“Look at his voice, like a girl’s,’ my father mocked. He gave me a disgusted glance
and went to the bathroom to change.
‘Go to sleep, son,’ my mother said.
‘He is sending her away next week,’ I said.
‘What girl have you involved yourself with? You are so young,’ my mother said.
‘I am not marrying her tomorrow.’
‘Is she Punjabi?’ my mother asked.
‘No,’ I said.
‘What?’ she said, shocked as if I’d suggested she wasn’t human.
‘Will you meet her father, once?’
My father came out of the bathroom. He had heard my last sentence, ‘Don’t you dare
go anywhere, Kavita,’ my father said, his eyes wild.
I stared back at him.
‘Go to your room,’ my father said.
I came back to my bed. I heard noises in my parent’s room. I couldn’t sleep. I woke up
and came towards their room. I’d heard enough arguments of my parents throughout my
life to care, but I placed my ear at the door, anyway.
“He is growing up,’ my mother said.
‘With all the wrong values. What does he know about this girl? He is my son, he is
from IIT, see what deal I get for him at the right time.’
There it was, for all my father’s principles, I was his trophy to be sold in the market
to the highest bidder.
‘You are responsible for bringing him up like this,’ my father screamed at my mother.
I heard the sound of a glass being smashed against the wall.
‘What have I done? I didn’t even know about this girl....’
Slap ... slap ... my father interrupted my mother. I banged the door open as I heard a
few more slaps. I saw my mother’s hand covering her face. A piece of glass had cut her
forearm.
My father turned to me. “Don’t you have any manners? Can’t you knock?’
nora
(Nora)
#1