Two couples, four marriages

A Story by Joyram

A couple gets separated. The husband goes somewhere and marries a woman, whom he accidentally meets. Later, this couple, to their shock, spots their ex-spouses, who are married to each other.

Venu, aged 30, was a graduate and worked as a supervisor, in a small private firm. He got married to Veena. She had passed intermediate and aspired to join in state police and was preparing for the entrance exam. Both hailed from Chennai.

The two spent one year of happily married life. Veena, in the next year successfully completed the police training course and was selected as a police constable. Within 3 years, she was promoted to the rank of Inspector due to her meritorious services and extraordinary commitment. Venu remained as a supervisor in the same firm. In the course of time, Venu started feeling inferior to Veena which she took to her advantage. Thereafter a thin invisible veil came up between the two. Veena swiftly took control and dominated the family affairs. She wanted Venu to do the bulk of the household work. Venu cooperated in the initial stages with Veena, as he appreciated the nature of her employment in the police department. But over a period of time, Veena’s attitude and gestures, not made with good intentions toward Venu made Venu feel awkward and inferior. He found himself being kept at a distance from her. With every passing day, the situation snowballed and aggravated with serious dimensions. In order to avoid her, Venu resorted to staying outside on some nights. The situation started becoming worse.

One day in a fit of rage and anger, Venu submitted his resignation from his company. He got his final settlement within 3 days. He did not inform Veena about his resignation. Within a week after his resignation, he left the home without a word of intimation to Veena. He carried with him two suitcases of dresses and garments. He reached the Central Railway station. He did not plan where to go. On a spur of the moment, he decided to go to Solapur in Maharashtra and boarded the Mumbai-bound train.

On reaching Sholapur he checked into a low-budget lodge. He started looking for employment in Sholapur. He managed to find a cottage-like place that was cost-effective in comparison to the lodge. With his little bit of knowledge of the Hindi language, Venu managed to communicate with the locals. He struggled for weeks to find employment. Not finding any job he got dejected. One day, all of a sudden, he vacated the cottage and boarded a bus to Pandarpur, a famous pilgrimage town, located 45km away from Sholapur. In Pandarpur he stayed in a small cottage and approached various restaurants for work. After three days hunt luck smiled at him and he was hired as a waiter in a Vegetarian restaurant.

In a month’s time, he proved his commitment to the services in the restaurant and the proprietor of the restaurant started liking him. In a period of six months, Venu became a loyal employee and was rewarded with a monthly hike in pay. Besides a fixed monthly salary, he used to get tips from many of those patronizing the restaurant. Veena, on a few occasions, phoned up Venu and made inquiries about his whereabouts, and made artificial pleas to him to come back to Chennai. Venu knew it was just like the crocodile tears and kept silent on the proposal.

In less than a year after Venue joined the hotel, a lady by the name of Madhumitha, joined as a waiter in the same restaurant. Venu and Madhumitha soon became good friends. They started sharing their life stories. Both shared one thing in common. Both were already married and both left their spouses due to un-patchable disputes. Venu told about his police wife and Madhumita shared that her husband was one Madan, working as a military officer. Eventually, they got attracted to each other. Venu learned Hindi from Veena and became proficient in the language. After six months chat, meeting and sharing their minds and hearts, they got married in a simple ceremony with the blessings of the restaurant proprietor.

With the permission of their proprietor, they went to the hill station Ooty, in south India, for their first honeymoon between them and their second honeymoon, after their earlier honeymoon with their ex-spouse. On the way back, they stayed in Chennai for a few days. Venu took Madhumitaher to Mahapali Puram, Mount Road, and some big temples in Chennai. On the penultimate day of their departure back to Pandarpur, they went to Marina beach. Madhumitha liked the beach so much. She and Venu stood on the shore, allowing the incoming receding tidal waves to touch their feet and enjoying the sensation when the tidal water went back into the sea, caressing their toes gently. It was a delight for both of them. Later they went to a restaurant for savouring their dinner.

Inside the hotel, while scanning the menu card, Venu happened to look around and saw the shock of his life. Veena was sitting at the farther end of the dining hall along with a young man. At the same time, Madhumitha too was looking at those sitting in the restaurant and on noticing a scene, almost fainted. She spotted her husband with a woman a few tables away at the other end. Her husband too spotted her. In no time, it was a momentary mutual starring by two couples at each other. They initially pretended not to see each other. Madhumita asked Venu to look at the couple whom Venu was already watching, in disbelief and informed him that the man was Madan, her ex-husband. Venu felt another big shock. In the next five minutes, it was a mind blowing conflict in the minds of four people in that restaurant. Veena and Madan finished their dinner while Venu and Madhumitha were still having theirs. Veena, while coming out of the hotel, felt guilty for a moment and along with Madan, whom she appraised about Venu, approached Venu and Madhumitha and enquired about Venu's welfare. The introduction of the four did not take any time but the bewilderment was writ large in their eyes. Madan wanted to talk to Madhumita for a few minutes separately and Veena too desired a similar meeting with Venu. It transpired during the one-to-one meetings that Madan, belonging to Maharashtra, was posted in Chennai for a one-year assignment. He came across Veena at a government function and the two exchanged their phone numbers. Within a short time they developed a liking for each other and then eventually got married secretly. Neither of them knew the other's mother tongue and the English language came to knit them. Neither Veena nor Madan conveyed to each other the fact they were already married. That made the couple look uncomfortable and embarrassed. Madan told Madhumitha that he would seek a transfer to Chennai and in the event of not getting such a transfer, Veena would quit her job and join with Madan wherever he settles down. Venu told Veena that he would settle down at Pandarpur once for all.

Then something pleasant, so unexpected happened. Madan wanted to repay the dowry paid by Madhumitha’s parents and Veena too wanted to give a onetime amount to Venu as her goodwill gesture. Although Venu was not interested in the deal, Madhumitha consented for their proposals and gave her bank account. The swapped pairs said goodbye to each other and parted as friends at the end.

Back at Pandarpur, with the financial corpus received from the Chennai pair, Venu and Madhumitha opened a vegetarian restaurant and thrived well.

Though the two pairs bid good bye as friends, their meeting at Chennai happened to be the last meeting in their lives.