AS BRITTLE AS GLASS

She opened her bleary eyes when the cat, all seven pounds of squirming flesh, climbed onto her belly. Squinting into the sunlight streaming in from the open window, she discovered that she was now the weary possessor of a pounding headache, and at some point, had managed to lose both a tooth and a spouse. However, she was not ready to call it quits just yet. She was a fighter. She was like this since childhood. Her parents would testify for this. As a child, she had defeated a terminal disease called Cancer. Therefore, headaches were not new to her. She had dealt with them since childhood.

However, this time, it appeared, the headache would last longer. The cat was behaving weird. She was not her normal self today. It appeared that she was sick. However, Prakriti had no way of telling, until of course, she went to a vet. Prakriti did not know of any veterinary doctor for miles from where she was staying. Therefore, it appeared that the sick cat would make her see stars in the day. Many times since the cat’s arrival, the latter had got in the way of people from the family and had got hurt. However, her pain lasted only for an hour. She was back to normal after that.

Nonetheless, this time, things were different. The cat was howling loudly. She appeared to be in pain. However, she could not tell her owners where the pain came from. Prakriti immediately called up an emergency number on her cell and asked for the nearest veterinary hospital. The person at the other end gave her an address, which she noted down on a piece of paper. Prakriti decided to take the cat to this hospital, which was twenty miles away. She began hunting for the keys of her car. She found that the keys were not in the designated place, on the mantelpiece.

She immediately understood that her husband, Suraj might have taken them. She called out for Suraj; however, there was no response. Suraj was not at home. 

Prakriti had brought home the cat from the street. She was almost going to be eaten by a very big dog when Prakriti chanced to set her eyes on her. Prakriti was looking for a pet to love. Therefore, when this cat came before her, she did not think twice before picking her up and cuddling it. It was a good replacement for children. It allowed Prakriti to shower her love and affection on her. In the absence of any children in their home, she was a welcome animal. Since the time she had come, she had become Prakriti’s favorite pet.

Prakriti began liking her so much that she used to take her to bed with her. This annoyed Suraj to no end. However, Prakriti was not one to listen. The practice of sleeping with the cat continued, to the consternation of Suraj. Prakriti loved the cat so much that she would scold Suraj for the cat. She was now the apple of Prakriti’s eye. Prakriti could find no fault with her. She had become a bundle of love that had entered Prakriti’s life and created a niche space for her, in it. Having said that, Prakriti had trained the cat, since the time she had arrived.

Therefore, it was no wonder that she was cordial to everyone. She was at her best behavior when Prakriti and Suraj entertained friends at home. The couple began loving her so much that she had almost replaced a child at home. She had become the cynosure of not only the couple’s eyes, but also of their friends so much so that whenever they came to visit the couple, they would play with her. In fact, some friends came to see specially the cat, and not Prakriti and Suraj. Such was her influence on people. Prakriti had begun to fancy her to be her child and she had started feeding her milk.

However, right now, the cat was howling with pain. Prakriti called up Suraj on her cell. There was no response. Then she found that he had left his cell phone at home. Suraj always informed her where he was going. However, today, he had left without telling Prakriti anything about where he was going. Prakriti was surprised. Prakriti then called a private cab and boarded it, when it arrived. She gave the driver the address of the hospital, which she had taken down on the paper. The driver nodded and drove off. In half an hour, Prakriti reached the hospital. She immediately asked for a veterinarian.

The doctor came, examined the cat and pronounced that she had a urinary tract infection. He said that the cat’s urethra was blocked because of this disease. The vet said, the pain was coming from the urethra. The vet prescribed some medicines and directed Prakriti to give the cat according to the prescription. He did not suggest any diet changes. The vet asked Prakriti to come back after one week. He gave the cat one dose of the medicine there itself to ease her pain. The medicine was in the form of syrup. As soon as the cat was given the medicine, her bawling stopped.

Prakriti thanked the doctor and returned home. Suraj had still not returned. Now she began wondering where he had gone. Her wonder changed to worry when Suraj did not return even at midnight. Prakriti decided to launch a missing person complaint at the nearest police station the next morning. This was when she saw the cat pointing in one direction and beckoning to her to follow her there. First, Prakriti did not understand what the cat was saying. However, then she understood and followed her to the location she was indicating. Prakriti brought out a square piece of paper from under a side table. Suraj had scribbled a message on it. 

The message said, “If I do not come by midnight, lodge a missing person’s complaint in the nearest police station”. The next morning, when Prakriti got up, Suraj was there, sleeping on the sofa, in the drawing room. He had returned at three o’ clock that morning and had gone to sleep on the sofa, so as not to disturb Prakriti in her sleep. Prakriti woke him up and began complaining about his having gone without informing her. Suraj told her that he had received a call from his office and had to go. The call had come so suddenly that he did not have time to inform her.

Suraj then told Prakriti that his immediate boss was involved in some illegal activity and he had called up last night asking Suraj to help him. Suraj had gone to meet him, at his residence. Only Suraj knew about his boss’s illegal activities. No one else had access to his secrets. He had taken care that only Suraj should know about it. This was done so that he could seek the latter’s help when required. Suraj had gone to see him and tell him that he was not interested in associating with his illegal activity and that he did not wish to get involved in it, irrespective of how much money he gave Suraj.

Suraj had left the note because he thought that his boss would harm him. However, nothing of the sort happened and Suraj could escape from his boss’s clutches without much trouble. Now, Suraj asked Prakriti to accompany her to the nearest police station. He wanted to complain about his boss’s activities. They both went to Sultanpur police station and filed an FIR against Suraj’s boss, Prakash. This Prakash was the same person who had rejected Prakriti on their first night, after their marriage. Then she had married Suraj, who was a widower with no children. They had been together for seven years now and were leading a happy life.

Prakriti did not know this fact because she had not yet seen Prakash. They had been college friends and from there they had grown to love each other. They had decided to get married in a temple because none of their families supported the marriage. They got married on 14 February 2010. Prakash had rejected her on the first night because his boss had offered him an opportunity to represent the company abroad. However, his condition was that he would be selected only if he did not marry. Therefore, giving priority to his profession, Prakash left Prakriti. However, he had come back now.

He had stayed abroad for ten years and now was back after earning a decent amount of money. He was back to cause discord in the couple’s happy married life. Prakriti had not told Suraj about her first marriage, fearing he would not approve of it. On the other hand, Suraj had told her everything about him and his life. He loved her very much and trusted that she would not leave him, as his first wife had left him, for her heavenly abode. She had left him all alone in this world. This was when he came across Prakriti and they got married.

In the morning, Suraj woke up and narrated to Prakriti all the happenings of the previous night. His boss’ wife had made the call. He had been summoned to the police station by her and wanted him to come immediately. She wanted him to pay the bail required, as she did not have that much money on her. She told him, she would pay him back, once Prakash came out of jail. However, nothing of that sort happened. Suraj paid the bail amount of Rs 1, 00,000 and got him out. Prakash went straight home without thanking Suraj, leave alone return the money back.

At about 1030 am in the morning, Prakash and his wife came to visit Suraj and Prakriti, without warning. Prakriti was surprised at seeing Prakash. Even after all these years, she had not forgotten Prakash and he had not forgotten her. They decided to keep quiet about their alliance and behave as if they did not know each other. Suraj did not suspect anything. They had come to visit the couple to thank them for what Suraj had done for Prakash. They stayed until noon. At noon, Prakash got up to leave. They promised to keep in touch and left.

The next day, news about Prakash was published in the newspapers. His whole life story had been published. Everything including his marriage to Prakriti was in the papers. Even Prakriti’s photo was published. Prakash read the news and was very angry. All along, he had believed that Prakriti would never lie to him. However, he had been wrong. He now asked Prakriti why she had hidden this fact about her past life from him. Prakriti had no answer to give him. All she could say was that she loved him immensely and thought if she told him about it, he would never have married her.

Suraj was so angry that he decided to separate. Prakriti tried in vain to reason out with Suraj. However, he was not ready to see reason. He kept on repeating the allegation that Prakriti had betrayed the trust Suraj had on her. She had not told him something that she should have told him. Suraj decided to separate from her the next month. He could not continue to live with her any longer. He called up his office colleague to narrate to him the happenings. His colleague promised that he would get a lawyer to help Suraj. Next month, Prakriti and Suraj filed their divorce claim. Suraj filed for divorce and Prakriti gave her assent for it.

She was broken beyond repair. She could not see where to go from here. Her cat provided no direction to her. She called up her mother and confided in her. She suggested that Prakriti should return to her mother’s place. Prakriti did so, the next month. Suraj decided he would leave the house for Prakriti. He knew Prakriti’s parent’s financial condition and therefore, he decided that Prakriti will have the house and that he would relocate to Goa. His company had a guesthouse there and had operations. Suraj decided he would request his boss to send him to Goa.

He was thinking that he would never be able to trust any woman any more, after what Prakriti had done to him. His trust on her was as brittle as glass. Meanwhile, in keeping with her love for animals, Prakriti decided to start working for an NGO working for animals. It appeared that all her efforts to love Suraj had gone in vain. She had not been able to cultivate love in his heart for her. He would have not left her, if he loved her. She was thankful that she had joined the NGO, because she became quite vulnerable after the divorce.

She began spending more time in her NGO job. Suraj meanwhile was preparing to go to Goa. Prakriti began to think, were relationships so brittle as to break down so easily? She decided not to get married again and devote her life to the cause of animals. It was the NGO, which had helped the couple secure the cat. It was ironical therefore that it should prove to be a source of support for Prakriti in her sorrow. Her trust in relationships had completely broken down. She started thinking, it was better to love animals than human beings. She felt animals were at least grateful for the love they were showered with.