Made in Heaven?

“Thuji, oyaaaaaa….,Thuji. Tashi just arrived”

The girl picking chillies looked up, happiness radiating her pretty face. It was her aunt Pema announcing the arrival of her husband. Thuji hurriedly picked up the basket of chillies and joined her aunt on the outskirt of the field.

“When did he arrive? Wasn’t he due tomorrow Ani Pema?”

“Yes” came the prompt reply, Thuji waited for the usual teasing from her aunt which almost always followed her husband's arrival but none came. A look at the older woman’s face showed a frown marking the already wrinkled brow. Something was troubling her Ani.

Worried Thuji asked, “Ani what’s wrong? Is Tashi hurt?

“Don’t just stand there and ask stupid questions, let’s go,” Was the uninformative answer.

They hurried home, the usual ten minutes walk seemed like hundreds of miles and all the while every awful possibility crossed her mind, was he hurt? No! He would have been in the hospital in that case? Did he get thrown out of his job? No! Tashi was hard working and well liked by his boss, he said that himself. What else could have happened?

On the brighter side she thought, maybe he wants to take with him to Thimphu and Ani is just upset because there is no one else to look after the cattle and do household chores. On that note she noticed that they had reached home. Putting her basket beside the door she walked in to find Tashi sitting cross-legged on the patch work mattress, a pot of steaming suja before him.

“Tashi” she heaved a sign of relief to find him sitting there so obviously unhurt and sat down beside him, all of a sudden shy and tongue-tied. They sat that way for endless minutes before he cleared his throat.

“Thuji, there is something I have to tell you.” He sounded different, “I don’t know how to say this….”

Suddenly she sensed something was terribly wrong, she didn’t want to hear what he had to say, wanted to shut out his voice, willed her self to retreat into the cocoon within.

“Thuji, I want a divorce, I am in love with a colleague from the office.” He voice sounded far away.

With that one sentence she felt her dream of a home; kids and pets come crashing down. She wanted to rant and rave about his unfaithfulness. How could he do this to her? Didn’t she take care of his old parents and their farm aside from her own parents’ farm, stretching herself thin in the process, so that he could complete his Engineering course? Wasn’t it she who dropped her education at the 10th standard even though she had been a promising student just so that he could continue his without worrying about his old parents? Where was that other woman then? How could he do these? Well it didn’t matter now, did it? None of the sacrifices mattered; Tashi’s declaration had put a full stop to it. In the end it boiled down to the fact that after 9 years of marriage, he had fallen out of love with her. Maybe he had never loved her in the first place and had married her just as a means to his own end.

“Thuji…………” Tashi’s voice brought her out of the whirlwind of thoughts.

“Go back to her.” Even as she said it, emptiness clutched at her heart. Calmly she walked out of the door; head held high, she needed some fresh air. Once outside she hardly noticed the cold, chilly air. The sun had gone down. It was going to be a dark starless night.