Choices

By Sunitha Punniyamurthy

She could feel all the eyes in the room scanning her from top to bottom with anger and contempt. But she didn’t care, all she cared was how Mira would react. She saw the nanny bringing Mira, walked up to her, and lifted her with a smile on her face. Mira smiled instantly as though she knew Savitha from before. As she sat down, Mrs Kumar said “Mira is a child, her accepting you doesn’t mean that we will accept you. I still don’t know what was Ravi thinking. Sending you here instead of coming himself.” Savitha smiled “He was hoping his mother would support his decision and welcome his wife. For me, Mira’s love is more important than all of your acceptance.”

Jia snapped back “You should be ashamed of stealing another women’s fiancé.”

Savitha calmly said “It is still better than marrying on pretence. Every room in this house has a camera. Ravi heard and knew you wanted to marry him for wealth and wanted to conceive your kid after the wedding.” “What is wrong with that, everyone here wanted Ravi to have an heir. We wanted him to have a life after Jahnvi passed away.” retorted Mrs.Kumar.

“I don’t want to talk about past matters. Ravi trusts me with his life and Mira. As per his wish and as his wife I will be staying here with Mira from now on.” said Savitha firmly.

“Of course, the past doesn’t matter to you, as we don’t know anything about your past. How can we trust our granddaughter with a stranger? For 2 years he has been avoiding marriage talks saying he didn’t want anyone else in his or Mira’s life. Now suddenly he moves to London for months. Maybe he was having an affair with you all along, maybe even when Jahnvi was alive.” shouted Mr. Shah.

Before Savitha could respond, Mrs. Shah walked up to her husband and held his hand. “I saw how much Ravi suffered when we lost our daughter. He deserves happiness. So what if he married someone outside our circle? I trust his decision and we should keep an open mind.”

Savitha smiled “Thanks Mrs Shah. If it's okay with you, Mira and I would like to come and stay with you from time to time.”

Mrs Kumar said snidely “First let's see if you are allowed to stay here.”

Savitha unlocked her phone as if looking for something “I am not leaving until Ravi himself tells me to.”

“Just because Ravi married you doesn’t give you rights over Mira. We will go to court if needed to get custody of our granddaughter,” said Mr. Shah with much agitation.

“Everyone stop all this nonsense now. No one is dragging our family name and Mira to court. Now if everyone has said everything they wanted to say, please leave. I need to talk to Savitha alone. “ said Mr Kumar who had been silent this whole time.

He was a shrewd businessman who was admired and feared by all. Everyone walked out of the room thinking that Mr. Kumar had some kind of plan to deal with this new wife of Ravi’s. Savitha wondered if Mr Kumar was planning to buy her out and how much was her decision worth to him.

“I had always respected Ravi’s choices and taught him to stand by his decisions from childhood. But his last decision surprised me.”

“Mr. Kumar, I ..”

Mr Kumar smiled “I don’t like people interrupting me. Talking about Ravi, he moved to London for a week and then slowly he just extended his stay. Ravi had not left Mira’s side since Jahnvi passed away. He got nanny cameras installed in every corner of this house. Organized the business in such a way that he could do everything from his laptop without going to the office. So from being obsessed with Mira to completely leaving her here was unexpected. At first, I thought he was trying to make his mom break off the engagement. But seeing you here today made me understand his actions. But my only question is why.” he walked over and turned off the room camera.

“You should ask that question to Ravi”

“That’s exactly what I am doing, is it not so Ravi” Mr. Kumar sat next to Savitha.

She was at a loss for words “How did you know.”

“You can change your gender, appearance, and name but you can't change your behavior. As I said I was upset just like the others. But when you lifted Mira with a swing in your feet and a smile on your face. The way you avoided eye contact with your mother, by looking at your phone to not shout at her. Still, my question is why.”

“For 2 years I was pitied by everyone for Mira not having motherly love. Everyone wanted me to marry for Mira's sake and to have a woman in my life. Post Mom’s suicide blackmail I agreed to Jia half-heartedly but hearing her plans that night only made me more averse to marriage. At first, I wanted to take Mira with me to London away from all this. But I also couldn’t break my promise to Jahnvi. She wanted Mira to be raised near her parents as she is their only granddaughter. I don’t know how and when I came up with this idea but once I had it there was no going back. Now Mira has a mother figure in her life, no one new will come into our life. I can enjoy and cherish moments with Mira without these worries”.

“What about father’s love, in all this Mira still has one parent. And what about handling business and companionship”

“Does a parent’s love needs to be defined by gender, I can give both love to Mira. I am going to continue handling business online and signing documents in my name. I have software with my original voice recorded for text-to-speech. I don’t need anyone other than Mira and family. Are you upset?”

Mr Kumar patted his shoulder “What you have sacrificed is not simple and I hope someday Mira understands and loves you more for this. I was and I am always proud of your choices”

By Sunitha Punniyamurthy