chapter 11

At this Chetana, who was silently enjoying the class from a distance, couldn’t prevent herself from laughing out. The man sighed and raised his hands in surrender.“A jackfruit, I guess,” he finally said.Chetana joined in as the whole class burst into peals of laughter. She strained her neck to see the face of the man but the huge hat that he was wearing shielded it from her view.“Now let’s learn the next letter in the alphabet,” the man said as he opened his textbook again.The ringtone of her mobile phone beckoned Chetana’s attention and she pulled it out from her bag. Her smile faded out slowly and she kept staring at the phone numbly as she read Anant’s name on the screen. A sharp pang pierced through her at the thought of his infidelity and prompted her to hang up on him but then she trampled the pain and decided to take the call.“Hey, how are you?” Anant asked in a warm voice as soon as she answered.“Fine,” Chetana said coldly repressing the emotional tempest churning within her.“Richa called me a little ago,” Anant said with a teasing giggle. “She seemed a bit upset. Did you two have a little fight?”“It’s just…” Chetana’s face turned ashen as Richa’s brutal words rang in her ears, “nothing.”“That’s okay, Chithu.” Anant’s voice was drenched in tenderness. “You know how confused these teenagers are. They themselves have no idea what they say and what they do. You have to be a lot more patient with her.”Chetana kept her gaze fixed on the ocean without saying anything in return.“Anyway, let’s go for an outing together after we return and sort out our differences.”“Anant,” Chetana held her breath as she said, “I am in Goa, right now.”“Goa?” The surprise was evident in his voice.“Yes, I felt like having an outing. I am on a week-long vacation here.”She wanted him to be shocked, astonished and mad at her for leaving the house without even caring to ask for his permission. The vengeance bubbling inside her had found a way to punish her husband for cheating on her. But she was not at all prepared for what came next.“That’s great, Chithu!” Anant’s exuberance flowed through the phone. “I was about to suggest you do something similar. But then I thought that you would not listen to it and I dropped the idea. It’s a good thing, what you have done. Otherwise, how boring it would have been for you to stay all alone in that house of ours!”Exasperation tormented her as Chetana saw her plan of revenge fail miserably.“The clients are here, sir.” Adira’s voice came from the background.There was a small pause and Chetana deduced it to be the time taken by Anant to gesture Adira to remain silent as he was busy befooling his wife.“I have to go, sweetie,” Anant said before hanging up, “enjoy your vacation.”“Maybe, he just doesn’t care about me anymore…” Chetana glared at the phone after she hung up. “It really doesn’t matters to him whether I am at home or in Goa or in hell! But then, why should it? Who cares about his wife when he is with his mistress?”She hid her face in her hands and sobbed, her tears breaking the bund of tolerance.“Spending time with yourself is good until you become addicted to it.”Chetana raised her head from her hands as she heard a soft baritone. She wiped her tears and turned to see the man, who was teaching the children. He was sitting on a beach chair adjacent to hers. She identified him by the big, round hat and his flowery shirt but it was for the first time that she was seeing his face.       He seemed to be in his mid-forties, but the innocent smile on his face made him look even younger. His face was quite a treat to look at except for the ugly patches of dark circles beneath his eyes. His cheeks were gaunt and pale but his eyes spoke of liveliness and confidence. She couldn’t point out what it was but something about him made him seem familiar to her.“Hi,” he said as he held out his hand to her, “I am Sam.”“Chetana,” she said as she shook hands with him but then added after a thoughtful pause, “Mrs. Chetana Anant Subramanian.”“Ah!” he said with a tilt of his head, “understood.”“What?” Chetana fixed her eyes on the vast expanse of the sea ahead of them.“The extra emphasis you put on ‘Mrs’ was intended to warn m.,” He looked at her with an impish smile.His words made her chuckle. She turned to look at him and they both ended up laughing.“So where are ‘Mr’ Anant Subramaniayan and the army of kids?” Sam looked around the beach.“He is in Singapore for a client meeting. He is a businessman. And our daughter is in Bangalore for a study tour.” Chetana’s face fell as she thought about her broken family.“And you miss them?” Sam asked after studying her face carefully.“I feel so alone.” Chetana could no longer restrain her sorrow and it spilled out in front of an absolute stranger.“It’s wrong to say that you are alone,” Sam stretched himself comfortably on the beach chair and looked leisurely at the ocean. “Family is the name of the bond that holds us all together forever, in spite of the distance and the differences.”“I guess, time has weakened the bonds and has made us drift apart into different worlds.” The faces of Anant and Richa danced in front of Chetana’s eyes.“Neither time nor distance can ever weaken the bonds of true love.”The words of this stranger seem to soothe the gashes on Chetana’s soul that were made by those who were her own. A little vitality pumped up through her almost shattered mind and she took her time to analyze the stranger who brought a little light and warmth in her dark world.“So, what do you do, Mr. Sam?” Chetana attempted to smile at him.“I own a firm in Mumbai that specializes in manufacture and export of computer hardware.” Sam turned to look her. “But currently I am on one of the best vacations of my life.”“And what about your family?” Chetana was curious to know more about him. “Are they here?”“I wish I could bring them along with me, but…”“But, what happened?” Deep down, she was worried whether Sam was also suffering from the same plight as hers.