Tushar, the safety valve of the tank is broken, all the water is spilling,” said Nidhi to her brother. “What should I do with that, do I look like a plumber?” Tushar lashed out. Hearing the peremptory words, Nidhi stormed into the house irritably. Aditi was rather dazed looking at the scene that unfolded and questioned Tushar, “How can you talk to her like this? She must have felt really bad!”
“These people don’t feel bad about such things. We were discussing something important but all they care about is that stupid tank,” said Tushar sarcastically.
The otherwise decorous gentleman, who responded to everyone with a sweet smile in office had a rather rude way of talking to his own sister. Looking at Aditi’s rejoinder, Tushar comforted her, “Hey, you don’t need to take it too seriously. I don’t talk to everyone in this manner. It’s just with mom and Nidhi that I can talk this way because I don’t have to be pretentious. This is my house, if I start faking it here like I do in office, then I will suffocate. Anyway these people are accustomed to such behaviour. You have not met my father yet. Mom and Nidhi don’t even have the courage to utter a word in front of him. Being his son, only I have had the liberty to answer back and if mom and Nidhi has to convince my dad about anything, they always approach me. So, relax and don’t fret about them!”
“So if I come to your life, will you talk to me in the same way?”
“No…No, not at all! How can I talk to you like that?”
Observing his sudden change of tone, Aditi riposted, “How is that possible? I have not seen you respecting anyone at your own home. Your perspective and treatment of familial relationships is condescending! Is that how you express your love?” In order to evade Aditi’s hecklings, Tushar quickly changed the topic.
“I need to prepare for tomorrow’s meeting now. Leave all this. And Aditi, tomorrow we’ll go to the office together. We can discuss the remaining things on our way.”
After staying back for a little while, Aditi went back to her house. Tomorrow was an important day for both Aditi and Tushar. They were working for a multi-national company, where Aditi was an Assistant Financial Manager while Tushar was a Field Officer. A foreign client was coming to their company tomorrow for a project which was being completely led by Aditi. If the meeting turns out to be successful, then it would be beneficial to the company.
Today, Tushar had asked Aditi out for a cup of coffee, and therefore Aditi had come to his house to discuss tomorrow’s meeting. But she became uncomfortable after Tushar put his sister Nidhi in an embarrassing situation. Aditi thought that maybe it wasn’t such a big deal for his family because they were so habituated to such insolent behaviour.
But the thought refused to leave her. Is this the same Tushar everyone refers to as a “gentleman” in the office? In fact, it was his polished behaviour and positive approach that made him so likeable at work. Aditi had never seen this side of Tushar before. The closer she got to him, she witnessed things that were unknown to her earlier.
“Mummy, I will be leaving early today. I need to pick up Tushar too. Actually, we have a meeting today. So we can discuss a few important points on our way.” The other day Aditi said the same to her mother, she smiled and said, “It feels so good that both of you are working in the same office. Your relationship can be so perfect…”
“I am getting late. If the coffee is ready, let me just have it and leave.” Anjali looked at Aditi, who seemed to be deliberately ignoring her words. “What’s wrong with you? You used to talk a lot about him before. It has stopped now. What are your thoughts about Tushar?”
“I do not know, mummy. I have not thought anything about it yet,” said Aditi. Her worried mother tried to make her understand, “What is there to think? Where else will you find a well-mannered, decent guy like Tushar these days? And you only had said that he is likely to be get promoted soon.” Anjali tried to convince Aditi at any cost. It was imperative to be optimistic about this relationship, as Aditi had herself told her parents about Tushar about a couple of months ago. At that time, she was all praises about Tushar so even Dipankar and Anjali promptly gave their nod to him. A few days ago, Tushar had even popped the question but Aditi had asked for some time to think over it.
In everyone’s opinions, he was a well-mannered, decent guy who was always soft-spoken. Until recently, even Aditi used to brag a lot about how perfect Tushar was. But these days she didn’t feel the same way. Dipankar even had a word with Tushar’s distant relative, Mr Keswani and he said, “Tushar is just like his father. His father was a disciplinarian. He had the last word about every decision in the house. After his demise, his mother was completely broken. Tushar took care of the family and handled all the difficult situations alone. Even Tushar’s mother never gets tired of praising him. Now he looks after everything in the house. Whatever he says, everybody in the house does just that. Your daughter will rule
the house as his wife.” Those words were definitely relieving. But after seeing Tushar and his way of treating his family members, Aditi was in two minds.
However, the scene that unfolded in front of Aditi’s eyes next left her feeling flabbergasted. She reached his house and upon realising that the door was open, she entered. There she saw Tushar sitting on the dining table and ear-splitting at his mother, “Mummy! These parathas are so tasteless. At least you could have done the potato filing properly! And can you take this tomato sauce away from me? I need curd instead.” He then went on to blare at Nidhi, “Iron my shirt once again. Is this the way you iron clothes? Look, there are so many folds on the sleeves! Anyway, you people do nothing sitting all day at home!” Aditi was shocked to hear such a loud and rude tone.Tushar’s mom saw Aditi and immediately alerted Tushar about it.
Suddenly after seeing Aditi, his tone changed. “Mummy, can you please quickly make tea?”
“No-No, you finish your breakfast and come fast. I need to discuss a few more points about the meeting,” Aditi said.
“Yes Madam, I am almost done,” said Tushar as he finished his breakfast hastily. He praised Aditi saying, “Your commitment and efficiency towards work makes me your fan.” Bored of listening to his fake compliments, Aditi was observing Tushar’s mother and sister serving him. In a while, Tushar stood up in a heroic manner and said, “Let’s go Madam, I am ready.” When he came out, he said, “Madam, now you sit here, your personal driver will drive the car today.” He extended his hand to pick up the key, and Aditi handed over the key mechanically. Tushar promptly opened the door to the car and indicated her to sit. While getting into the car, Aditi looked towards the balcony of his house where Tushar’s mother and sister were sitting. Tushar’s strictly unpretentious brusque way of speaking to his sister and mother in contrast with the rather buttery behaviour with her did not go down too well with Aditi. But Aditi thought that bringing up this issue will only make both of them lose focus from work.
The foreign clients were impressed with Aditi and Tushar’s presentation and their company clinched the deal. As usual, Tushar’s speech and manners were highly appreciated by a lot of people. And once again the office was full of praises for Tushar’s refined behaviour. Within a week, Tushar was conferred with the Best Employee award along with a promotion as a Field Manager. The company decided that the news and letter of promotion would be shared along with a cake with his family members. The motive behind this is that the success of the employee indirectly involves efforts of family members, so the happiness and pride doubles.So along with Aditi, co-worker Dhirendra was selected to hand over the cake and bouquet to Tushar’s family.
Tushar was shocked to see Dhirendra and Aditi at his house but he welcomed them with a smile. “Tushar, the boss has sent us to give you a good news. But for that, it is necessary for the rest of the people in the house to be present here,” said Dhirendra and smiled. Aditi also went inside the house and asked where aunty was. Tushar rushed into the room quickly. Aditi too followed him and stopped when she heard Tushar talking.
”My colleagues have come from office. You don’t need to talk too much in front of them. Just say what is important. They have come here because I think they have decided to promote me. And Nidhi, you don’t have to wait for too long in front of them. Go inside within a few minutes.” Aditi was enraged to hear Tushar speaking like this with his own family. Tushar respecting his office female colleagues, but not the women in his house was unacceptable. Both Dhirendra and Aditi left after giving the cake, bouquet and the good news. On the next day, early morning itself Tushar called up Aditi and said, “Now that I have become the field manager, at least now tell me what your plans are for our future?”
Aditi replied with a laugh, ”Mr Manager, I would like you to behave at home the same way you behave at work. I want you to treat women in your home as equals. Every woman deserves equal respect.” This answer was not received well by Tushar, so he sternly said, “If you are trying to say that I should be equally formal at home, then it's not possible.”
“Oh! Then the discussion ends here. It’s all my fault. I got attracted to a fake person.”
Aditi’s words obviously did not go well with the arrogant Tushar. But he was bound to listen to Aditi as she was not his family member. Their relationship was still very much professional. Aditi firmly said, “Tushar, everybody is stuck in this fast-paced turmoil of life. Even aunty and Nidhi must be having their own set of struggles and tension. In that case, why are only you getting the privilege of behaving the way you want? Asking them to follow whatever you say is not fair. Is this because of your patriarchal ego that you don’t treat everybody equally? Anyway, I wish you a bright future and a calm and peaceful family life. Our future relationship would be limited to being colleagues. Goodbye.” Suddenly Aditi felt relieved that there was no unbearable burden on her mind anymore.
“So is this your final decision?” Aditi was shocked to hear Dipankar’s voice as both her parents were eavesdropping on her conversation with Tushar. Before she could say anything to stop her parents from worrying, her mother, Anjali sat down in the chair in disappointment. She still remembered Aditi’s words, “Mummy, Tushar is a self-made man. He is focussed, cool and a perfectionist. No matter how adverse the situation becomes, he never loses his cool.”
Anjali was so happy to know that Aditi had found her man. But now, after listening to her opinion about Tushar, her then dream of seeing her daughter getting married to an eligible boy had come to nought. “What happened?” Anjali asked Aditi in a stressed voice. Aditi held her mother’s hand and tried to explain the situation to her.
“What does it mean when a calm and well-mannered man behaves like an angry-abusive person at home?” Although Anjali couldn't answer her daughter’s strange question, Dipankar quickly said, “It is important to behave formally with people who you work with. It’s not possible to talk to everyone in the same manner. At home, there are no boundaries, so one behaves as per one’s own wish.”
“Papa, Tushar is bossy and rude at home.” To which Anjali quickly snapped, “What is this nonsense? So you want people to wear a fake mask at home as well?”
“Mummy, I do understand that we are allowed to be more relaxed and take things lightly at home. It is important and it is natural to do so. Having a slight leniency in behaviour is fine but it is not a good sign if there is a stark difference between the two personalities.”
“What could be the reason behind a person being so well-behaved at work, while being rude at home? Have you tried finding out?” asked Dipankar.
“I think it is rooted in his childhood. He has grown up seeing his over-disciplined dad, who believed that men are superior to women. After his dad’s demise, his mother became too dependent on him and that gave him a sense of power over her. Now he is used to that authority. I am worried about the consequences that he will have to face because of his behaviour. I am not sure he will change for me, then how will I adjust for him?” said Aditi after giving it a serious thought.
Then Aditi asked, “And which marriage has really sustained without adjustments?”
Dipankar understood his daughter’s concern and said, “Simple adjustments are fine. But a relationship should not begin on adjustments. Aditi has done the right thing.”Aditi hugged her father out of happiness. She was happy that everything was sorted. Anjali was still worried but Dipankar was glad. He was proud of the fact that his daughter could take such a stern and far-sighted decision. Now he was confident that Aditi could never take a wrong decision. He was sure his daughter would find the right ‘gentelman’ at the right time. And when forever is concerned, it is good to be able to take the right decision at the right time, Dipankar concluded.
—Meenu Tripathi
