CHapter#2 : The "talk"

Chapter#2

“The Talk”

After my board exams were over, we had a family meeting to decide upon Karan’s fate. Dad was pretty cool about it.  It was decided that Karan and Dad would go meet Shyla’s parents and the details of the meet were being worked upon.

“I should go too” I announced. After all Shyla was my friend too.

Karan supported my decision, but Dad was strictly against it. So, finally Mom, Dad and Karan went to meet her father.

That didn’t go well. Without going into details, it’s safe to say, my parents were insulted and sent back. Karan was all kinds of broken that day. The lesson I learnt that day was that it was somehow wrong to fall in love and worse if that person was from a different caste. What I also learnt was that I was blessed as I overheard the conversation, Dad had with Mom that night.

“I raised my kids with all freedom, and now I have to teach them that freedom has limits!” Dad was complaining to mom. “Look what we are doing to Kiera, I never stopped her from doing anything she wanted and now only because of her brother  she is under house arrest”

I wanted to interrupt, to tell Dad not to sweat it, being an introvert I didn’t mind it much.

“They are good kids Shiven” Mom replied “Can’t you see how mature Karan is about the whole thing?”

Dad nodded. “I couldn’t save my kids from heart break” He was pensive.

Karan tapped me on the shoulder from behind the staircase where I was hiding overhearing and I placed my finger on my lips for the universal “be quiet” sign. He sat beside me as we both listened to what our parents were discussing about us.

Good kids but ill-mannered, I suppose!

“You can never do that Shiven, how will they grow otherwise” My mom really was the Deepak Chopra of the family.

“Has nothing changed in 25 years? We are still fighting over religion, caste! What’s wrong with this world! My son is the best husband anyone can ever have, and yet he has to suffer heartbreak, because of some morons” Dad continued being rhetoric.

Mom just placed a hand on Dad’s shoulder and he smiled.

This won’t be a wrong place to tell a bit about my parents. Both Taureans and if Linda Goodman is to be trusted they were really like bulls. When they fought, no one gave up as they logged heads. But when they were in the same room, they did not need words to communicate. In fact them being the same room meant that the room had a different energy with the love vibes flowing through. Dad was a big fan of Beatles and mom was a Ghazals enthusiast. So every Sunday, after the evening tea, Dad would put on vinyl records of Mom’s favourite Ghazals and Mom will sing along for hours. As kids and as teenagers, it was two hours of torture for us, but in that two hours Mom had her rejuvenation and Dad, well he just sat there ogling Mom, and I literally mean ogling, no other word does justice to the way Dad looked at her.

And I wanted that for myself. The love Dad had for Mom, and Dad wanted that for us too, as was apparent in their conversation!

Karan raised his collar, as he heard dad, but his eyes had welled up.

“Remember our time?” Dad was in flash back now.

Mom smiled as she sat beside him on the dining chair.

Dad had eloped with Mom. There was no caste difference but Mom’s family was richer, upper class and Dad was a fresh out of college guy with three sisters to marry off without a father. After all the convincing, Dad could do which would put even SRK from DDLJ to shame; Dad finally went to Mom’s house and announced that he wanted to marry her. Mom’s family was classier than Shyla’s so there was no violence, as mom was thrown out of house without a single ornament on her. Twenty- five years later, I still haven’t seen any of my relatives on my mother’s side. They didn’t want that life for us. So we were given all freedom to choose our life partners. Dad had a speech he gave to both Karan and I as we entered our teen age. It went like this-

“You are in the prime of your life now; I know there would be times when you will think your parents are old fashioned and have no sense. There also would be times now when you will start noticing girls/boys (for Karan and I ) I promise you one thing, I will marry you to the person you choose, will never impose my choice over you , but for now your fore most priority should be education. You complete your education; Start earning for yourself and then all these things will come. There’s one man who will always stand by you no matter how many mistakes you make and that’s me! We will always be together as a family”

We both winced at the speech, as for both of us the Speech followed with a drinking session with Dad, where he had his glass of Wine, and Karan and I were given the choice of choosing what we wanted to drink, to prove Dad’s point in speech I suppose. Karan being a first timer had chosen Orange Juice. But when Dad called me for the “talk” which was about four years later than Karan, He had already given me a heads-up so I knew what was coming. I chose a Breezer! Yes, I warmed up to the idea of alcohol by then but only the mild ones. I guess that was a time I started turning from an honest person to a hypocrite. Back to the speech, Dad would always put on “Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen and then tell us how Freddie Mercury was an Indian by birth. It has such an impact that till today when I listen to that song, I remember the “talk”

Presently, Dad continued being pensive as he shared his thoughts with mom and we kept shamelessly eavesdropping.

“25 years on and I realize things are the same. Sometimes I feel I should just go to that girl’s house and ask her to come with us, like I did with you”

Dad was sure drunk now, and he wasn’t even drinking! My dad never got drunk. He occasionally had Wine which one of his best friends sent for him from France and he mixed drinks really well. A skill he passed on to Karan and I. We could really make awesome cocktails and mock tails. When we went to restaurants we often sneered at the overpriced drinks as we made them at ten percent of the price at home.

“That’s for Karan to do, not you!” Mom laughed and Karan made the “What!” gesture beside me.

“These people are different Shiven,” Mom continued “God knows how much that girl is suffering and what all restrictions they have placed on her. Such a nice intelligent girl!” Mom liked Shyla a lot too.

“I don’t know what we should have done differently.” Dad remarked “I should apologize to Karan, as I couldn’t help him” Dad was about to get up.

Karan got up at this. “No one’s apologizing, if anyone should that’s me! Because of me, you were insulted. Because of me Kiera is living like a prisoner, It’s all my fault.”

He was crying. I had never seen that. Karan never cried. Not in front of us at least. And then Mom joined him as she got up to hug him.

I was standing at the end of staircase that went up to my room with silent tears running down my face as I saw my once happy-go-lucky family in front of me. Karan hunched in a corner with mom hugging him, both crying and Dad sitting at the dining table with his goblet of Red Wine, his eyes the same color.

I didn’t know what to do; but then I did and so I went to the newly bought All-in-One, Dad had recently moved on to CDs. He got all his vinyl collections recorded in a CD, bought the CDs of his favorite rock bands from his recent business trip to US. And so I put on the “Bohemian Rhapsody” Freddie Mercury’s voice filled the room as he sang

“Is this a real life?

Is this just a fantasy?

Caught in a landslide

No escape from reality”

Karan continued sobbing for a while before he wiped his tears away. By the time the song was on “But I am just a poor boy…” Karan had sobered up, Mom had collected herself and it was time for Karan and I to sing along with fake voices over the chorus as we always did.

The song might mean different things to different people, but for my family, it was a sign of us being together.

“Bismillah! …… “Let him go” and everything was fine again.