Free House of Cards by Sudha Murty Page B

give Mridula, your daughter-in-law?’ But she was scared to ask this question in front of Bheemanna.
    Shankar added, ‘We would all like to come for the wedding in a luxury bus and you must take care of it.’
    ‘We don’t know how to arrange this. That is left to you. You can hire the bus and we will pay for it.’
    Bheemanna ended the conversation. That same night, Lakshmi and Shankar left Aladahalli happily.
    The people of Aladahalli were quite disappointed with Mridula’s informal engagement to a doctor from Bombay. Each function in the village gathered at least three hundred people and a lot of importance was given to the menu to make the guests happy. In contrast, Mridula’s in-laws were very unusual. Only two of them had come and they had not even taken a second serving.
    Sarla and Satish had stayed back because they had a holiday the next day. Satish and Mridula were friendly. They had grown up together and during his childhood, Satish had spent all his vacations in the village. Satish teased Mridula, ‘You were already a half veterinary doctor and with your first-aid training, you are now a half lady doctor. By marrying an intelligent doctor like Sanjay, you are on your way to becoming a full-fledged doctor.’
    Mridula blushed and smiled.

    There was a special dhobi ghat on the side of the lake. The day after the guests left, Sarla insisted that she wanted to wash her clothes there. Mridula agreed. She knew that Sarla wanted to play in the water. There was great joy in washing clothes at the big lake. With one foot firmly resting on a big boulder, the clothes were thrashed on the rock with force, which sprayed the water about everywhere. It was very different from washing clothes under a tap in a city home.
    Mridula and Sarla walked to the lake. When they reached the shore, Mridula started soaking all the clothes. Sarla forgot everything and played in the water a short distance away. Suddenly, Mridula found something in the pocket of one of the trousers. She put her hand in the pocket and took out a wallet—it was Satish’s. Abruptly, she heard a shout and looked around. She saw Satish running towards her. He was some distance away and she could not hear what he was saying. Her attention wandered back to the wallet. She was worried that the money inside would get wet, so she opened it. She found money and a small photograph stashed in a corner. She was happy to have found something to tease Satish about. When she pulled out the picture, however, she was shocked to see a photo of herself from her old college ID. She didn’t know what to do. She was not expecting this. She had always thought of Satish as a good cousin. Things may have been different if she had known about his feelings earlier, but now she could only think of Sanjay. Her devotion was to him alone. She turned her back to the approaching Satish and hid the photo.
    Soon, Satish reached her. ‘Hey, is my wallet here? I left it in my pants when I gave them for a wash. There’s an important paper in it.’
    Mridula snapped, ‘If the paper is that important, then you shouldn’t have forgotten your wallet! Here, take your pants.’
    Satish took his wallet out quietly and walked away. He turned back to look at Mridula but she pretended to continuewashing the clothes. He mulled over the things left unsaid and left the ghat, deep in thought.



9
Partners
    By the time Sanjay and Mridula got married, Sanjay had quit his job in Bombay.
    Before the wedding, Mridula told Sanjay, ‘Why don’t you find a job in Bangalore? It’ll be easier for us to settle there. At the end of the day, language matters. We both belong to the same region. I have seen a newspaper advertisement for a temporary government job at Bangalore Victoria Hospital. I hope you’ll think about my suggestion.’
    Sanjay agreed. He was not too fond of Bombay either. He had obtained enough experience there and knew that it was expensive to get a decent apartment to live in. Moreover,