The Ungrateful Daughter

CHAPTER THREE

The next day after class, the man was still there but he didn’t even bother to spare me a glance. I was pretty sure he had seen me out of the corner of his eye but he kept his gaze fixed on the road. My heart no longer felt the need to beat wildly upon seeing him. I walked past with a proud little smile playing on my lips and even stopped by Mathews chettan’s store to get a pack of Lays and a small can of Frooti.

I spoke with Ammi over the usual evening chai and snacks - the Lays and Frooti had done nothing to pacify my hunger - and there was some exciting news. Ammi’s relatives would come over and stay for the weekend.

“Are Aman and Ayan coming?” I asked.

“Yes,” Ammi smiled.

“And Zyed and Sana?”

“Yes.” Wow. This was going to be fun.

I bathed and dressed quicker than I usually do on Fridays and was helping Ammi in the kitchen as they came. Ammi’s two sisters and their families.

Dinner was a fun affair with Ayan pretending like the dinner table was a road jam-packed with vehicles disguised as dishes every time I asked him to pass something, little Sana making shapes with her rice, Aman irritating Ryan every few minutes and Zyed trying to show off his newly-grown moustache.

After dinner, our mothers cleared the table and washed the dishes as we and our fathers made ourselves comfortable in the living room, with bowls of pudding. When the last plate was washed and the last drop of spilled gravy had been wiped off the kitchen counters, Ammi and her sisters joined us in the living room.

Throwing jibes at each other and irritating the hell out of the youngest cousins - Ryan and Sana – we shouted and mocked and roared with laughter. Conversations spiralled in every direction possible. And one of Ammi’s sisters asked her, “How’s Liya now? Anything new?”

The happiness evaporated from the air. Everyone was listening in.

“No, she’s still staying with her parents.” Oh, Liya is divorced. Sorry to have left out her ‘major tag’.

“The poor child had had a bright future ahead of her,” said the aunt who had enquired about her.

“If only Rhea had not messed up. Why did she have to bring utter ruin to an innocent girl’s life?” piped in Ammi’s other sister. Rhea messed up? I sat still, pretending to be very interested in the loose threads of my top.

“What I don’t get is why it triggered her even when Liya was alright with it.”

“She didn’t even take responsibility for breaking up Liya and Samir. If she had the guts to take responsibility, she wouldn’t have run away.” She ran away? I tried to control the zillion emotions and questions that cluttered my mind.

And all through this, Ammi and Abba were silent. I sneaked glances at them and saw the evident grief and anger in their eyes. The conversation ended there abruptly and everyone was suddenly mocking Zyed for showing off his few hairs. Whether it is that my relatives noticed my parents’ discomfort, or that they noticed me listening in, I shall never know, for nobody spoke of it again.

That night, after the pillow fights and midnight snacks and snuggling in bed and last minute peeing, everyone had settled themselves and sunken deep in the comfort of their soft blankets. But I lay awake, watching the little red spot of light flickering slightly from the emergency lamp being charged.

Liya is my favourite cousin and I couldn’t imagine why someone would ruin her life. And that someone was my sister. Liya was the only one who would listen to my pointless rants and play along, while everyone found me annoying.

I thought of the strange flicker in her eyes when I had spoken of Rhea the previous evening. Everything seemed clearer now – all that talk about recognizing one’s own worth. Maybe that’s what she had failed to do when Rhea interfered with her life.

I closed my eyes and pictured her clearly and felt the warmth of my tears beneath my closed eyelids. I hated myself for having mentioned it to her. And for the first time in my life, I hated my sister with all my heart. I had barely known Rhea. Given that we are eighteen years apart, I don’t even know when I saw her last or when she ran away.

I heard Ayan snore and wondered why none of my cousins seemed even slightly bothered with the talk. Maybe because she’s not their sister. No, I wasn’t going to cling on to that bond. I hated Rhea with all my heart. I didn’t want her to be my sister. How could someone be so cruel?