend but I never introduced him to you.”

There was a reason why Sowmya never wanted her friend to meet him because she always had that possessive feeling about him. Even now, she loves him but doesn’t show it to him because he told her to be a friend. She never dared to hurt him and always respect his decision and happy to be his best friend at least. Sometimes you may want to celebrate the person in front of you, but you would feel helpless to make that happen.

“Why are you talking like this? Is something wrong with you?” Jothi said. She looked at his eyes for a few seconds, to read his dampened thoughts. Trying to find some solace, but she couldn’t. She knew her husband hidden some encrypted message in his soul that she was not able to find out. She surrendered unto him to know the truth.

“I…. I….. was terminated from the office,” Anbu said, he didn’t dare to look at her. He felt dejected and miserable to convey this truth to her. He constantly worried about the future and the fact that how he is going to manage his family. For any husband, one of the toughest tasks would be is to tell his wife that he had lost the job. He felt devastated even to come home and look at them.

“That’s okay Anbu. Calm down. We would see how to take it forward,” Jothi said in a pacifying tone. She had mental clarity and didn’t react harshly. This is how people should handle their pressure situations. To find what could be the better solution to come out of their setbacks and spearhead their lives into affluence.

“I don’t know. I really don’t know how to bring up these kids without a job. I have to pay bills. Hefty bills. Not to say that I have to pay thirty thousand towards housing loan every month,” Anbu said. He lifted his face slowly to look at Jothi, who stroked his right arm gently to soften his emotions.

Jothi knew that he also had to pay back the loan that Sowmya’s father had taken for her marriage. Eight lakhs total due. After his death, the bank had threatened Sowmya’s mother to return the money or they would take possession of the home and asked her to leave immediately. But Anbu promised the bank manager that he would repay the loan and after verifying his background, they agreed to it. In fact, Jothi started loving him after seen him helping her friend. Not to say that Jothi and Sowmya were thick friends from their college days.

“Don’t worry Anbu. God knew how we shall gather the strength to come out of this situation. Let him show the way,” Jothi said, she had plentiful confidence in Lord Krishna. From her childhood, she adored Lord Krishna very much as she had seen the valor of him on the TV. Even though she doesn’t see any viable solution right now, she had the faith to overcome it.

“But how??” Anbu said.

“I’ll ask my father if he could help me,” Jothi said.

Anbu knew how Jothi’s father hated her for marrying a person from a different caste. When he had gone to meet him that he would like to marry his daughter, her father took a knife and cut down his left small finger and asked him to go away. He turned back. But with her mother’s blessings, they got married in a Temple. Even when Jothi took her daughter Raghavi to meet her father, he denied them to enter his house. That was the last time, she had met her father.

“Do you still believe that your father would speak to you? Forget about the loan,” Anbu said.

Jothi took a deep breath. A few tears welled up. Her memories with her father rushed to take a toll on her. As a father, he had given all that she wanted, but when it comes to marriage he didn’t accept her choice. That really made her feel bad. Why the parents are turning upside down when it comes to their daughter’s marriage? Suddenly the nice dad would behave like a dictator and start forgetting that you are his daughter and think like a slave. That has to be changed. They should accept the feelings of their daughter; they should stop clinging to their ideas when it comes to marriage. When a girl becomes a major, she gets the ability to judge the democratic process of a nation, so what stops their parents to not give them the power to choose their partner.

“I don’t know. But I have to talk to him. Let’s see,” Jothi said.

Anabu took her hand and gently rubbed it and looking at her eyes, “Will you forgive me?”

“Hey, what’s this Anbu. I don’t expect you to ask this. You are talking to me like a stranger. This is our life, and we gotta face this situation together. In fact, I and our kids are indebted to you forever for whatever you did for us. Losing a job is not a big deal Anbu. Believe me. We are going to live a better life than this,” Jothi said.

Though it seemed amicable words to him, in this pandemic situation it was tough for him to believe it.

The next morning, the doorbell rang. Jothi and Anbu slept longer than their usual hours. When she opened the door, her parents stood in front of her. She couldn’t believe that her father would come to see her.

“Won’t you ask your father to enter your house?” he asked his daughter.

It took few seconds for Jothi to come out of the Zen feeling.

“Of course, Dad,” she said. Also, she turned to look at her mother invitingly.

Jothi jogged down to the bedroom to wake up Anbu so that he also be surprised to meet her parents.

He soaked in complete joy when he met them, “Hi uncle and aunty, how are you?”

“Yea doing well,” Jothi’s father said and looked around the house and asked, “Where are Raghavi and Keshav?”

Jothi handed him an orange juice and said smiling, “It’s Sunday. They wake up at 9 o’clock.”

Jothi’s mother couldn’t resist but went to the bedroom to meet her grandchildren.

Anbu felt uneasiness took over him as he met his uncle because they never had a good conversation before.

“So how things are going?”

Jothi felt she had to respond to this question. She still had no idea why he all of a sudden came to meet her.

Jothi looked at Anbu and said, “Yes, going fine, Dad. We are living a happy life here.”

“Is it?” her father said, “Don’t lie to me. I know how you react when you are in trouble. I know everything.”

Anbu wanted to get out of here. He didn’t want to explain to him that how miserable their family into. The one thing that he didn’t want to reveal was that he had lost the job just a few days back.

“I know Anbu. That’s a big thing to swallow up. But….”

Anbu knew what he was pointing at. His head lowered.

“Dad, nothing. Leave it,” Jothi interrupted.

“My dear, let me talk. I knew that I had hurt you both so badly. But I promise that I won’t behave like that again,” he looked at his daughter affectionately and said, “I’m done with my life. I just wanted to hand over whatever I had to the next generation.”

Jothi’s mother came now along with her grandchildren. Keshav was on her hip now. Raghavi was stepping behind.

“Jothi, even I don’t know how suddenly your father got changed like this. Last night he told me that he wants to see you, so we are here now. That’s all he said. I even got surprised, you know.”

Jothi’s father took a long breath and said, “This pandemic situation had taught me a lot. The coronavirus continues to wreak havoc on our livelihoods, it taught me a lesson that how precious our lives are and to help each other in difficult times. It also taught me about the importance of forgiveness,” He turned to look at his wife, “Yes, your mother told me everything.”

Anbu felt a little embarrassed but wanted to be here with them after hearing his uncle’s responsible words. He waited for this moment for a very long time. He couldn’t believe it. But if anything happens for reason, let it happen. Even Jothi soaked in complete happiness.