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Part III
With failed attempt of pushing her horrific experience of a few hours back and to get some sleep, her mind was now contemplating on how the most awaited event ruined the entire day’s celebration.
Free from her grip his hand was busy shaking with theirs one by one and her hand hung all alone by her shoulder. “Come, meet my college friends, Alok, Pitam, and Akash. Since they couldn’t make it for our wedding they planned a surprise visit on our anniversary.” Not able to understand she stood there deadpan. Giving a hearty laugh continued “This is the surprise I was talking about; in fact, this was a surprise for me too as I was informed about their visit this morning itself.” When his truth finally pervaded her mind, dismayed she thought “So this was the surprise? The thrilled look, the twinkle in his eyes the mystical smile all for this?” suddenly she realized “no romantic dinner, no expensive gifts, nothing? Just b of men?”She then could visualize all her assumptions of the diamond ring and diamond sets fading away in the thin air. She could do nothing but sit there act elated and thrilled by their presence. And yes, she did succeed in doing so.
Reflecting on the discussions; rather disclosures of her husband’s past, by his friends made her think “were they really talking about the same guy I have married?” Her eyes now affixed on him she was not able to decide as on which one is the real Raj, the one prior to their wedding or the one who is now living with her as her husband? Cogitating over the revelation a few hours back when she was seated quietly there on the dinner table with hardly had anything to contribute to the conversation among the four men. But yes, the topic of discussion was, her husband, she was there with all attentive ears. Three men’s revelation about her husband with the increasing glasses of liquor they devoured as the time passed was quite shocking for her. According to them, her husband was the most notorious and the greatest prankster. When one of his friends, introduced as Pritam, asked her “You must be having a tough time handling him.” She nodded with a smile, but in her mind “really?” Preeti tried delving all over the year back’s memory but failed to recall a single such atrocity of him. Instead, he was quite austere, though a fun loving person but not notorious or a prankster. Raj seated there was having a great ride down the memory lane of his old and most precious memories. And Preeti sat deadhead as the topic now included everything else but her husband, which was least of her interest. With observant eyes and ample of time to speculate over his behavior that she was witnessing, she came to a conclusion; this was not the Raj she knew. She had never seen him drink so hard, of course, a glass or two on office parties or dinner outing but tonight it was incalculable. She was with him for a year but never seen him this happy and behaving this different. Is this the real him? If yes, then why isn’t he like this with me? Is he not happy with me? All sorts of questions were running wild in her mind. Her contemplation was soon put to halt when Akash, one of his friends came up with a scandalous past of Raj which restored her interest back to the colloquy. Maybe it was the side effect of liquor they had been pouring that erased her presence from their mind made them bring this ‘Controversial matter.’ “ Raj I hope you remember that girlfriend of yours whom you had eloped with” everybody gave a hearty laugh (except for Raj) he continued “… what was her name? …Ah! Anita… What a lady she was, must admit, even I secretly admired her…. Seriously what a lady and …remember that Cab driver…” That instance the realization of Preeti’s presence caught them by . Silence engulfed the environment and everyone focused on their plates for a while. The gossip shifted to the office and their responsibilities which was niggling to her interest. She tried to bring Anita to clarify the arising questions in her mind, but Anita was never invited back to the conversation again.
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