It was one of those days when everything goes wrong. I overslept,and could not prepare the breakfast and lunch I had planned because of a longish power-cut. Try depending on th e Karnataka Electricity Board - you are doomed for the day. To cook something on the spur of the moment can drive you crazy.
I had a fight with my husband the previous evening, which left me cursing him all night till sleep overtook me. I was naturally in no frame of mind to tackle the additional problems that fate (and KEB) had dumped on me.
Seeing my husband going about his daily boring routine without being in the least affected by the goings-on around him was enough to send my BP soaring. He can remain calm even if the roof fell on him.
While I was cooking, another part of mind was busily plotting, considering various ways of getting him to lose his cool: with my mind brimming with evil thoughts, I cleaned the vegetable peels and bent down to throw them into the dust-bin near the sink. While unbending, I hit the left side of my face, near the eye, against the hard granite edge of the sink. I felt a searing pain for a second and could feel a bump coming up. I immediately applied some ice, and went about my work.
My son came to the kitchen and asked, why the spot under my eye was so black and swollen. Although it still hurt, I thought that the ice had taken care of the swelling. I looked in the mirror, and was shocked to see the bruise. It was blue - black and a little swollen, as if I had been bashed by someone.
Oh God! How was I to face the outside world with this face? What would people think?
"Patidev" (the high and mighty husband) commented that apparently God had taught me a lesson. He had that smug look on his face. Naturally, he was mighty pleased that without any effort on his part I got what he would himself have wished to give.
I spent a few hours, trying various ways to make my face look presentable. The swelling subsided but the bruise refused to budge and stayed for atleast another 15 days. I resigned myself to my new battered look.
People gave me strange looks--men looked up to my husband, during our walks together. Probably they were thrilled and impressed, that my husband could do something about which, they could only dream. Some women looked at me with pity, while some shot looks of contempt. I found the whole thing very amusing. People assume so many things but the reality is so different.
During one of my weekend hobby classes my friends kept looking at me. I thought they were admiring my good looks, (waiting for compliments to come flying on my way) for in the meantime I had totally forgotten about my black eye. One of the bolder ones asked me , "what happened to your eye, Rama?"---reality struck me again in my face.
I explained to them how I hit my face against the sink. I jovially shared with them, what I felt people were reading into this. They nodded agreeably, cracking their own jokes, saying they really believed my story. The majority seemed to derive vicarious pleasure in believing the husband had done it to me rather than an inanimate sink.
I am beginning to wonder if that could be really true. Is it possible I had a temporary memory blackout at the time of impact?
Can anybody please tell me what really happened?
No comments:
Post a Comment