106) Limping back

There is none quite like Vinitha and am so proud of her. Her tale puts all my sorrows in perspective and in a way, she’s has been an inspiration and a role model.

This happened about 5 years back in Ooty; her husband was the Vice Principal of a girls boarding school, so popular that one needed to be of royal lineage or a fat industrialists to get their wards admitted. Vinitha was the music teacher and she sometimes oversaw carpentry and environmental classes too. She had her own son, Vasisht to look after and since his birth had reduced her teaching duties.

Vinitha and her husband Vinod were regarded high as a pair and this marriage had gone through 2 decades without much of a scar to show. In fact both being educationist, some of the lessons they teach percolated inside and they conducted their affairs with more grace and panache than your immediate neighbour.

Then in the summer of 2002, the script went horribly wrong and so wrong that the shame could not even hidden all across town.

It happened like this: Vinitha had taken Vashist to her parent’s home in Coimbatore for a fortnight’s break. Her father was growing in years and loved to indulge the young child. In addition her younger sister had delivered a daughter last year and it seemed an opportune time to converge.

Everyone had a good time at Coimbatore and when she left, Vashist was howling, insisting that they stay. He had gotten used to better meals and more attention.

They arrived at Ooty in an Ambassador after suffering an 8 hours drive and found the door of their villa locked. It seemed funny particularly after Vinod was told last week that they were arriving. She called the cell and heard the prerecorded croon: this number no longer exists. For the last 3-4 days, she was getting this dead-end message leaving her wondering as to her hubby’s fate. Now waiting at the gate it sounded ominous as her blood raced to a panic.

The mother and child stood outside after disposing off the car on the verandah when their neighbour spotted them. He was an amiable gentleman and what he said caused a heart attack.

“Vinod has sold the house and all the valuables. He was in a desperate rush to liquidate and the house now is practically empty and he has even arranged for the dogs at Sumithra’s place. He just told us that you had breast cancer and hence needed all this money for treatment”.

Even then the wife did not lose composure. She thought that this strange behaviour must have a reason.

She went to the bank and the official there said,” Ma’am there is Rs.6 in the balance and you need to pay a penalty for not maintaining minimum balance”.

That’s when she broke down.

The credit cards ran a bill over Rs.1 lac and there has been a systematic attempt to swindle and wipe the plate clean.

Why? Why? The heart and mind wanted to know and that explanation came when a colleague said, “Vinita, I am sorry. But I never thought Vinod could be such a cad. He was married once before you came into his life and what I can fathom is that the previous one must have resurfaced and this fellow acts like a cheap common burglar”.

It is so difficult to rebuild life again? She had a 5 year old son and not a penny to survive.

The school arranged her quarters; her students each contributed a mattress, some a bed, another a used fridge, her neighbour gave them a used furniture. There were loans at the local grocery and that fellow again went easy on debt.

Her parents and brother were outraged but Vinod was absconding and what could they do. Her brother settled the credit card splurges and closed that plastic card menace for good.

At the school there were innuendoes and whispers: did she secretly have an affair or was she frigid? Each as absurd as the other and first six months after the desertion was a social hell.

That was five years back when her tree was uprooted.

Today, Vinitha is the Principal of the school, drives a Santro, have brought a piece of land near the Nilgiris mountain as she avers: my son will have better morals than his father.