Family dinner

Rajiv led Sunita to the dinner table where the other members of his family were already seated. He was so happy that he hardly noticed that Sunita was uncomfortable being there. His entire family was here– almost his entire family: his brother Ravi was still not on good terms with him and did not attend the dinner. Except for him, though the entire family was seated at the dinner table:His mother, his sister, his four daughters and most importantly the woman he had loved all his life – the one who had just agreed to marry him after all these years. He was so happy that his mother had moved in after Anita’s death: she was a great help around the house and they got a chance to bond with each other. His daughters, being teenagers, needed a maternal presence and Rajiv didn’t know what he would do if she wasn’t there.

‘Girls, you remember Aunty Sunita’ he said to daughters. Sunita had been working with him for the past five years and his children always called her Aunty out of respect.

‘Mom, I think you know Sunita as well.’

Rajiv and Sunita had been childhood sweethearts but when Ravi had gotten Anita pregnant, Rajiv had taken the responsibility of providing for Anita and her child. When her parents had asked for the identity of her child’s father, Anita had merely said “Mr Roopchand’s son’. Thus, Anita’s parents visited Rajiv’s parents to arrange their marriage. When his father asked if the Roopchand’s were speaking the truth, Ravi did not respond. Rajiv, however, accepted the responsibility and was married to Anita. Rajiv never told Sunita the reason for marrying someone else and Sunita in turn did not tell him that he had fathered her daughter. Five years ago, at an after work lime, Rajiv had allowed his temptations to get the better of him and they had produced another daughter. Now that Anita had gone to the great beyond, Sunita and Rajiv were finally free to rekindle their childhood romance and after 1 ½ years of wooing her, Sunita had accepted his marriage proposal. He had even convinced her to move in with him before marriage. Rajiv was on top of the world and never noticed Sunita’s discomfort.

Sunita looked around the table uncomfortably. Although she had known Rajiv’s daughters for five years, she wondered how they felt about her. They had considered her an aunt and then found out that she had been having an affair with their father! Although Sunita had only slept with Rajiv once in the five years since they had started working together, they were practically inseparable and it was difficult to convince anyone that they were not having an affair. She could feel the resentment at the table but Rajiv did not notice this at all. When Rajiv had told his daughters that they had two other sisters, they were devastated and their attitude towards her had done a 360 degree turn. Sunita never told Rajiv that his daughters and his mother had always been mean to her behind his back – she did not want to seem to be an obstacle in his relationship with his family. She had been hoping that they would change their minds about her before she accepted Rajiv’s proposal. However, recently he had become suspicious of her motives thinking that she had someone else in her life – he had even questioned if the children were his and this had hurt Sunita very much. When he had proposed for the fifth time, Sunita finally decided to accept Rajiv’s proposal hoping that his mother and children would somehow change their opinion about her. She could sense Carol’s eyes on her and wished that the floor would swallow her.

Carol looked at Sunita with loathing – despite what her son had said, Anita had confided to her that Rajiv was seeing Sunita.

‘Why do they insist that it is not true when we have living proof?’ She asked herself glancing at little Priya, her alleged granddaughter. To suddenly find out that she had two additional granddaughters was unnerving and the way Priya adored her was even more embarrassing to her. She didn’t like ‘the little brat’ as she referred to Priya. Priya was a spoilt little child in her opinion who was always given her own way by both of her parents. She felt that Sunita needed to discipline the child but Rajiv said that his other two daughters had been the same way when they were Priya’s age. ‘I wonder what she is thinking’, Carol thought to herself as she glanced at Priya.

Priya was unaware of the turmoil in the minds of her mother and grandmother. She was happy that they were spending time with Jaya and Cintra. Unlike her own sister, her new sisters were very nice to her. They allowed her to play with their makeup and shoes: something her elder sister never allowed her to do. She especially liked Jaya.

Jaya wondered why her father had brought ‘that woman’ home. Her mother had always referred to Sunita as ‘that woman’ and Jaya found it easy to imitate her mother. She knew that her father was sleeping with Sunita but the thought of her sleeping in her parents bed with her father made her feel like vomiting. What Jaya didn’t know is that her parents had not shared the bed where her father now slept. Her parents pretended to sleep in the same room. However, they had separate rooms and hardly ever slept together. Although the table was laid with some of her favourite foods, Jaya felt like she had no appetite. She wondered what her twin Cintra felt about the situation.

Cintra was confused – being the youngest child, she had always wished for a younger sister. Now she had Priya. She adored Priya and she felt that Priya adored her as well. Before her mom had gotten ill, she had voiced her suspicion that Priya was their father’s child. Soon after their mom died, her father had confirmed the suspicion. She had met her two new sisters over a year ago and was still not sure how she felt about sharing her father’s love with them – especially her elder sister Shalini.

Shalini hoped that her mother was not serious about moving in with her father. She had not grown up with her father in her life and was accustomed to having only her mother and her Nani (her mother’s mother) around to make decisions for her or help her make decision. Five years ago this changed when her father became a part of their life – to her annoyance her father was consulted on all major decisions in her life and sometimes, she did not agree with his decision. Her mother would comply with her father’s instructions even if she did not agree with them. Shalini could not imagine living full time in a house with this man and his other daughters. She wondered why her parents did not think about how they felt. Shalini and the twins were in the same class and Cintra had tormented her since they were in kindergarten. Somehow, Cintra had known that Shalini did not have a father in her life and had constantly harassed her about it. Cintra was the popular girl in the class and thus, the other girls hardly spoke to Shalini – some of them spoke to her if Cintra was absent. When she had found out that she and Cintra shared the same father, she had badly wanted to gloat about it to Cintra but her parents had forbidden her to do so. Shalini was angry that her father never told Cintra’s mother that he had two other daughters – he had only waited until she was dead to introduce them to their family. Shalini thought that her father hadn’t really loved her mother but was only using her. Her mother was too busy with her new found happiness to acknowledge Shalini’s concerns. Sometimes Shalini thought that her mother had started ignoring her when her father had reentered her life. Sunita wondered how to tell her parents that she had no intention of moving in with them but had decided to stay with her Nani instead. She  wondered how they would react to this news? She needed to find a way to tell them. Maybe she could ask Aunty Rajo to help: her father listened to anything his only sister told him.

Rajo was almost as happy as Rajiv. Sunita and Rajo had been best friends and it was she who had introduced them to each other after Rajiv had expressed the desire to meet Sunita. She was happy that her best friend and her brother were going out together and then Rajiv had married Anita. Rajo had felt guilty that Sunita had been hurt while Sunita did not think that she could confide in Rajo again and their relationship had suffered. Now that they were back together again, Sunita had began treating her like her best friend once again. She was so happy to be able to spent some time with her childhood friend before she returned home to her husband and children. In the midst of her happiness however, Rajo wished that her brothers were not at war with each other: she never knew the reason for the war but she knew that Rajiv had reached out to Ravi but Ravi had stubbornly decided not to attend today’s special dinner. Sometimes, Rajo wished that she could just knock some sense into Ravi.

‘Ho, HO, Ho, Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas.’ Ravi shouted as he walked into the room and started distributing presents,

‘Uncle Ravi, Christmas is still five months away!’ Cintra laughed accepting her present.

‘I know but how do you know that we would be alive by Christmas – we should celebrate Christmas every day.’

‘True’ Rajiv agreed hugging his brother as he received his gift. Ravi was delighted – he had not known how Rajiv would react to seeing him again. He missed his brother so much but his foolishness and pride had helped destroy the once beautiful relationship they had shared. When he had found out that Anita was pregnant, he had told her that he was not prepared to get married. He had been angry at her for getting pregnant – he told her she was foolish not to use contraceptives. He thought if he denied it, Anita’s parents would not force him to marry her. He did not know that his brother would step in to save Anita’s honour. When he had finally seen the error of his ways, the twins were already 10 years old. He had asked his brother to give up Anita and allow him to marry her instead. Rajiv had told him that he sounded like a mad man. Rajiv pointed out that what he was saying was neither decent nor honorable. Ravi had then asked that they children be told that he was their real father – Rajiv refused to do this saying that it would be too traumatic for them. They had argued and later when Rajiv was not at home, he had went to see if he could get Anita to convince Rajiv to change his mind. Somehow – Ravi could never clearly understand how – that day he and Anita had rekindled their relationship and soon they were having an affair. Rajiv was understandably annoyed when he found out and asked Ravi to stop seeing Anita. Anita, however, had told Rajiv that she wanted to be with Ravi. Refusing to divorce her, Rajiv pretended he did not know what was happening but stopped speaking to Ravi. Ravi was surprised when Rajiv had called him to invite him to dinner. Rajiv explained that when he found out that he had a daughter with Sunita and did not get to be part of her life, he understood how Ravi felt. He told Ravi that he could be part of the children’s life but they will wait a while to tell them the truth. In the meantime Rajiv told him that he would like to have his brother bakd,  He was not certain how to face his brother and had almost decided not to attend. In the end he decided to make a grand entrance to ease the tension between them. It seemed to have worked as his brother was embracing him.

Rajiv smiled as he looked at his family gathered around the dinner table.

‘It is going to be a wonderful year.’ He said to himself.