Anjali 

I had been lounging in my room and setting out the clothes to wear next day evening already. I was meeting Shiv tomorrow and I had decided I would tell him everything including how I had submitted an application for adoption at the Little Angels Orphanage. I thought he should know everything as it would give him a holistic picture of me. Yes, I had called him by the entrance of the orphanage and my plan was to sit by the roadside eatery which wasn't too roadside in real as it overlooked the large orphanage garden which was fenced but gave a good peek-a-boo from the eatery. One of the main reasons of choosing this place was that it was never too crowded on a weekend and this place offered enough privacy and I thought the open layout would help my mental self to pour out my story better than in a closed seating of a restaurant or a indoor coffee cafe like last time. 

Aniket Jiju had informed Papa a couple of days back that he used the information that I had given him and checked in with one of Shiv's wife's close friend under total confidence. This friend Prachi was actually someone from Shiv and Aniket Jiju's college. Aniket Jiju had been hesitant on reaching out to her earlier since she was someone who used to be very close to Shikha and didn't want her biased opinion against Shiv. However, he thought it was ok to meet with her and try to get information only under the condition that she wouldn't tell Shikha. She ended up being a mature woman and repeated the same story that Shiv had told me about his marriage. Prachi also said that Shikha was always a difficult person to deal with and that her reasoning for divorce was totally unacceptable but may be it was just their destiny that they are not together anymore. She didn't say anything about Shiv that was in a negative light. Aniket Jiju, therefore came home and informed Papa everything. 

I also learnt a couple of hours back that Papa had hired a professional detective after checking in with Pooja's father. Uncle had given Papa the contact of detective agency who came highly recommended from his friend. This detective was to monitor every activity of Shiv and his family members and send us a daily update. I didn't know how to feel about the whole detective yet as I imagined what it would feel like to be constantly under surveillance. My worry stemmed from the fact that it was more than possible that Shiv would say no to the alliance after knowing the truth surrounding my marriage. Why anyone so capable of finding a very fine young partner fully capable of returning feelings would want to marry a woman like me who was so broken and abused that she didn't believe in herself? 

Ma walked in as per her night time routine and put the laundered clothes in my wardrobe. 

"Will you wear this tomorrow when you go to meet Shiv?" She asked pointing at the cream colored salwar kameez with a red dupatta that I put out. 

"Umm Hmm. Yes. Why?" 
My mother usually asked me to wear more fancier clothes but this time she had really shut down after my divorce. I was sure, if I married again then she would gather the most glittering and the most trendy clothes and make me her own model to try on all those clothes. Sometimes, I felt like marrying again just for their sake, just to see them, my parents happy and content.

"No, I was just asking. Anjali, Are you feeling ok, beta?" She closed the wardrobe and sat beside me. 

"I don't know but now I just want to tell him and get over with it. Mann pe bojh sa lagne laga hai. Koi mere baare me soch raha hai begair mujhe jaane, begair mera sach jaane." 

Translation - My heart feels as if its heavy. Somebody is thinking about me without knowing me, without knowing my truth.

"Everything will be fine, my child. Keep faith in Mata Rani. Believe in yourself."

I hummed in response and Ma left the room early today. I think even she felt uneasy and wanted  to spend time with herself and may be seek comfort in Papa. 

*************************

Shiv 

If I was nervous when I met Anjali last week, I was even more nervous today. To calm down my anxiety, I went to the gym early in the morning and thought to use workout to calm down my nerves. I was up and ready and in the gym at 6:45AM in the morning on a Saturday. That's how bad my anxiety was, I was having an intuition that Anjali was going to tell me about her married life. She had asked me to meet by the entrance of an orphanage which made me assume that she was ready to tell her side of the story. Just then, I spotted my brother, my younger brother who stayed awake late in the night usually was in the gym at 6:45 AM too. 

It was one intense workout with Harshit as I completely forgot about my meeting with Anjali for a complete 60 minutes. I was although very happy by the end of it as I got to spend time with my brother. I also found out that he had actually been studying a lot of case studies at nights with the movie on. He just liked having TV on as that was some liveliness around while he studied. He had been studying to get inspiration for our business. He wanted to expand the business and completely own a single product line. 

After the gym, I headed home, and begged Dadi to allow me to have a light breakfast while Harshit had headed directly into office. I then headed to office as well as it wasn't exactly a weekend for me as I worked Monday through Saturdays. 

At sharp 5 in the evening, I was parking my car by the side of a road opposite to the orphanage gate. I saw Anjali already standing by the gate. Her hair were loosely resting  on her shoulders. One of the shoulders was covered in the red dupatta where she also hung her large black purse. 

I smiled at her and then crossed the road to be finally standing opposite to her. "Hi Anjali" 

"Hi Shiv, how are you?"

"I am good, Anjali. How are you?" 

"I am good too. I was thinking we can sit in the eatery right behind this fence." She nearly whispered as though she was scared of my answer. The eatery was a small place with barely two or three tables and there were benches to go with the tables, the ones you see on highway 'dhaba'

dhaba - Hap hazardly constructed restaurants on highways that serve local food with usually loud music blaring in the background.

*If anybody has a better translation, please help me ! 

"Sure, Anjali. Lead the way." I gestured towards the eatery and we quickly ordered a cup of chai each and sat down on the bench. 

"Sorry, This place is not very fancy but I thought we can talk at length as its not so busy today. Since it's a weekend and the offices around are closed, there is barely anybody on this side of the city." She looked nervous. 

"Hey, it's ok. This place is nice. I never noticed the greenery around here. Maybe, it's because of the orphanage. Do you come at this place often?" It was actually a good place. We could hear all the buzzing of the road but it was bearable since it was a weekend afterall. 

"Umm Yes, This place is very close to my work and I have visited this orphanage several times recently actually." She wasn't sweating but she kept setting her hair, another sign of nervousness. 

"Ok. Interesting." I was very intrigued at that. 

"How is Dadi and everyone at home?" 

"Everybody is good including Dadi. I hope Uncle and Aunty are doing fine as well."

"Yes, they are doing well. Shiv, I actually had put in an application to adopt a child from this very orphanage two months ago. "

I, involuntary raised my eyebrows. That was huge.

"My application wasn't turned down realistically but the administration clearly explained that a single divorced woman was going to have to fight a lot of battles to justify custody of an orphaned child. This was before Dadi put forward the proposal, Shiv."

Same battle I thought in my head. I lost my everything trying to welcome a child and she was ready to fight a long battle trying to become a mother. But, why did she want a child and not a relationship or a companion. I only ended up nodding my head. I didn't want to end up being a hindrance as she spoke.

***********

Anjali 

I was going to tell him and it was going to be easy. I would get this over with it. 

"Shiv, when we met last time, you had put your life infront of me. Today, I want to put it out infront of you." 

"Anjali, aap ko jaise sahi lage"

Translation - Anjali, whatever you feel is right.

"Shiv, aap samajhte hain ki ye mushkil hai. But that doesn't mean I shouldn't let you know under the circumstances that we are meeting."

Translation - Shiv, you understand this is difficult

"Ok." He nodded his head and looked at me expectantly.

"Shiv, my father is a retired bank office as you know. M...M..Manish, my husband." Husband ! not anymore but ex husband. I sighed but I needed to continue before I could give in to my emotions.. 

"I, uh..Manish's father, Mr. Gupta and my father were colleagues.  His father's family was from Pune but had been transferred for work in Mumbai and eventually Uncle decided to settle in Mumbai to accommodate for crucial academic years of their children." 

I was briefly only looking at Shiv with focusing more on the tableu with our tea cups. Shiv only nodded his head. His hands were resting on the table clutching his cup of tea.

"Over time, Papa and Mr. Gupta became friends and then their wives became friends which meant, we became family friends.Our parents would hang out at each others places. Manish and I would barely talk but we acknowledged each others presence whenever we came across each other." I stopped to look at Shiv who was looking at me intently. I lowered my gaze and decided to continue.

"Then one day, papa came home saying Gupta uncle has asked my hand in marriage to Manish. My parents were beyond delighted. Uncle Aunty like me and according to them Manish liked me too. He was an engineer too, mechanical engineer and he had recently got a job so he was ready to be 'settle' in life. And just like that I got married to Manish in a grand wedding."

"A few days after the wedding, a few incidents occurred that I thought were because I was in an arranged marriage and I was merely finding it difficult to adjust and adapt to the new family. Then Manish got assigned short term 6 month project abroad and I didn't travel with him because he said his company won't sponsor spouse's visa. During this time, I found out that Manish never umm wanted to marry me. He just did it go get his father off his back. "

Shiv was now staring at the same two tea cups that still had same amount of tea as we both had not touched it yet. 

"After some time, I found him with a guy who Manish introduced as his friend. My naive self thought they were just friends until I found out they were lovers." I heaved another sigh before continuing. Shiv had been listening very attentively.

"Manish's orientation was unknown to his parents. He wanted me to pretend infront of his family that our marriage was a happy straight marriage." Suddenly, I found myself choking up as scenes of his abuse and torture started flashing infront of me. My eyes started filling up too. 

"Later when his family found out too, they still wanted to pretend everything was normal. The scenes I witnessed and the torture that I faced were...." Shiv's voice cut me off. 

"Anjali, Aap ko takleef ho rahi hain." I felt his gaze on me and then he called out to the guy serving tables. 

"Bhaiya ji, Paani chahiye idhar. Milega?" Next moment, the same guy put down two glasses of water infront of us. 

"Bhaiya, aisa karo, do garam cup chai le aao. Ye thandi ho gayi hai."     

"Anjali, please. Have some water, and there is no need to talk on this any further."

I gulped down a couple quick sips before putting the glass down again. 

I heard Shiv clearing his throat.
"Listen Anjali, I don't know how to react after hearing all of this. I just know that I don't need to know anything else now." 

A good few minutes passed by in silence as Shiv sipped tea. The server had already served us both hot cups of chai.
I took a sip from my own cup. The chai was really good with the capability of taking tensions away. I dabbed the dried up tear that was threatening to roll down my cheek about 5 minutes ago.

"Anjali, I really don't need to know anything more than what you have told me. Are you feeling fine?

"Shiv, I umm.. I need to tell you one more thing. The anti depressants and the therapy was therefore to help me out of it all. Pooja supported me a lot through everything. It was also her idea to let atleast one colleague at work know everything so office doesn't become trouble amidst divorce."

"Hmmm, I understand. "

Soon there was a rush of probably college going group that decided to stop by for evening tea as well. The place suddenly became crowded and noisy too as youngsters were cheering out loud unnecessarily.

"Aao Anjali, car me baat karein? Agar aap ko sahi lage to?"

I nodded my head, I wanted to definitely get out of the sudden cheery atmosphere around me. Shiv insisted on paying up the meagre 120 rupees to the owner for 4 cups of chai and we walked towards his car.

"Shiv, I think I should head home already." I honestly didn't know what else to say to him in the car and I didn't want to be in a closed space and hence I decided to head home instead and cool off on the way home.

"Ok, I will drop you."

"I will take an auto or cab."

"Anjali, please, I insist. Allow me to drop you home. As a gentleman, I can't let you travel by yourself when you are feeling so low."

I couldn't say no and he had already opened the door for me to hop in. I ended up sitting in the passenger seat and Shiv closed the door. He climbed on the driver seat and started the engine. Shiv started driving the car. He switched on the radio which was playing random songs while I stared outside the window looking at the cars passing on the other side of the road.

I had finally managed to say everything but as I thought I would feel relieved after tell him then I didn't feel relieved. Instead, a new fear was enveloping me. This man knew everything about me and what if he knew Manish. Manish would never spare me for telling a third person about his orientation. What if Manish does something. No, I was just over thinking this. Shiv didn't know Manish and even if he did, Manish wouldnt be able to do anything.

But Shiv knew everything. He was going to reject me, I was a broken person. Nobody wanted to be in a relationship with a broken person. Maybe, I was meant to be alone.

Shiv

I barely paid any attention to the songs playing on the radio. My mind was boggled with disturbing thoughts about what Anjali had told me.

I had never in my wildest dreams thought about this angle. The pathetic society was against gays and lesbians which is why a man resorted to marrying a woman to bury his orientation and save himself from being stabbed in public. This Manish had practically decided to ruin Anjali's life with his truth. I can't even imagine what Anjali must have gone through. Living with a man who was just sick in his head, it must suck!

What kind of family was that. They supported their son with full consciousness that they were destroying an innocent woman life. I didn't even want to think about the torture and the suffering that she must have gone through. Yikes, I continued to focus on the road while I saw Anjali starting out of the window with empty eyes.

After a few minutes, I heard an almost silent sob and turned to look at Anjali who was trying to control herself. She looked vulnerable.

"I am sorry, Anjali. Me and my family bought this upon you when you weren't ready. Please!"

I glanced at the rear view mirror and the other mirrors to make sure the traffic was in check and then I quickly glanced at the bootle holder on my door and pulled it out.

"Here, have some!" I handed out the bottle to her.

She used her dupatta to wipe her face and sipped some water. We were very close to her home and reached her apartment community in another 15 minutes.

I turned down the engine and turned to face her as she was getting ready to step out of the car. "Anjali, thank you for trusting me enough to open up to me.  Can I say something?"

She nodded in a yes.

"I know he held importance in your life at one point but now that he is out, I think you shouldn't spend any more tears or time on him. It's easier to say than doing, but I really think he doesn't deserve anything from you anymore." I have her a small smile.

She hung her purse on her shoulder and muttered a very weak "Thanks" before stepping out.

I waited this time, until she actually went inside the gates and then into her building. I checked my car for any sign if her cell phone but didn't find it so I decided to drive off.

My mind was still meddled and I had a long way to go. I pulled up on the side of the road and called Jai Jeeja.

"I was right Jai Jeeja. She has seen worse which is why she seemed to be in much more pain." No formalities, I spoke on the phone.

"Did you meet Anjali?" He asked

"Yes, I just dropped her off and now I am heading back home!" I answered. I heard Jai call out my sister and then he told me he is putting the phone on speaker mode as Shivani wanted to talk as well.

"Anjali has been through an abusive marriage Shivi. I can't even imagine what she has gone through" I spoke on the phone

"Well, we kind of expected that, didn't we?" Shivani said.

"Well, yes but this is so different. She was married to a person who is gay. He was too coward of a person to come out to even his own parents. Later he and his parents tortured Anjali to keep it all a secret." I sighed.

Both of them were clearly shocked as they yelled out "What?" at the same time.

"I feel horrible right now. I couldn't even see her in the eye when she told me all of this. I don't even know how I reacted and if that was a good enough reaction"

"I am getting goosebumps just by listening to all of this. Poor Anjali, it's no fault of her though." my sister said.

"Of course, it's not her fault. But Shivi, Jai Jeeja, I don't think she is ready. As in, we just brought down this marriage proposal on her."

This time Jai Jeeja answered, "Shiv, I know this is huge and this proposal is probably too soon. But, now that this is out infront of you, are you scared? Scared that she needs much more emotional support than you thought?"

"Jeeja, I don't know. I am just, as in my minds frozen. I can't decide, not yet." I spoke truthfully.

"Shiv, take your time to decide and she will decide if she is ready to walk into another marriage or no. I don't think you should go in the direction that this is too soon for her. Let her decide, let her family decide." Jai Jeeja always spoke very logically but this time I couldn't see logic in what he was saying.

"I can't imagine her condition. She looked so vulnerable, she must have been abused by that man and his family too." I said and banged my fist on the steering wheel which sent a loud blazing horn.

"Shiv, go home safely first. Try to see what you want now. Talk to Papa and Dadi. We will discuss this soon." my sister must have heard I banged my fist on the horn.

I hung up the phone but couldn't keep calm. I decided to pay another visit to the gym before going home. Talking to Papa was still fine but Dadi. I bet she will be grossed out too.

I reached the gym premises after what seemed like eternity but in reality was only 30-35 minutes or so. I didn't speak to anyone, didn't even bother find a trainer. I just put my gun clothes on which had been in the backseat of the car and started jogging on the treadmill.

**********

So, it's all out for Shiv, thoughts?

What do you think he will do?

He was quite a gentleman in stopping her from getting into details, wasn't he?

What about Anjali, she broke down rightly so but what will she decide eventually?

Don't forget to vote and do share the story!
The story is just starting off and doesn't have a ton of readership yet. I hope it will get its due credit soon