After the beating that Dhanush took, and his resulting hospital stay, my father and I got back to what was normal for us. That is to say that I was no longer staying away from him and we would talk frequently like we had in the past. I found out in a convoluted way that he was having some money problems. My cousin, Varun called me and asked to borrow a lakh. I told him that I could do it, lend him the money, but I wondered whether he wasn't getting into trouble of some kind if he needed the money in the first place. He and Sakshi came over that night and I gave him the money, in cash, while we were outside alone. I had just gotten a new car for myself, a 'Toyota Corolla, and I was showing him the engine and the big trunk.
"Varun, I hope you aren't getting into something over your head here, needing to borrow money and all."
"It isn't for me Ayush, the money I mean. It's for a friend who asked me to help him out. Since I didn't have that much money just laying around, I told him I'd have to go get it and bring it to him tonight."
"You're borrowing from me just to loan it to another guy? Damn Varun, I don't have so much money that I can afford to let it go outside the family. I thought it was for you." I probably had a little edge of anger in my voice when I said this to him, since he turned and looked at me sharply when I said it.
"It is staying in the family Ayush, it's just that he came to me and not to you. And don't ask me who it is, because I'm not saying." I figured it must be my Uncle Ganesh, Varun's dad, or maybe one of my other uncles, so I didn't say anything more about it.
"So, how do you like the car? It's a real beauty don't you think?"
"Yeah, it must be nice to have the money to throw around for one of these. Maybe I need to think about raising my steel prices to you so's I can get one just like it?" My delivery business was doing very well and I had three drivers working for me full time and now had four trucks. Uncle Kallu had found me two more Army surplus trucks, and he and I had come to an understanding and made a deal for him to take care of them all mechanically. I was buying all the steel that Varun was getting for me. Several times guys had approached me about selling their steel to me. I always told them that I only bought from Varun, but told them that I had heard that he was looking for more cut steel to buy and then resell. I heard that he was making a 6000 bucks profit per cord just by doing that. I was happy for him to be getting it.
Varun and Sakshi left soon after and I was in the living room going over the books, trying to keep up with everything, and seeing where I stood profit wise. The business wouldn't run itself out of my hip pocket anymore, I had to write all the numbers down now just to have an idea of where I stood.
"Ayush, Sakshi told me the strangest thing while you were showing Varun the new car. She said your dad was over a couple days ago and she heard him asking Varun to loan him some money. Wouldn't your dad know to come see us first? Maybe we should call him just to make sure that things are all right?"
"Manasi, if Papa wanted to talk to us about something like that he would already have done it. We should just keep our noses out of his business. I don't want to talk about it anymore either."
A couple days later we all found out why he'd needed to borrow some money. He'd just up and moved out of the house and went off to live with a woman who worked as a waiter at his the bar below his office. Nanda Khurana was her name, a woman of about twenty-five or so who'd been around the block a few times. She had curly black hair that had been straightened so often it looked all brittle and coarse. I guess she was attractive if you liked big tits and a nice firm ass, but her personality was slutty and vulgar. She made good money herself, hustling tips from the old guys who hung around the bar all day and night, pretending to be big spenders when she let them get an eyeful of her ripe body. She would sometimes balance two draft beers on her tits and walk across the room to deliver them like that. She'd get a big round of applause when she did it too.
This is what my father left my mother for, walking away from a marriage that had lasted longer than his new girlfriend had been alive almost. I knew that my dad had strayed from time to time, but this was really going over the line of acceptable behaviour. He'd outdone himself this time. I waited several days before venturing over to see my mom. I knew she'd be too hurt and pissed. I decided to wait a bit, to let her cool down a little first, and then go over there. I was right about that, her being hurt and pissed, but three or four days hadn't been nearly enough time for her to calm down.
"Ayush, I'm glad you finally came over. I need you to do me a big favour. Your papa, that bastard, has decided he's going to be needing a few more of his clothes than he thought he'd need when he scurried out like the craven coward he truly is. He called Trisha and asked her to see to it, but Trisha, rightfully, came to me. Since he doesn't have the courage to set a single foot inside this house, I hope you'll do me the kindness to take that trunk I've packed over to him. I don't know where he's staying at the moment, but you can just deliver it to his Whore over at the den of alcoholics he frequents. I'm sure that slut will see to it that he gets it all right. Thank you Ayush, I knew I could count on you in my time of trouble."
I spent the next thirty minutes holding her and listening to her wailing out her grief. It isn't ever easy seeing your mother suffer like that. This wasn't the first time he'd let his dick get him into trouble, but it was the first time he'd let it get this far, and there was no way my mother would ever be able to absorb so public a humiliation. In the past he'd at least made some effort at being discreet.
When I left, a couple hours later, I dragged that big steamer trunk out and down the stairs to the back of my new car. I opened the trunk lid and put the steamer inside. I needed some rope to hold the trunk lid down, since there was no way that steamer trunk would fit and still allow the lid to close. When I got to the El Bolero, I grabbed the big trunk and dragged it inside with me. I saw my father sitting at a table nursing a beer. His new girlfriend was standing right next to him, I guess they'd been talking when I walked in. I took the trunk over to him and let go of my hold on it.
"Mom asked me to bring this here for you."
"Hello, boy. I'd like you to meet a friend of mine. Nanda this is Ayush, my oldest boy. Beta, this is Nanda, a very good friend of mine." He was smiling like he thought I'd just go along with everything and not make any fuss. Hoping, probably more than expecting.
"Hi Ayush, your dad's told me all about you, but he didn't tell me what a handsome man you were. Did you Girish ji?"
"Look papa, I know you expect me to make nicey nice here with your new friend, but I'm really not in any mood for it. I just left the house after spending a few hours listening to ma crying her guts out and screaming about how you're a no good cocksucker for doing this to her, especially over what she thinks amounts to nothing more than a few quick fucks with some sleazy whore. I gotta tell you, I think she has it just about right." I turned around and walked away. I figured he'd get up and do something about what I'd said, but he just took it and stayed sitting right where he was. There wasn't a single sound anywhere in the place from the time I walked in until the time I left. I was relieved that he hadn't gotten up, for both our sakes. I was mad enough to really tear into him. He might have beaten me in the end, but I'd have gotten in some good whacks too.
It was the next day before I learned that my mother had taken a scissors to every piece of clothing she'd packed into that trunk. Dhanush told me that the biggest piece of cloth was no larger than the size of a back pocket on a pair of dungarees. I had a good laugh, relieved that my mother hadn't lost either her fighting spirit or her sense of humour.
It was another week before I heard that Nanda had kicked my old man out of her place. Maybe she was upset over him not doing anything when I'd told him about what mom and I thought. Maybe she got tired of watching him drink himself into a stupor every night like I'd also heard he'd been doing. Maybe, after he'd gotten his dick wet a few times, he realized what a big mistake he'd made. I don't know, but whatever the reason, he was living with a couple old pals of his from the office and staying away from my mother and the Bollywood Dreams bar.
Manasi and I, and most of the family, rallied around mom. We took her out to supper and made sure that she knew that we all still loved her even if my father didn't. She probably never had so much company before or since. It went on like that for a couple months. After that couple months though, ma started asking everybody she talked with about what they'd heard about my father. All of us just looked at her and shook our heads. We all knew that she was getting herself ready to once again forgive him and take him back. It seemed sick to me, how she could even think about it after what he'd put her through. Not just this time, but all the other times too. Finally, once when we were alone, I just had to speak to her about it.
"Ma, everyone's asking the same question here. They all wonder if you're thinking about letting him come home again. Nobody wants you to do that ma. He shit all over you. If he really cared anything about you at all, he couldn't have treated you that way. He doesn't love you anymore ma, hasn't he made that clear to you yet?" My mother's shoulders were shaking and she was sobbing with her head down. I felt like shit, but somebody had to tell her. When she looked up at me, I just felt so sorry for her.
"Varun, I hope you aren't getting into something over your head here, needing to borrow money and all."
"It isn't for me Ayush, the money I mean. It's for a friend who asked me to help him out. Since I didn't have that much money just laying around, I told him I'd have to go get it and bring it to him tonight."
"You're borrowing from me just to loan it to another guy? Damn Varun, I don't have so much money that I can afford to let it go outside the family. I thought it was for you." I probably had a little edge of anger in my voice when I said this to him, since he turned and looked at me sharply when I said it.
"It is staying in the family Ayush, it's just that he came to me and not to you. And don't ask me who it is, because I'm not saying." I figured it must be my Uncle Ganesh, Varun's dad, or maybe one of my other uncles, so I didn't say anything more about it.
"So, how do you like the car? It's a real beauty don't you think?"
"Yeah, it must be nice to have the money to throw around for one of these. Maybe I need to think about raising my steel prices to you so's I can get one just like it?" My delivery business was doing very well and I had three drivers working for me full time and now had four trucks. Uncle Kallu had found me two more Army surplus trucks, and he and I had come to an understanding and made a deal for him to take care of them all mechanically. I was buying all the steel that Varun was getting for me. Several times guys had approached me about selling their steel to me. I always told them that I only bought from Varun, but told them that I had heard that he was looking for more cut steel to buy and then resell. I heard that he was making a 6000 bucks profit per cord just by doing that. I was happy for him to be getting it.
Varun and Sakshi left soon after and I was in the living room going over the books, trying to keep up with everything, and seeing where I stood profit wise. The business wouldn't run itself out of my hip pocket anymore, I had to write all the numbers down now just to have an idea of where I stood.
"Ayush, Sakshi told me the strangest thing while you were showing Varun the new car. She said your dad was over a couple days ago and she heard him asking Varun to loan him some money. Wouldn't your dad know to come see us first? Maybe we should call him just to make sure that things are all right?"
"Manasi, if Papa wanted to talk to us about something like that he would already have done it. We should just keep our noses out of his business. I don't want to talk about it anymore either."
A couple days later we all found out why he'd needed to borrow some money. He'd just up and moved out of the house and went off to live with a woman who worked as a waiter at his the bar below his office. Nanda Khurana was her name, a woman of about twenty-five or so who'd been around the block a few times. She had curly black hair that had been straightened so often it looked all brittle and coarse. I guess she was attractive if you liked big tits and a nice firm ass, but her personality was slutty and vulgar. She made good money herself, hustling tips from the old guys who hung around the bar all day and night, pretending to be big spenders when she let them get an eyeful of her ripe body. She would sometimes balance two draft beers on her tits and walk across the room to deliver them like that. She'd get a big round of applause when she did it too.
This is what my father left my mother for, walking away from a marriage that had lasted longer than his new girlfriend had been alive almost. I knew that my dad had strayed from time to time, but this was really going over the line of acceptable behaviour. He'd outdone himself this time. I waited several days before venturing over to see my mom. I knew she'd be too hurt and pissed. I decided to wait a bit, to let her cool down a little first, and then go over there. I was right about that, her being hurt and pissed, but three or four days hadn't been nearly enough time for her to calm down.
"Ayush, I'm glad you finally came over. I need you to do me a big favour. Your papa, that bastard, has decided he's going to be needing a few more of his clothes than he thought he'd need when he scurried out like the craven coward he truly is. He called Trisha and asked her to see to it, but Trisha, rightfully, came to me. Since he doesn't have the courage to set a single foot inside this house, I hope you'll do me the kindness to take that trunk I've packed over to him. I don't know where he's staying at the moment, but you can just deliver it to his Whore over at the den of alcoholics he frequents. I'm sure that slut will see to it that he gets it all right. Thank you Ayush, I knew I could count on you in my time of trouble."
I spent the next thirty minutes holding her and listening to her wailing out her grief. It isn't ever easy seeing your mother suffer like that. This wasn't the first time he'd let his dick get him into trouble, but it was the first time he'd let it get this far, and there was no way my mother would ever be able to absorb so public a humiliation. In the past he'd at least made some effort at being discreet.
When I left, a couple hours later, I dragged that big steamer trunk out and down the stairs to the back of my new car. I opened the trunk lid and put the steamer inside. I needed some rope to hold the trunk lid down, since there was no way that steamer trunk would fit and still allow the lid to close. When I got to the El Bolero, I grabbed the big trunk and dragged it inside with me. I saw my father sitting at a table nursing a beer. His new girlfriend was standing right next to him, I guess they'd been talking when I walked in. I took the trunk over to him and let go of my hold on it.
"Mom asked me to bring this here for you."
"Hello, boy. I'd like you to meet a friend of mine. Nanda this is Ayush, my oldest boy. Beta, this is Nanda, a very good friend of mine." He was smiling like he thought I'd just go along with everything and not make any fuss. Hoping, probably more than expecting.
"Hi Ayush, your dad's told me all about you, but he didn't tell me what a handsome man you were. Did you Girish ji?"
"Look papa, I know you expect me to make nicey nice here with your new friend, but I'm really not in any mood for it. I just left the house after spending a few hours listening to ma crying her guts out and screaming about how you're a no good cocksucker for doing this to her, especially over what she thinks amounts to nothing more than a few quick fucks with some sleazy whore. I gotta tell you, I think she has it just about right." I turned around and walked away. I figured he'd get up and do something about what I'd said, but he just took it and stayed sitting right where he was. There wasn't a single sound anywhere in the place from the time I walked in until the time I left. I was relieved that he hadn't gotten up, for both our sakes. I was mad enough to really tear into him. He might have beaten me in the end, but I'd have gotten in some good whacks too.
It was the next day before I learned that my mother had taken a scissors to every piece of clothing she'd packed into that trunk. Dhanush told me that the biggest piece of cloth was no larger than the size of a back pocket on a pair of dungarees. I had a good laugh, relieved that my mother hadn't lost either her fighting spirit or her sense of humour.
It was another week before I heard that Nanda had kicked my old man out of her place. Maybe she was upset over him not doing anything when I'd told him about what mom and I thought. Maybe she got tired of watching him drink himself into a stupor every night like I'd also heard he'd been doing. Maybe, after he'd gotten his dick wet a few times, he realized what a big mistake he'd made. I don't know, but whatever the reason, he was living with a couple old pals of his from the office and staying away from my mother and the Bollywood Dreams bar.
Manasi and I, and most of the family, rallied around mom. We took her out to supper and made sure that she knew that we all still loved her even if my father didn't. She probably never had so much company before or since. It went on like that for a couple months. After that couple months though, ma started asking everybody she talked with about what they'd heard about my father. All of us just looked at her and shook our heads. We all knew that she was getting herself ready to once again forgive him and take him back. It seemed sick to me, how she could even think about it after what he'd put her through. Not just this time, but all the other times too. Finally, once when we were alone, I just had to speak to her about it.
"Ma, everyone's asking the same question here. They all wonder if you're thinking about letting him come home again. Nobody wants you to do that ma. He shit all over you. If he really cared anything about you at all, he couldn't have treated you that way. He doesn't love you anymore ma, hasn't he made that clear to you yet?" My mother's shoulders were shaking and she was sobbing with her head down. I felt like shit, but somebody had to tell her. When she looked up at me, I just felt so sorry for her.