Read Online A Good Indian Wife: A Novel by Anne Cherian - Free Book Online
Authors: Anne Cherian
Ads: Link
didn’t mind expressing herself.
They approached the front steps without talking.
He’s definitely going to say no, Leila thought, and everyone is going to know that because we’re returning so quickly.
As they climbed up the steps, a furry ball flung itself at Leila. Neel was startled and took a step back, sliding on the wet cement and almost falling.
“ET!” Leila bent down to stroke the cat. This was her baby, the kitten she had found abandoned outside the college cafeteria. Kila claimed that Leila loved ET more than anyone else. If only she could pick up the purring bundle and run to her room. Hide from the questioning eyes just beyond the front door. Instead Leila said, “ET, are you waiting for your old friend the sparrow again? You know you’ll never catch that bird.”
Now it was Neel’s turn to query her. “ET?” he asked. “Since when have cats been extraterrestrial?”
“Her real name is Elizabeth Taylor,” Leila clarified, “but we call her ET for short.” Leila picked up the cat so Neel could look at the pointed, gamine face. “See, she has one blue eye and one green eye, and everybody kept saying she was ugly. So I gave her the name of a beautiful woman.”
As if sensing their interest in her, ET slowly and deliberately opened her pink mouth wide and yawned.
So it was that when Leila’s mother and Mrs. Rajan peeped out the window, they saw the pair laughing.
FIVE
“A HONEYMOON IS FUNTAHSTIC, YAAR,” Ashok said during the dinner his wife, Smita, had spent hours preparing for Neel.
Lunch and dinner invitations started pouring in as soon as Aunty Vimla’s megaphone mouth broadcast Neel’s engagement. Neel didn’t know they had so many relatives, or relatics, as he privately named the toothy backslappers. Uncles, aunties, cousins, all laid claim to his time, wanting to congratulate and feed him. They meant well, but he could not get over the feeling that each house was another reminder that in India there is no choice. Things are what they are. If a bus is late, don’t try and fix the system, just wait for it. If the flour from the ration shop is full of worms, don’t return it. It just means that all the flour has worms, so spread it out in the sun until the worms crawl away and die. You have to accept things.
He was to accept his engagement and eat with a happy face in all these houses that were so eager to fête him. He didn’t really want the array of vegetables, spicy sambar afloat with drumsticks, and always rice and curds to cool the stomach at the end of the meal. But he had no idea how to change his situation, and so made a pretense of acceptance and smiled till his facial muscles hurt.
He even attempted to put on a show at Ashok’s house. Neel had never liked his cousin’s superior attitude, and now Ashok parachuted into their youth, when he had always floated above, acting cocky. This time it was because Ashok had married first—and clearly, to a girl far superior to Leila.
“I tell you, Suneel, you simply have to take a honeymoon. Smita and I went to Singapore. Of course we did not leave the hotel room too often,” he winked at Neel, “but we did do some little shopping.”
Neel politely praised the blue-flowered china (from Japan), the thick glassware (from Taiwan), and Smita even brought out some of the sarees they had purchased. He watched the proud parade with a stoic smile. No one in America opened their cupboards in a display of show and share.
The much-ballyhooed honeymoon surprised Neel. When he was a boy, newlyweds didn’t waste money on hotels and eating out. But according to Ashok, a small class of Indians, equivalent to American yuppies, had progressed. Neel just hadn’t been around to witness it.
“Why not go to Australia?” Ashok recommended. “From there it is easy to take a yakht to New Zealand.”
It took Neel a second to realize his cousin meant a yacht. “Australia? It’s much too far,” Neel declined. Ashok was just like
They approached the front steps without talking.
He’s definitely going to say no, Leila thought, and everyone is going to know that because we’re returning so quickly.
As they climbed up the steps, a furry ball flung itself at Leila. Neel was startled and took a step back, sliding on the wet cement and almost falling.
“ET!” Leila bent down to stroke the cat. This was her baby, the kitten she had found abandoned outside the college cafeteria. Kila claimed that Leila loved ET more than anyone else. If only she could pick up the purring bundle and run to her room. Hide from the questioning eyes just beyond the front door. Instead Leila said, “ET, are you waiting for your old friend the sparrow again? You know you’ll never catch that bird.”
Now it was Neel’s turn to query her. “ET?” he asked. “Since when have cats been extraterrestrial?”
“Her real name is Elizabeth Taylor,” Leila clarified, “but we call her ET for short.” Leila picked up the cat so Neel could look at the pointed, gamine face. “See, she has one blue eye and one green eye, and everybody kept saying she was ugly. So I gave her the name of a beautiful woman.”
As if sensing their interest in her, ET slowly and deliberately opened her pink mouth wide and yawned.
So it was that when Leila’s mother and Mrs. Rajan peeped out the window, they saw the pair laughing.
FIVE
“A HONEYMOON IS FUNTAHSTIC, YAAR,” Ashok said during the dinner his wife, Smita, had spent hours preparing for Neel.
Lunch and dinner invitations started pouring in as soon as Aunty Vimla’s megaphone mouth broadcast Neel’s engagement. Neel didn’t know they had so many relatives, or relatics, as he privately named the toothy backslappers. Uncles, aunties, cousins, all laid claim to his time, wanting to congratulate and feed him. They meant well, but he could not get over the feeling that each house was another reminder that in India there is no choice. Things are what they are. If a bus is late, don’t try and fix the system, just wait for it. If the flour from the ration shop is full of worms, don’t return it. It just means that all the flour has worms, so spread it out in the sun until the worms crawl away and die. You have to accept things.
He was to accept his engagement and eat with a happy face in all these houses that were so eager to fête him. He didn’t really want the array of vegetables, spicy sambar afloat with drumsticks, and always rice and curds to cool the stomach at the end of the meal. But he had no idea how to change his situation, and so made a pretense of acceptance and smiled till his facial muscles hurt.
He even attempted to put on a show at Ashok’s house. Neel had never liked his cousin’s superior attitude, and now Ashok parachuted into their youth, when he had always floated above, acting cocky. This time it was because Ashok had married first—and clearly, to a girl far superior to Leila.
“I tell you, Suneel, you simply have to take a honeymoon. Smita and I went to Singapore. Of course we did not leave the hotel room too often,” he winked at Neel, “but we did do some little shopping.”
Neel politely praised the blue-flowered china (from Japan), the thick glassware (from Taiwan), and Smita even brought out some of the sarees they had purchased. He watched the proud parade with a stoic smile. No one in America opened their cupboards in a display of show and share.
The much-ballyhooed honeymoon surprised Neel. When he was a boy, newlyweds didn’t waste money on hotels and eating out. But according to Ashok, a small class of Indians, equivalent to American yuppies, had progressed. Neel just hadn’t been around to witness it.
“Why not go to Australia?” Ashok recommended. “From there it is easy to take a yakht to New Zealand.”
It took Neel a second to realize his cousin meant a yacht. “Australia? It’s much too far,” Neel declined. Ashok was just like
Similar Books
