Vikram Seth - A Suitable Boy

Arun grunted.

‘I think I have a bit of a headache,’ said Meenakshi.

‘Yes, yes,’ continued Arun. ‘I’m driving as fast as I can, considering I’m being distracted by my passenger. We’ll be home soon.’

Savita was quiet for a couple of miles.

‘Well, Arun Bhai, what do you have against him that you didn’t have against Pran? You didn’t have much to say about Pran’s accent either when you first met him.’

Arun knew that he was treading on dangerous ground here, and that Savita would take no nonsense about her husband.

‘Pran’s all right,’ conceded Arun. ‘He’s getting to know the ways of the family.’

‘He has always been all right,’ said Savita. ‘It’s just that the family has adjusted itself to him.’

‘Have it your way,’ said Arun. ‘Just let me drive in peace. Or would you like me to pull over and continue this argument? Meenakshi has a headache.’

‘Arun Bhai, this is not an argument. I’m sorry, Meenakshi, I have to have things out with him before he starts working on Ma,’ said Savita. ‘What is it you have against Haresh? That he isn’t “one of us”?’

‘Well, he certainly isn’t,’ said Arun. ‘He’s a dapper little man with co-respondent shoes, a grinning servant and a big head. I have rarely met anyone so arrogant, opinionated or self-satisfied — and with less cause to be.’

Savita merely smiled in reply. This irritated Arun even more than an answer.

‘I don’t know what you hope to achieve by this discussion,’ he said after a few moments of silence.

‘I just don’t want you to ruin Lata’s chances,’ said Savita seriously. ‘She isn’t too certain about things herself, you know, and I want her to make up her own mind, not to have Big Brother deciding everything for her and laying down the law as usual.’

Meenakshi laughed from the back: a silvery, slightly steely laugh.

A huge lorry came towards them from the other side, almost forcing them off the narrow road. Arun swerved and swore.

‘Do you mind if we continue this conference at home?’ he asked.

‘There are hundreds of people at home,’ said Savita. ‘It will be impossible to make you see sense with all the interruptions. Don’t you realize, Arun Bhai, that offers of marriage do not come raining down from the sky every day? Why are you determined to thwart this one?’

‘There are certainly others who are interested in Lata — Meenakshi’s brother for one.’

‘Amit? Do you really mean Amit?’

‘Yes, Amit. I do really mean Amit.’

Savita immediately thought that Amit would be most unsuitable, but did not say so. ‘Well, let Lata decide for herself,’ she said. ‘Leave it to her.’

‘With Ma fussing around her, she won’t be capable of making up her own mind anyway,’ said Arun. ‘And Ma, as anyone can see, has been well wooed by the foreman. He hardly had a minute for anyone else the whole afternoon. I noticed that he didn’t speak much to you, for example.’

‘I didn’t mind,’ said Savita. ‘I liked him. And I want you to behave decently on New Year’s Day.’

Arun shook his head at the thought of Ma’s sudden, unconsulted invitation to Haresh.

‘Please let me out at New Market,’ said Meenakshi suddenly. ‘I’ll join you later.’

‘But your headache, darling?’

‘It’s all right. I have to buy a few things. I’ll come home in a taxi.’

‘Are you sure?’

‘Yes.’

‘We haven’t upset you?’

‘No.’

When Meenakshi had got down, Arun turned to Savita:

‘You have quite needlessly upset my wife.’

‘Oh don’t be silly, Arun Bhai — and don’t refer to Meenakshi as “my wife”. I think she just can’t face going home to a dozen people. And I don’t blame her. There are too many of us in Sunny Park. Do you think Pran and Uma and I should take up the Chatterjis’ invitation?’

‘That’s another thing. What did he mean by talking about Bengalis in that manner?’

‘I don’t know,’ said Savita. ‘But you do it all the time.’

Arun was quiet. Something was troubling him.

‘Do you think she got down because she thought we were going to discuss Amit?’

Savita smiled at the thought of such unlikely delicacy on Meenakshi’s part but simply said, ‘No.’

‘Well,’ said Arun, still stung by the fact that Savita of all people was being so uncompromising in this matter of Haresh, and feeling a little uncertain as a result, ‘you’re getting quite a lot of courtroom practice out of me.’

‘Yes,’ said Savita, refusing to be jollied along. ‘Now promise me you’re not going to interfere.’

Arun laughed in an indulgent, elder-brotherly manner. ‘Well, we all have our opinions — you have yours, and I have mine. And Ma can take whichever she likes. And Lata too, of course. Let’s leave it at that, shall we?’

Savita shook her head, but said nothing.

Arun was trying to be winning, but she was not won.

Meenakshi made straight for the Fairlawn Hotel, where Billy was waiting for her in his room with a mixture of impatience and uncertainty.

‘You know, Meenakshi, this thing makes me very anxious,’ said Billy. ‘I don’t like it a bit.’

‘I don’t believe it makes you anxious,’ said Meenakshi. ‘Certainly not so anxious that it detracts from your wonderful—’

‘—performance?’ finished Billy.

‘Performance. Just the word. Let’s perform. But be nice to me, Billy. I’m sorry I’m late. I’ve had the most awful time and I have a headache as huge as Buddenbrooks .’

‘A headache?’ Billy was concerned. ‘Shall I ask them to get you a couple of aspirin?’

‘No, Billy,’ said Meenakshi, sitting next to him. ‘I think I have a better cure.’

‘I thought women were supposed to say, “Not tonight, dear, I have a headache,”’ said Billy, helping her with her sari.

‘Some women, perhaps,’ said Meenakshi. ‘Does Shireen say that?’

‘I’d rather not discuss Shireen,’ said Billy stiffly.

By now Billy was as eager to cure Meenakshi as she was to be cured. About fifteen minutes later, he was lying, panting and pleasantly exhausted, upon her, his head nuzzling her neck. Meenakshi was much sweeter when she was making love than at any other time. She was almost affectionate! He began to withdraw.

‘No, Billy, just stay where you are,’ said Meenakshi in a sighing voice. ‘You feel so nice.’ Billy had been at his tenderly athletic best.

‘All right,’ Billy consented.

After a few minutes though, as he softened, he had to pull out.

‘Whoops!’ said Billy.

‘That was lovely,’ said Meenakshi. ‘What was the “whoops” for?’

‘I’m sorry, Meenakshi — but the thing’s slipped off. It’s still inside you.’

‘But it can’t be! I can’t feel it.’

‘Well, it’s not on me, and I could feel it slip off.’

‘Don’t be ridiculous, Billy,’ said Meenakshi sharply. ‘It’s never happened before — and do you think I wouldn’t feel it if it was still there?’

‘I don’t know about that,’ said Billy. ‘I think you’d better go and check.’ Meenakshi went for a shower, and came out furious.

‘How dare you?’ she said.

‘How dare I what?’ responded Billy, looking troubled.

‘How dare you let it slip off! I’m not going through all that again,’ said Meenakshi, and burst into tears. How horribly, horribly tawdry, she thought.

Poor Billy was very worried by now. He tried to console her by putting his arms around her wet shoulders, but she shook him off angrily. She was trying to work out if today fell within her most vulnerable week. Billy was a real fool.