The Bedroom

They got married at the insistence of family. It was as if the marriage was an adventure in this part of the world. You had to get married to someone chosen by your family, extended family, family friends, anyone but you. But you hardly ever heard of marriages failing. They adapted, somehow. “They” primarily being the newlywed woman. Asin adjusted well, upbeat about this new phase in her life. She was confident of herself, of settling well in this new household, her sanguine big brown eyes, full of laughter, beckoned this new set of people in the house to habituate themselves to her sunny presence. Remodel herself for anyone, well, she would not, but she was going to be very subtle about it.

In a four-bedroom house, the room allotted to the couple looked out into a colourful garden, tended by the gentle mother in law, literally exhibiting the lady’s love for life. Asin’s room, got a whiff of the mixed smells of earth, wet when watered, and dry dust when not, of flowers and foliage all enticing the couple, to explore each other, bodies and all. Asin full-bodied with the heavenly wet eyes, Joy could hardly ever keep his senses in control. It had been a month now, and intimacy had hit the roof and stayed there. They got accustomed to each other, their nakedness, their bodies and smells. Totally addicted to each other.

The room doors stayed unabashedly closed for a major part of the day, this blatant act getting the family amused more than anything else. His life was the room, he did not know how he would manage after he went back to work in another weeks time. The bedsheets stayed a mess, their clothes tossed around bore testimony to the active love-birds busy life. Unlike other young married girls of this city, Asin was daring enough to indulge in an active sexual life. She loved his hairy chest, his broad shoulders, his sharp features, and could look into his dreamy eyes forever. For her, he was the man of her dreams, who was going to fulfil her every wish. Little did she know that Joy, very contrary to his name, was a grumpy man given to depression every now and then. No one spoke of that, how would she know. They had barely courted for a month before they had got married.

He had started to go to work and they missed each other initially. The bedsheets were made early every morning now. The room is neat and clean. The sounds of the kitchen, running water, the clanging of utensils, grinding ingredients in the blender for a hearty breakfast, juice and a packed lunch, Asin got busy in the grind of family life. Joy would be back from work, get busy reading the papers, watch television, enter the room, change his clothes and now without even a touch of acknowledgement of the captivating life of the days gone by, would go off to sleep. As days went by, Asin lost the lustre in her eyes, puzzled, did not know how to tackle this strange turn in her ecstatic life.

The tryst with their bedroom over before they could think. She was then told of this malady that afflicted him every now and then. She felt cheated, but they were married now, and she had to abide by the sacred vows they had taken. She was resourceful enough and would never give in to the feeling of failure. She would set it right and do as much as was in her capacity to see them thrive well in this world. She was already carrying their baby, the bedroom would be a joyous place again, a place of love once again. For now, her thoughts just took her to this tricky, delicately perilous place called marriage.