The Phone Call
A calm and quiet evening has set in, I finished my evening tea and sat with a newly purchased novel with a Thermos flask full of warm water. I had planned to read the novel sipping the warm water for the next couple of hours as per my daily practice for the last year. The telephone rang, and I picked up the unknown number call.
Me: Hello.
Caller: Hello, are you Gita Roy?
Me: Yes, tell me, who are you?
Caller: Miss Roy, I am Sumita Khanna, wife of Rakesh Khanna, I think you know him well.
Me: Yes Mrs Khanna, I know Mr Khanna as we have worked together for many years, how is he? Is everything all right?
Sumita: Miss Roy, everything is fine here, I called you to ask something, please do not take it in any bad sense.
Me (a bit surprised): Tell me Mrs. Khanna, what it is?
Sumita: Miss Roy, please tell me what relations you have with Mr. Khanna?
Me:(Shocked and surprised): What do you mean Mrs Khanna?
Sumita: Nothing special, just want to know what type of relations you have with my husband as I find you are texting him good morning messages very often and both of you are also going out together sometimes though he has retired quite long.
Me: Look Mrs. Khanna, we had worked together in the same office for more than 15 years and both of us had been office bearers of the association for more than ten years now. Mr. Khanna retired in 2014 and I retired in 2017. Now it is 2019 and you are asking such a silly and ridiculous question? May I know the reasons?
Sumita: Look, Miss Roy, you are getting agitated but I am asking a simple question. I have seen you messaging him very often on WhatsApp wishing him good morning and both of you are still meeting, making appointments. Both of you retired so long ago, and therefore, it is a genuine question about why you people are in touch even after retirement?
Me: Mrs Khanna, I am surprised at your asking me such a question. Why don’t you ask the question to your husband?
Sumita: Miss Roy, please do not get angry. I thought of asking him he gets agitated nowadays very soon. And if I ask him this question, he will get very angry and create disturbance in the house for many days. But I have been very disturbed for many days thinking about you and him. Please tell me the truth.
Me: See Mrs. Khanna, your husband and myself are office bearers of the Promoted Employees Association and have been fighting the case against the government. Because of that, we have to be present before the court as also attend meetings and discussions with officials as well as advocates. We had been doing it for more than eight years now. The case was closed just three months ago when the judgement came in our favour and at least 200 members of the association held the get-together. I am sure your husband has received considerable money due to that and you might know it very well. It would have been better if you had discussed these matters with your husband instead of insulting me like this.
Sumita: No, no Miss Roy, I am not insulting you, I am just asking you and want to satisfy myself.
Me: Mrs Khanna, so far I remember, you were very sick around three years ago and he did not attend court cases during those days spreading around four to five months to take your care, to do your nursing!
Sumita: Yes, I was sick and he did not go anywhere in those days and took my care. Our children are all out of the city staying far away and he was taking care. But why you are saying this? He is my husband and what is special if he was looking after me?
Me: That is the point Mrs. Khanna, he was looking after you as it was his duty, but you are filled with suspicion and doubt about him and calling me just imagining problems at your end. I do not know why you are suffering from this complex. I am not concerned about you or your family. It will be better for you to discuss these things within your four walls and not call me again on this issue. I am happy the way I am. And let me tell you, it is your problem if you choose not to be happy because you have everything, I am not bothered. Please do not disturb me. I am not interested in answering you or in knowing anything about you.
Sumita: Please Miss Roy, do not get so angry. I did not say anything insulting to you! I just wanted to know the relationship. I am not creating any problems.
Me: Mrs. Khanna, I am telling you repeatedly, clearly and sternly, I am not interested in answering you or talking to you. You may speak your mind to your husband, your children or anyone you like or dislike, but certainly, it is not me who is willing to speak on this matter to you. I am busy and do not call me any further.
As I disconnected the phone, I tried to relax on my relaxing sofa which used to serve me as a bed on many days. I tried to flip through the pages of the book, but the alphabet and words were running here and there, evading my eyes. The black typesetting in the book gives space to recall the events, the pictures of my turmoil, of the scores of battles I fought, losing and winning on the path of my life.
My mind took me back 40 years when I was starting my career. This was not the first time I had encountered such a person. There have been numerous occasions in my life wherein I had just to listen quietly because I am a girl, more so an unmarried girl all through my life. Have seen men taking me for granted as 'The Flesh and Body' only. Have seen girls feeling superior to me only because they were married. Still, strangely, they were conscious of my presence, afraid and displaying a hovering superiority, possibly to hide their sense of insecurity and low confidence; or just to express condemnation for me, to tell me, I am not one of their equals.
They were afraid as if I was there to steal their husbands or boyfriends. I was not a human, just a woman, a female flesh and body, food for men, a challenger for women who had to protect their men, husbands, sons, brothers, anyone.
For them, as if, I was 'just hungry for male flesh' because, I, being an unmarried girl, was just a female flesh, not a normal human being.
End of Part. Wait for the Part 3
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