01: Ashwini: The horse woman
Thirty years ago:
"It was a mistake
Garima." Surya is distraught. Garima glares at her best friend's husband.
"You had an affair for
the entirety of your marriage Surya. For three long years." Garima bites
out in anger. Surya looks momentarily ashamed but he bounces back quickly.
"It didn't mean anything
Garima. Sanjana knows that." He holds his head in his hands and begs for
some reprieve from the pain that is cyclically ripping his skin and stitching
back up.
Garima looks at him coldly. "I am angry at you for both my best friend's sake and also on behalf of
the woman who you were screwing behind your wife's back. Taking a f**king stand
Surya."
Garima doesn't miss the flash of annoyance that crosses
Surya's face. She knows him. Has known him for years, as long as her best
friend, his wife has known him. She knows he an asshole with no moral compass.
Sanjana thinks Garima has outdated set of morals.
"Who is the woman?"
Garima asks when Surya simmers in his chair. Surya avoids looking at Garima and
shrugs carelessly.
"It doesn't matter G. I
have ended things with her. Besides, it's none of your f**king business."
Surya almost yells. Garima watches him through the thick of her eyelashes,
maintaining a stoic interface. "And for
her sake, I won't tell you who it is."
"Do I know this other
woman then?" Garima asks, narrowing her eyes. She gets another disingenuous
careless shrug as a response. She wants to throttle him.
"Is Sanjana okay? I want
to fix things with her G. I may have had an affair. But I always I came home. Home
to Sanjana, my wife." Surya rationalizes.
Garima screams into a throw pillow and when that isn't
enough to shroud her rage, she throws it at Surya's head. "You are such a f**king asshole. You slept with someone else and you
have no idea the extent of damage you have caused on your wife. She is betrayed
by your choices, you asshole. She wants to hate you but you are her first and
only love. She is confused and she doesn't want to see you."
Surya hangs his head and doesn't reply for a long moment. "I don't know why you did that Surya." He
looks up when he hears another voice near him. He knows that voice. He loves
that voice. He has made that voice yell in happiness, scream in pleasure and
now its desperate in misery. He did that. He hates himself for making the
gentle voice hoarse.
"Sanjana." He
stammers.
"What are you doing?"
Surya hears Garima hissing to her friend. He is oblivious to the whispers of
the two women. He is twirling the tail of his wife's sari and has no plans of
letting go.
"Let's go home,"
he hears her say.
"Are you forgiving me?"
He is surprised.
She smiles weakly at him. "Not yet. Someday, maybe."
Hope clutches his chest and squeezes painfully. "I can live with that."
Sanjana and Surya go back to their home much to Garima's
displeasure. "He is sorry for getting
caught Sanjana, not for the affair." To which Sanjana had responded - We will figure it out.
Garima had given up trying to understand Surya's
philandering ways and Sanjana's It will
all get better mentality.
A year later Garima was holding her god children in her
arms. The twins - Arnav and Anjali as the new parents Sanjana and Surya proudly
looked on.
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