Amulya Malladi - The Mango Season

“More ginger,” I told the vendor, as he went about his business.

“So, do you?” Nanna asked again.

“Do I what?” I evaded on purpose.

Nanna made an irritated sound.

“Is that why Ma asked me to go with you?” I questioned bluntly.

“Don’t change the subject,” Nanna said. “Tell us if you have a boyfriend. If you do, we will accept whatever… I mean as long as… you know… he has to be suitable.”

“And what if he is, say… a sardar?”

“A sardar?” Nanna asked, the terror in his voice palpable. “Come on, Priya, have a heart.”

I sighed. A Sikh would at least be Indian.

“So you wouldn’t accept any boyfriend.”

“We would, we would,” Nanna said hurriedly. “I mean… you should at least tell us why you are stalling. You are twenty-seven and we would like to see you married. Play with some grandchildren.”

Nanna was a sucker for children. When he built the house they were living in, he insisted that in all the bathrooms the latch on the outside should be slightly lower so that his grandchildren would be able to open the bathroom door to go inside and the latch on the inside should be slightly higher, so that the children would not be able to lock themselves in.

He had also purchased a beautiful wooden rocking chair. “Babies cry and if you rock them they stop crying and go to sleep,” he would say.

He had been waiting for grandchildren for as long as I could remember and I felt sorry for him and guilty because children had not figured in my plans yet. I knew I would have children someday and I wanted to have children someday, but it was one of those “yeah, I also want to go to space” kind of thing you reserved for the indeterminate future.

“Nanna, I’ll marry when I’m ready,” I said, fearful now of telling him anything about Nick. If a sardar was going to give him heart palpitations, an American would give him a seizure.

“But you have to be ready sometime, Priya,” Nanna said wearily. He gave the sugarcane juice vendor fifteen rupees and picked up his glass of frothy juice.

I tentatively sipped mine and sighed in pleasure. “This is what I really miss. This and chaat.”

Nanna drank his juice in two gulps and set his glass down. “We are not going to eat any chaat. Sowmya is making a nice dinner. Your favorite, mango pappu.”

I finished my ganna juice slowly, savoring the taste through the last sip. As we started to walk back I quietly waited for Nanna to say whatever else he had to tell me before we reached Thatha’s house.

“We are staying here tomorrow. I am taking the day off,” he said over the sound of honking cars, sidestepping trash on the pavement.

“I know, I brought a change of clothes. I’m planning to sleep on the terrace tonight like Nate and I used to when we were kids,” I said.

Nanna held my hand tightly in one hand and a plastic bag with the coriander and curry leaves hung from the other.

“Do you remember Mahadevan Uncle?”

Mahadevan Uncle is one of Nanna’s friends. In India, I have no idea why, but all of my parents’ friends are called uncle and auntie. For the longest time I had trouble calling Frances, Nick’s mother, by her name because she was so much older than I and I felt I was being disrespectful calling her by her first name.

“Sure, I remember Mahadevan Uncle. He has two sons, doesn’t he?”

“Yes, both married,” Nanna said, and then crushed my hand some more. “Mahadevan Uncle has a friend. His name is… well, everyone calls him Rice Sarma.”

“Rice? Why?”

“He works at ICRISAT and he has done some big-time research in rice. Has won some major awards; the President gave him one just last year,” Nanna continued. “Good people.”

“Hmm.” I refrained from saying more. I could see where this was going.

“Rice Sarma has a son,” Nanna said, and then waited for a while to see how I would respond. When I didn’t say anything, he continued. “His name his Adarsh. We saw his pictures. Good-looking boy. Lives in Dallas. Works for Nortel Networks. Is it a good company?”

“Yes,” I said tightly.

“He is a manager there,” Nanna said. “He did his engineering in BITS Pilani.”

BITS Pilani was a very good school for engineering in India and I could see my father was laying it on thick. Producing the perfect groom for me. My heart sank. How was I going to get out of this one without telling him about Nick? How could I now not tell him about Nick?

“Oh.”

“And he did his master’s at MIT and has an MBA from Stanford,” Nanna said, as he measured my facial expression for results.

“Impressive,” I said. Good God, what next? Would he tell me that the man was six feet two and looked like Adonis?

“He is six feet two inches tall,” Nanna continued as if on cue. “Your mother thinks he looks like that movie star Venkatesh.”

Venkatesh was a Telugu film actor I used to be fond of seven years ago. I hadn’t seen a movie of his since I left India, but I was impressed that Ma was using him as bait.

“So what?” I pretended ignorance.

“We showed him your photo-”

“You did what?” I extricated my hand from his and faced him. We had reached Thatha’s gate and we stood there, I angry, he contrite.

“Well, what did you want us to do? Wait until you are fifty to get you married?” Nanna went on the offensive even as his face remained defensive.

“He seems perfect. Maybe Ma should marry him,” I quipped.

Nanna opened the gate. “He is here on vacation. Tomorrow afternoon, they will be coming here, at Thatha’s house for tea.”

I stared at my father. “You are not putting me through one of those cattle-seeing ceremonies.”

“You are not cattle and stop overreacting.”

“Overreacting? His family will show up… that’s why Ma packed my silk blouses. Damn it, Nanna, you’ve known all along. This isn’t news. You’ve known since I got here.” I was appalled that my father had joined my mother in tricking me.

“Don’t use words like damn,” Nanna said, and shrugged. “Like I said, we can’t… won’t wait till you are fifty.”

“I won’t sit there and be watched by him and his family like I’m a cow for sale,” I said sharply.

“It won’t be like that, Priya Ma,” my father tried to console.

I brushed past him and marched into the house. I flung my straw slippers from my feet onto the veranda and went inside the hall.

I barely acknowledged Jayant who had arrived while my father was sticking the knife in my back.

“I’m not going to be here tomorrow afternoon,” I told my mother. She was sitting on the floor, leaning on a cushion, and I towered over her, my hands at my waist.

“You will be here,” Ma said without even flinching. “None of these shenanigans will work with me. Your father will put up with this-”

“Really? What will you do if I leave tomorrow afternoon when Nanna’s friend’s friend and his oh-so-perfect-son arrive?” I demanded.

“Priya,” Thatha said sternly. “Calm down and don’t yell in my house. Why don’t you go help Sowmya in the kitchen?”

I almost raged at him but bit my tongue back. This was not the time to get on the feminist soapbox.

I wanted, I so very much wanted, to stay and fight but I didn’t want to behave like a child and prove their point that they didn’t think I could take care of myself, find my own husband.

“You should’ve at least asked me before you invited them,” I told Ma in a soft voice. She shrugged again and looked away from me.

It was on the tip of my tongue to tell Ma that this was why it was so hard to respect her. Respect was a two-way street and if I didn’t get any, I couldn’t give her any either. Feeling utterly betrayed by both my parents and my grandparents-my entire family-I walked out of the hall.