Of Leaders and Losers 8. The “Omniscient” Foister of Motives

No one is Omniscient. Except for God. If you are a believer, that is. We believed that the world was flat until……… well, you already knew it! In daily interactions, one comes across very confident individuals, masquerading as self- styled “Omniscient” people, who brag about their “wisdom” about worldly matters. Many tend to trust their judgement in one issue or the other. True, they would have gathered their “wisdom” based on their own experience or those of the ones they knew. But, that does NOT make them worldly wise. The world always challenges the existing wisdom, to ensure nothing is absolute and permanent. One cannot afford to get fixated with certain views. Yes, you got it right-- for the first time, I am chronicling a loser.

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“You women always take aeons to get ready. How long will you take?” shouted Kiran. After a two- minute wait which seemed like two hours for him, Kranti came out. He stared at her. She wore a parrot green crepe saree with a pink border, with a matching pink designer blouse, and a matching gold- and- ruby necklace, earrings and bangles set. Her thick and plaited long hair played host to three arm- lengths of jasmines, but they did not seem to be out of place in that matching pattern. Her rose pink lips smiled in anticipation of some appreciation from her newly- married hubby.

“Why do you indulge in cheap things?” was the unpleasant, and unfortunate reaction.

“Cheap things? This saree has gold zari. It costs eight thousand rupees. This necklace, earrings and bangles set costs twenty thousand…..”. “I am talking about your lipstick”, he interrupted. “Oh, this! This is not cheap. It is of a world famous brand, and costs a hundred and twenty..”.

“Stop that ‘Tol mol ke bol’, won’t you? I know you are wearing expensive things. I thought you were a family- type but you seem to be behaving like a s***.”

Kranti had tears in her eyes. She was fond of dressing up for an occasion. And she always dressed decently. Whenever she dressed up like this, her father would always find her as Goddess Mahalakshmi! And here, another person of her father’s gender, who is in an intimate relationship with her by wedlock, was directly calling her a woman of easy virtue! How mean! This fellow has a fancy degree from a prestigious institution but his brain seems to be full of dirt!

“I have dressed decently. See, I wear a sleeved blouse, I wear my saree well ….no one gets to have an obscene view of any part of my body. If that be the case, please tell me so; I’d set it right.” Still, she could not figure out what her husband was talking about.

“Stop that, Kranti”, Kiran said, visibly irritated, and added, “As a member of the sales management team, I have been to many places and seen my colleagues fall for the charms of these dirty women; the common trait I noticed was that these women all have bright colours on their lips. And mind you, I was self- disciplined, and never indulged in such embarrassing acts”.

She was well bred too; she had a fondness for lipstick, and not nail polish. Her conservative mother purchased the best one in town but allowed her to apply it for only photo sessions or when she was at home. Needless to say, she did not adorn her lips with colour on the day they had met for the first and last time before their wedding, in deference to her mother’s restrictions. She did not have to argue with anybody for applying lipstick on her wedding day. Even conservative families let their girls dress up with a lot of make- up for occasions, so lip stick was no big deal. It was the early 1990s. People started to realise the value of a well- paid white collared private job, and that was how Kiran got Kranti- he was earning as much as her on-the-verge-of-retirement dad was.

Kranti was deeply hurt- if she should give him the benefit of doubt, she would have thought that Kiran used the word as an expletive, but she did not want to retain a bitter memory of her first party, so she backtracked, removed her lipstick, and attended the party. She found that most of the women had applied lipstick, and their husbands did not seem to be bothered about it. A few days later, she mustered up the courage to ask him about that. “The rich are governed by a different set of morals. Don’t get into that”, came the reply. When she tried to raise a few supplementaries, Kiran got irritated and told her, “One should be a Roman in Rome. I carry a goblet in my hand in such parties, but you know very well that I have not tasted wine so far. You are my wife and will be bound by what I believe in”, he declared. By the same logic, she should have been allowed to have her way, right? But, that was not to be. See, he’s running with the hares and hunting with the hounds!

After a few days, Kranti mentioned it to her mother. The latter shrugged it away, saying, “He may be a little old fashioned in thinking. Just like me. You tell me that he is free from vices, not even ogling.  Be happy about it. Your father could not take his eyes off any fair- skinned girl or woman who crossed his path. Your hubby is definitely better than his father-in-law. Take my advice, dear, and forget lipstick, and be happy with him”.

*****

“Did Lakshya return home or not?” asked Kiran, on returning home at 10 p.m. one evening. “She may have, but what is the problem?” Kranti asked, while serving food for the two of them. “I was returning from a meeting at the Penta when I saw her on the road, dressed to the kill, and with a boy. Better check out from her parents if she returned.” Kranti felt that he was more sarcastic than concerned about the well- being of their neighbour’s daughter, who was a student in the local engineering college.

Kranti wanted to make sure the girl was safe, so she called Lakshya’s mother. “Vanita, hi, how are you? I’m fine, thank you. Will you please check out if she’s free to do a mehendi design for me? Oh…oh okay, no big deal…No hurry whatsoever. Some other day, good night”. “There you go, I know the world, so I can never go wrong!” exclaimed Kiran.

“Sorry, you are wrong. Lakshya had gone to attend the wedding of one of her seniors in a Kalyana Mandapam close to the Penta. She went there with a male classmate of hers. You would have seen them together. She had got back just now, and was changing into nightwear. May I request you to please give people the benefit of doubt?” Kranti said, with folded palms, mostly out of frustration. Yes, she could afford to show the occasional irreverence, as she was a decade into wedlock, a period which saw them become parents of two boys. Professionally, Kiran grew up to be the Vice- President (Sales) of the FMCG Company he was working for. She wondered how her husband managed this lop-sided rise in life, while refusing to grow up in the matters of liberalism. It was her karma that she took the timid decision to continue with the relationship. If only her mother were more encouraging…

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“Kranti, do you understand my pessimism? A flesh trade racket has been busted in a posh locality”.

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“Have food at the prescribed time. Don’t burn midnight oil. If you have to study, wake up early, at the Brahmi Muhurtam. Only sick people wake up late, okay? Don’t give in to vices. No smoking, no booze. Mind it. Also, beware of girls. The moment they learn that you are the son of a well- to-do man, they’ll try all their charms to rob you of your pocket money and your innocence.” This was how Kiran was seeing off his 17- year-old elder son, Sagar, to a prestigious institution for engineering studies.  “I can get your concern as a parent, but why are you paranoid about girls?” asked Kranti. “That’s because they are what they are”, came the curt reply. “Don’t say that. ‘As you sow, so shall you reap’”.

 “Not in this birth. Ha ha, I have been blessed with male children, so I can use any cuss word about women”, he retorted. Kranti regretted continuing in the relationship. What an MCP he was! If all men were innocent, why would there be many atrocities against women? Surely, bride- burning by the mother- in- law was not so frequent as other crimes against women. She prayed that her children be more progressive than their father!

It was a repeat scene two years later, when the second son also made it to the hostel- of a premier medical educational institution.

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Of late, Kiran’s bragging about his sons’ achievements knew no bounds. Not that bragging would make him a loser. After Engineering, Sagar crossed the seas to pursue management studies in the London School of Business. Vivek was also doing well in medicine. The parents were excited about Sagar’s visit, which was to happen at Christmas time. Vivek would come home a couple of days later. “Sagar is fond of Kandi podi. I will make it fresh on the day he arrives; I must make sure to stack ridge gourd for dal, and drumstick for the milk curry. After Vivek returns, we can eat out- say, Little Italy?” Kranti planned excitedly. “Let’s plan some outing. What about stay in a jungle lodge? Or, may be, in some resort in a hill station?” planned Kiran.

They went to the airport and waited impatiently as the flight from JFK slowly brought itself to a halt. They could see Sagar assisting a girl with her luggage. “My son is a gentleman”, thought Kranti; “Has this fellow fallen for this girl?” was Kiran’s. The latter was right. After all, he had seen the world! “Amma and Nanna, meet Kavya, the girl I am in love with. Would you mind if I brought her home? Or, should I check her into a hotel?” Too much. But how could a respectable person leave a girl to the wind? So they took her home and gave her Vivek’s room. She wore a pair of jeans for travel, and changed into a mini skirt and T- shirt and applied elaborate make up- foundation cream, lip stick, blushes and eye liner. Kranti was shocked. Kiran was speechless. There was also an element of public display of affection as well, which angered Kiran. A few days later, when Kavya was having her bath, Kiran questioned Sagar.

“Are you living in?”

“No, Nanna. We are friends who are in love. Nothing physical between us, as yet.”

“How did you fall for her? For the revealing clothes that she wears, or for the make up?”

“Neither of them, Nanna. In Amma’s upbringing, I learnt not to gaze greedily. Dressing and make up were her choice, but she stole my heart by…”.

“Buttering up to you and waxing eloquent your non- existent virtues!”

“No, Nanna! You are on the wrong foot, totally. She’s an American- Indian, born and brought up in the USA. We met in London. She’s good at studies, Western classical violin, and, on weekends, she volunteers at a half- way home for mental patients, to help them learn skills in order to cope with life after the asylum. She could have been like me, partying hard! But, she chose to give something to those sections of the people who can never repay it. It is this selflessness that won me over!”

Kranti, who overheard the conversation, went over to Kavya’s room and dressed her up in Indian attire. No wonder, she looked like Goddess Mahalakshmi. After staring at the girl, Kranti asked for her lipstick & brightened her lips. It was really long since she had touched the item. It was a brown shade of the same old international brand that she had used, decades ago. Her daughter-in-law need not suppress her desires unlike her. Sagar’s further explanation settled the issue of his marriage, and when Kavya walked in like a demure conservative lass, the elderly couple wondered if this day could be the date of the childrens’ wedding.

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And finally, the “Ommniscient” Kiran, Vice- President (Sales) of a well-known FMCG company, bit the humble pie.

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