House of Cards: A Novel Read online

  There was a special dhobi ghat on the side of the lake. The day after the guests left, Sarla insisted that she wanted to wash her clothes there. Mridula agreed. She knew that Sarla wanted to play in the water. There was great joy in washing clothes at the big lake. With one foot firmly resting on a big boulder, the clothes were thrashed on the rock with force, which sprayed the water about everywhere. It was very different from washing clothes under a tap in a city home.

  Mridula and Sarla walked to the lake. When they reached the shore, Mridula started soaking all the clothes. Sarla forgot everything and played in the water a short distance away. Suddenly, Mridula found something in the pocket of one of the trousers. She put her hand in the pocket and took out a wallet—it was Satish’s. Abruptly, she heard a shout and looked around. She saw Satish running towards her. He was some distance away and she could not hear what he was saying. Her attention wandered back to the wallet. She was worried that the money inside would get wet, so she opened it. She found money and a small photograph stashed in a corner. She was happy to have found something to tease Satish about. When she pulled out the picture, however, she was shocked to see a photo of herself from her old college ID. She didn’t know what to do. She was not expecting this. She had always thought of Satish as a good cousin. Things may have been different if she had known about his feelings earlier, but now she could only think of Sanjay. Her devotion was to him alone. She turned her back to the approaching Satish and hid the photo.

  Soon, Satish reached her. ‘Hey, is my wallet here? I left it in my pants when I gave them for a wash. There’s an important paper in it.’

  Mridula snapped, ‘If the paper is that important, then you shouldn’t have forgotten your wallet! Here, take your pants.’

  Satish took his wallet out quietly and walked away. He turned back to look at Mridula but she pretended to continue washing the clothes. He mulled over the things left unsaid and left the ghat, deep in thought.

  9

  Partners

  By the time Sanjay and Mridula got married, Sanjay had quit his job in Bombay.

  Before the wedding, Mridula told Sanjay, ‘Why don’t you find a job in Bangalore? It’ll be easier for us to settle there. At the end of the day, language matters. We both belong to the same region. I have seen a newspaper advertisement for a temporary government job at Bangalore Victoria Hospital. I hope you’ll think about my suggestion.’

  Sanjay agreed. He was not too fond of Bombay either. He had obtained enough experience there and knew that it was expensive to get a decent apartment to live in. Moreover, Mridula would have to leave her job, which she absolutely loved. She wouldn’t be allowed to take a transfer out of state and go to Bombay. However, if he found a job in Bangalore, she could take a transfer there. Besides, he was confident that he would get a postgraduate seat in Bangalore. So Mridula and Sanjay decided to make Bangalore their home.

  Sanjay got the job at Victoria Hospital and asked Mridula to join him there after marriage. When Mridula came to Bangalore for the first time, she saw a new world. She had spent most of her life in Aladahalli and found life in Bangalore tough. It was hard for her to understand the local version of Kannada, which was mostly mixed with English. Sanjay and Mridula wanted to stay near the hospital but could not afford the high rent. They looked around and decided to rent a house in Yelahanka. It was far from the city but the rent was affordable.

  Mridula took a transfer to a government school in Yelahanka but she found a lot of difference between Aladahalli High School and Yelahanka High School.

  Aladahalli High School was very famous and students came from surrounding villages to study there. The school was not just a building. It had a huge playground and an open-air theatre. It had its own kitchen garden which was under Mridula’s supervision when she was working there. It was compulsory for all the children to work in the garden for at least two hours every week. The vegetables grown there were used for cooking and the children were given a midday meal with the help of the villagers and without government aid. Obedience was important in the school. So students were polite and listened sincerely to the teachers. It was like a big joint family and it was a joy for Mridula to be a teacher in the school.

  But Yelahanka High School was very different. It was not the only school in the area. When the students had a choice of schools, the best often chose not to study in a government one. The English-medium private schools were popular even though they were more expensive. The teachers’ attitudes were also different. In a big city like Bangalore, some teachers gave private tuitions at home while others had a small business on the side and were more interested in running the business than in teaching. Most of them did not consider the earnings from teaching to be their main source of livelihood. They thought of it just as an appetizer to the main course. So there was no personal connection between the teachers and the students.

  Still, the situation was not that bad. Some teachers like Principal Muniyappa were like Mridula. They considered teaching to be a pious profession and taught the children passionately. Principal Muniyappa was from Kolar and was a warm-hearted person. He also stayed in Yelahanka with his family. On Mridula’s first day at the school, he affectionately told her, ‘Mridula madam, please don’t be nervous. You have two years of good teaching experience. We have four Kannada-medium sections and one English-medium section in this school. Feel free to choose any class and language that you feel comfortable with.’

  These small words of encouragement were enough for Mridula to work efficiently.

  Soon, Mridula and Sanjay settled into a comfortable routine. Mridula got up early in the morning, cooked and gave Sanjay breakfast. He carried a lunch dabba to the hospital and returned home at night. After Sanjay left, Mridula went to school; she cleaned the house in the evenings. She was left with no time for herself. If there was an emergency or night duty at the hospital, Sanjay stayed back there. Since they did not have a telephone or a vehicle, Sanjay would call up Muniyappa’s house and leave a message for Mridula. Their twenty-year-old son Arun would cycle over to Mridula and Sanjay’s house to pass on the message to her, irrespective of the time of day. He was a nice and intelligent boy, studying engineering and majoring in computer science.

  Mridula had never cooked a complete meal at her parents’ home in Aladahalli. She had helped her mother but never made the main course by herself. When there were many guests at home, a cook used to be called from Hubli. So Mridula never had much responsibility in the house. But now, she had to cook and, more importantly, she had to lock the house, which her parents hardly ever did in Aladahalli. Mridula was nervous because she was not accustomed to cooking many different dishes. She did not have anyone to guide her in her cooking. Principal Muniyappa’s wife, Kantamma, was a nice lady; she became Mridula’s adviser.

  One day, Mridula asked her, ‘Kantamma, will you help me cook different kinds of food?’

  ‘Mridula, what can an uneducated person like me teach an intelligent person like you? I was sixteen years old when I got married. My mother-in-law was just like my mother and I am grateful to her for that. She taught me everything I know. I will teach you whatever I can.’

  Mridula was not as lucky as Kantamma. Ratnamma neither came to Bangalore nor taught her anything. Whenever Sanjay and Mridula invited her for a visit, Ratnamma always said, ‘There’s a lot of work in the fields. If I’m not there to supervise, then the men don’t work at all. They take away the seeds, and the entire year’s crop could get wasted. Anyway, you don’t really need me. Mridula is not a teenager. Her mother can help her if needed.’

  Ratnamma did not invite the newly-weds to visit her in T. Narasipura for any festival or holiday. Lakshmi avoided Mridula too and took the pretext of her child’s schooling and said that she was busy and could not visit Bangalore. So Mridula started her new life with Kantamma’s help. She tried her cooking on Sanjay. Most times, the results were disastrous. But Sanjay never said anything negative. This made Mridula more conscious about her