Queen Bee- A Story

The ghazal was streaming into her ears like a flashlight in a dark night. The chill of the night and the scent of the fresh earth after the first shower made it so enchanting that it became sort of unbearable for her. Far off she could see the waves coming nearer to the shore and vanishing…. She could somehow relate herself to those waves who glistened with its white froth and vigour miles away but ultimately broke down into mere droplets of water against the rock.

Dimple was the darling of the crowd when she was in her college. In her blue capris and multi-coloured halter necks, she looked like a colourful bird that has just learned to fly. Her friends always suggested her that she should go for event management. After all, where on the earth can someone get more energetic person than her?

But her aim was different. Dimple wanted to be rich… in fact very rich. She was from a middle class family and had compromised with various things since her childhood because her family income never crossed 25 thousand a month. When she would see the designer shoes and clothes displayed at the huge malls, she would pray, “God next time when I visit this store, let not be that just for the sake of window shopping…”

Her friends called her a Queen Bee, who seemed to born for all the honey without working for it. She hardly cared for all these comments, because she knew that she at least had an aim, which none of her pals could even dream of. In spite of her high dreams, she was never snobbish or may be she never had a chance to be snobbish.

It is often said that youth is the time, when you are bound to fall in love. In Dimple’s case, her dreams never permitted her to fall in love. In her friends’ group, there was a boy called Swami, who was blindly in love with her. Swami would wait for her every morning in the college gate determined that today he would express his love. But each day came and went like the three years in college and finally it was the day of farewell.

Dimple was not unaware of all these. But somehow Swami did not fit into her dreams. After all his father was just a Manager in some Pharmaceuticals firm and he inherited just one two bedroom flat and a farm house some 156 kilometers away from the city. It was true that Swami was a bright student but yet his future was undecided.

It was during her farewell, Dimple announced to her friends that she was getting married next December to a rich NRI, called Aditya Verma.

Aditya was the Marketing Manager for a leading multinational company. Although he was just eight years older to Dimple yet people said, he had a promising future. His parents were separated just few years after his birth and he lived alone in a huge penthouse next to his father’s in Belgium. His father had his own glass business and was counted among one of the pioneer glass distributors, who made the expansions happen.

Dimple got married and went to her dreamland to live happily ever. Her life became suddenly interesting with new place, new culture and new people around. She now had her entire collections of all designer wear, which she refused to repeat in next party.

Life went on fine with all her servants to serve her and never ending personal bank balance, which her husband had gifted her during their wedding night. However among all the richness, what she lacked was a companion. Ever after she saw a relation based movie or read a nail biting novel, she longed for somebody with whom she could discuss the climax. Aditya was too much busy in his business trips and hardly had time to listen to her. When he would meet her at once fine weekend, he would rather discuss with her the latest deal his company has won and his huge contribution to it. Her society friends were too much engrossed in criticizing the latest designer who had goofed up an entire fashion show with an out of place wardrobe. Instead of the celluloid relationships they preferred to bond to new relations, which promised to elevate their status more.

Once she proposed her husband that she should start working somewhere to get rid of her boredom. At this her husband curtly replied… “Just enjoy your life baby. There are so many things to do. Go for a charity show or something. Besides you have your regular gyms and kitty parties. Why on the earth you need to work? I am anyways busy throughout the days and I don’t want your extra work commitment to come in our way, when we get time to spend with each other.”

Thus one complete year passed and Dimple started to become more and more cocooned in her shell of boredom. She refused to go to the fashion shows and parties now. In fact her husband had to almost drag her to some important family parties. When she was thus dragging her life, one day one of her society friends called Shalini called her to warn her about a forthcoming danger.

That night she waited for her husband till dawn until he turned around. He was surprised to see her sit on the staircase with her eyes red and swollen. Finally after a long and tired series of questions she asked… “Who is Norma?”

Aditya seemed to be completely cool at the question and thus explained her more coldly- “Norma is one of our new business development officers. I must say she is damn a woman and has brought us huge business with her skills!”

Dimple then asked her final question and at this Aditya answer as coldly as before, “Look darling…. I have my own circle, where you don’t stand. But it is a fact that you are my wife and I am not going to make you share this status with anybody. That’s a complete promise… Rest, such passing affairs are bound to happen and you will have to accept it.”

This was all they conversed that day. The next day was normal as if nothing happened and the following day Aditya promised that they will be going for a fortnight trip to India. Dimple was ashamed of her own callousness because she really did not feel anything. She once thought that she would go back to her parents but somehow could not gather the courage to take a step ahead.

A month later Dimple went to India with her husband. Aditya was treated as a demi-god in her house. Her neighbours stood awed at her new diamond ring and red ruby necklace. Surprisingly Aditya also acted like a perfect Son-in-law. Her parents were proud of her and her brother was all set to model her husband. She could not do anything but just to mock at the hypocrisy of the situation. Was she such a good actor, where even her mother could not discover the misery in her eyes? Or was she not in misery at all?

The night before their return to Belgium, Aditya proposed that it was time that they should start a family. At this she could say nothing but stare blankly at him. Her husband took his blank gaze as an approval and decided that they should thus start planning after they go back.

But something disturbed her. When Aditya was lying fast asleep, she went to the verandah with her little MP3 player and played her favourite ghazal by Chitra Singh, something which she had not done for more than a year now. For the first time in last one year, several things started to pop up from deep consciousness of her mind. Who was the recent other woman in Aditya’s life? Was it still Norma or somebody else? Why was she still tolerating him and was the status of being his wife all? Was not he supposed to be faithful to her? In fact, all her life this is what she has imbibed…. Then why was she tolerating this misery and why couldn’t she say everything to her parents and seek their support?

A huge wave lapped the shore breaking her chain of thoughts. Chitra Singh was now singing… “Dosto se wafa ki ummede…. Kis jamane ke aadmi tumho….” Suddenly she remembered Swami. What was he doing nowadays? She remembered his wet eyes at farewell party and how he turned down her marriage invitation. Then she remembered her lively college days and how her friends used to call her Queen Bee. All this was coupled with soothing tune of the ghazal and faint roaring sound of the sea.

Finally when the first ray of Sunlight was feeling the waves with moon still high but fade, Dimple decided that this morning would make things different in her life and she would not leave any of her questions unanswered. With this new resolution she went inside and crawled on the sofa of the bedroom. She could see Aditya deep asleep in the bed. She was convinced that she needed some rest now because next few hours will probably be the toughest ones in her life.