A devastating evening!

Lekha and I’d gone on an errand this morning to the tailor and to purchase a few medicines for the both of us. We, then, dropped in at Lekha’s elder sister’s place and I was able to check my mail and answer the ones that needed them. The internet coverage at my house and around have been erratic. Remember? 

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The afternoon was dull, the sky, grey with a threatening rain and by sunset, it had begun to pour just as I was waiting to hear the evening edition of the Malayalam news. I’ve always found that there’s something or the other to play spoilsport when one waits for anything anxiously. This evening it was the rain that made the dish antenna erratic and the electricity, too, played truant!

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The evening turned out to be eventful, sad and devastating. Sanil announced that he was gonna live separately from Mini. A fine Maths teacher with a fairly all round knowledge of things, he has a problem of ‘alcohol dependency’. I’d actually waited for his daughter’s wedding to get over to tackle this menace by putting him through the paces of a de-addiction centre. Through the day, he’d polished off a 750 ml bottle and had begun to slur. There was no point in crossing swords with him at that juncture and I just listened to his input that he was repeating.

Actually, years back, it was my dad who said that it would be up to me to take certain harsh decisions on behalf of the family and such an eventuality had fetched up now. I’d gone into a huddle with my sisters and Lekha to help me arrive at a decision. Sanil has to be left alone - at least, for a while – but my inner self says that he’d be hurtling towards his destruction once he leaves his wife of 25 years. To my specific question as to why he’d arrived at this decision, he said that he craved for physical relationship that was lacking while my sister was equally vehement about the impossible aspect of maintaining such fine relations with a person who was alcohol dependent!

The irony is that Ammu and Mithun are arriving tomorrow to be with us for a couple of days and we’ve planned to cut their wedding anniversary cake during that occasion. Would it be a farce?........No, because all of us including the daughter and son-in-law are aware of his waywardness in this regard.

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As I can see, Sanil drives off to Bangalore on Sunday morning along with Mini. After winding up her personal effects, Mini will return to us at Guruvayur after a few days and will also stay at Palakkad, with Rema, Padmakumar and Achu, in between. Meanwhile, Ammu and Mithun will set up their home at Coimbatore and after a lapse of a year or at an opportune moment, she’ll shift along with them. That’s the crystal ball gazing that I shall venture for the time being.



Tailpiece. 

As the brother, the disintegration of my kid sister's marriage will happen during my watch, a situation that I have no control of and that pains me immensely.......and I hate it but there's no point in prolonging the agony for both the parties among whom, finer feelings and love and respect for each other have long, since, disappeared.