Maya

In the outskirt of the north of the capital city of India was a small residential area, Rohini. It was a beautiful place. Unlike the other parts of the city, this place was blessed with huge greenery and pleasant atmosphere. Due to thick borderline of flora the temperature was three to four degrees less than the rest of the city. People who were working class and belonged to different states of India had settled in this area.

Maya, a young married woman had chosen this place to live after getting married with Rajesh whom her parents had chosen for her. Maya was a beauty queen. She had inherited the beauty from her grandmother who was from Afghanistan. Her grandfather was a soldier in Indian Army and had gone on a war to Afghanistan and came back home with the victory and a beautiful wife. Maya had learnt to live an independent life from her grandmother.

She took most of her decisions on her own since childhood but when it came to her wedding she was strongly declined to tie the knot with a man she was in love with. She was a software engineer and was working with an MNC in Pune. She had filled Pune as her first preference for her first job posting as she loved the city, because of its clean and pollution free environment.

Rajesh was a good looking soft speaking man with a happy go lucky nature. He was an IIM graduate and was working with GE capital that paid him handsome package. He loved mixing up with new people and making new friends. Neighbors loved him for his outgoing and helpful nature. These were the traits of Rajesh that had attracted Maya towards him. Maya accepted him, his family and friends whole heartedly. Her world revolved around her husband. She used to get up early went for jogging, and after coming back, she would make tea for herself and her husband who had become habitual of opening his eyes with a warm hug from his wife. He loved the fragrance of Maya’s sweating skin. She would prepare breakfast, pack his lunch and did nothing for herself until Rajesh left for his office.

It’s been five years of their amazing married life. But for the last six months an evil cloud was hovering over their beautiful relationship. Maya had seen many incidents that left her suspicious about Rajesh. He had recently got a promotion. With a handsome increment in his package work load and responsibilities had also increased on his shoulders. He came home late. Maya had to eat dinner alone most of the times. In bed they conversed less. Maya was always looking for an opportunity to get Rajesh’s phone. Rajesh changed the lock pattern of his phone every day. She was tired of asking him of his unusual behaviour. She asked whether he was dating other woman. He refused and pretended that he loved her the most. In fact, he was playing dual role. He was dating Sheetal.

Sheetal was a single mother of a three year old son. She was Rajesh’s colleague. She lived few kilometers away from Maya’s home.

As Sheetal and Rajesh worked in the same office, they decided for car pooling.  Maya was aware of it and she had asked Rajesh to stop car pooling with Sheetal. Rajesh did that. He did that to show, that Maya was more important in his life. Time passed and frictions began at home. He spent more time in office. He started going office on weekends to avoid the naggings and with a hope to work more.

When Maya could not bear this anymore and didn’t get any clue of her husband dating Sheetal she called Sanjay. Sanjay was Rajesh’s best friend. Maya thought that Sanjay would confirm the extramarital affair of her husband. Without delay, Sanjay reached Maya’s place.

Maya prepared coffee. And they started talking of her well beings and Rajesh who was on a business trip to Singapore.

‘What the hell is going on between my husband and that bitch?’ Maya’s patience had reached its limit and she was ready to burst.

Sanjay knew that she was anxious. Look, Maya. There is nothing going on between the two of them. Just a little bit of healthy flirting, I’d say.’

‘Flirting? Healthy flirting? Really Sanjay…’ She rolled her eyes in disgust.’ That’s what you men call it? There is nothing healthy about flirting, Sanjay, not for a married man.’

Healthy flirting is a term introduced by perverted men who want to lend legitimacy to their extramarital dalliances. Flirting invariably has a sexual connotation to it. She got up from her seat and walked around the room gesticulating and muttering something to herself. Suddenly she stopped, turned back, looked at Sanjay and asked, ‘Did my husband sleep with her? You are his friend. Did he ever tell you anything about it?’ 

Sanjay tried his best to defend his friend and he knew he was doing wrong but he had no choice. He had already warned Rajesh to stop dating Sheetal but in vain. While leaving, he saw a strange sourness in Maya’s word when she said that she would take a strong decision if Rajesh continued doing so.

One day Maya decided to meet Sheetal. She chose weekend to visit her so that she could see if Rajesh was staying with Sheetal. Sheetal took Maya’s visit as a surprise but she welcomed her with a warm heart.

‘Hi, Maya. How are you?’

‘I'm fine, Sheetal. You must be doing great. No?’ Maya said sarcastically.

Sheetal did not reply and requested her to sit in the living room. Maya took a seat and saw Sheetal’s son sitting playing on the sofa. She took him in her lap. She offered him some chocolates and began playing with him. Sheetal couldn’t believe her eyes and found it strange.

‘What would you like to have?’

‘Nothing. Thanks.’ Maya continued, ‘Thank god, he doesn’t look like Rajesh. I wouldn’t have hesitated slitting his soft throat.’ Maya said, running her fingers around the kid’s neck.

Earth slipped under Sheetal’s feet. She got shocked and began to shiver. She ran to Maya, snatched her son from her and shouted, ‘Get out of my house. What’s my fault if you are infertile?’

Her words pierced Maya’s chest. She didn’t say anything and left.

Maya reached home and wept until tears dried in her eyes. She felt sorry for behaving like a psycho at Sheetal’s place. She was a kind woman. And she loved kids as she knew that she would never become a mother. She felt completely broken and hopeless. She had stopped going out with her friends. She skipped jogging in the morning. She did not eat properly. Her sleep got disturbed. She became weak. She looked for reasons to become happy. She missed her parents, her ex-boyfriend, and herself. She started drinking wines.

One night, when Rajesh was out on a business trip, Maya switched on her laptop and searched for detective agencies in Delhi and found most of the agencies were working for the people like her. She contacted one over phone. She was told that a detective would visit her. Within an hour, a person came to her and introduced himself as detective Ramesh Babu. He had a rich experience of twenty years of looking after the extramarital cases. He was a smart person. Maya gave him pictures of Rajesh and Sheetal with other necessary details that the detective asked for.

She was tired of the craps happening in her life. She made herself understand that she can’t force anybody to love her. She wanted to work. She wanted to explore the world. She wanted her life back and she was okay if Rajesh was not there. She could not spend any more time with a person who was cheating on her just because she couldn’t become a mother. She wanted to leave Rajesh but Rajesh wanted her to suffer more so that she would divorce him herself.

He was aware that if the divorce happened with mutual understanding he would have to share his property and money with Maya equally. Maya wanted divorce but she required the evidence of her husband’s extramarital affair.

She had left her job because Rajesh didn’t want her to work. She calculated how much she would have earned if she would have continued working. She desired her share from her husband’s property and move out of his life. She had no grudges for Sheetal neither she had any complaint with Rajesh. All she wanted was a new life. She could have left her share in Rajesh’s property and bank balance but she didn’t want the world to laugh at her just because she was a woman and her fate was to suffer lifetime.

  

Rajesh returned home with lots of gifts. Maya saw Rajesh. Initially she couldn’t understand. Rajesh ran straight into her, hugged and kissed her on her cheeks. He lifted her up and shouted in joy. ‘I'm sorry Maya. I've hurt you. You can punish me. I love you.’

It was evening. Rajesh requested Maya to change quickly as he wanted to go out on dinner with her. She got confused. She was pretending to be happy and was faking everything before Rajesh but he looked different. He behaved like initial days of their marriage.

Maya got ready for the dinner. Rajesh did it to distract her suspicion on him. He wanted to play well on both the sides. He couldn’t leave his wife. At the same time he could not control his sexual fantasies towards Sheetal. At restaurant, they ate dinner sharing fake smiles. Rajesh put his hand on hers. She felt warmth in his touch. He looked into her eyes and tried to read her plan that she had made while he was away. After suffering so much, Maya had learnt to be a trickster. Rajesh pulled her hand and kissed on her wrist. He smiled and said, ‘I love you.’ Maya said nothing. She controlled herself and did not allow her to give right answers of the questions Rajesh was asking in the car while driving back home.

They reached home. Rajesh parked the car. Maya was asleep in her seat. Rajesh got down, came to her window, opened the door and lifted her with great care. He looked at her innocent face and kissed on her lips. He wished he could love Maya again. He took her to the bed room. Maya was not sleeping. She was faking the sleep to see if Rajesh was calling Sheetal over phone while driving. He didn’t. Rajesh was walking one step ahead. He was trying to win Maya’s trust once again. But when he had lifted her from the car, she felt a different sensation and it was like she was getting her love life back. As soon as she was placed on bed, she opened her eyes quickly. Rajesh was kissing on her forehead. She kissed him back. On his lips! Rajesh wrapped his arms around her.

‘Just five minutes.’ She said and ran towards washroom.

She undressed herself hurriedly. She quickly lifted the bottle of hair remover foam and applied everywhere on her legs, hands, armpits and private area. She brushed her teeth, removed hair and wiped her body quickly. She wore a short night gown and gave a miss to the undergarments. She opened her hair and spread perfume all around her body and ran towards her bed. Rajesh was waiting there. She jumped on him. They kissed each other passionately. She grabbed his hair, turned him down, rode on him and put his head between her breasts. Suddenly, she heard a message tone on her phone. She leaned and picked her phone from the side table. It was a mail from the detective. She quickly opened the attachments and got shocked after seeing the pictures. She punched Rajesh and threw him away on the ground.

‘What happened?’

‘You, son of a bitch. Look at these pictures.’ Her blood began to boil.

Rajesh looked at the pictures that were taken at IGI airport where he was hugging Sheetal before they took separate taxies to their homes.

‘So you have left detectives after me.’

Argument began and they fought till midnight. Maya was firing abusive words that pierced Rajesh. When Rajesh couldn’t bear the fight, he wore his clothes and began to leave.

‘Go and fuck that bloody bitch.’

Rajesh said nothing and left home and went straight to Sheetal. She was sleeping. Rajesh pressed the door bell continuously. She woke up and opened the door.

‘What happened, Rajesh?’

‘Maya has left detectives after me.’

‘What the fuck.’ She got happy because this is what she was virtually pushing Maya for.

She calmed him down and prepared drink for the two. They sat in the balcony and drank till early morning. Sheetal had poured petrol into the fire of Rajesh’s hatred for his wife. They prepared a plan to eliminate Maya.

They contacted a contract killer the next day and asked him to visit Sheetal’s home the same day. It turned dark and they waited for the person. He came.

‘You’ve to do it carefully.’

‘I’ll do that, sir. But how much will you pay me?’

‘How much do you want?’

‘5 lacs.’

‘Given.’

‘After killing her create a scene at home like somebody was trying to rob cash and Maya’s jewelries.’ Sheetal suggested.

‘I’ll make it look like that only.’

‘Make it possible by the coming weekend.’

‘I can make it possible now!’

‘Not now. I’ll leave home by Saturday morning and you’ve to do it at night. And stay away from this city till Friday.’

‘Okay, sir.’ He disappeared into the darkness of the city.

Rajesh went home. He said sorry to Maya but Maya didn’t listen to him and drank wine all the time. She cried and stayed locked inside the other room while Rajesh was at home whole week. The week looked like years for Maya.

Saturday came and Rajesh said that he was going on the final official trip after which he would not need to go on any other trip. Maya heard him saying behind the door. She unbolted the door and came out.

‘Before leaving, don’t forget to sign the papers kept on the table.’

Rajesh walked to the table and found divorce papers.

‘So you want divorce now?’ He grinned.

‘I'm already tired of everything. Please do not ask any question. Sign and leave. Go and get married with that bitch.’

‘What the hell...’ said Rajesh after reading all papers. Maya had not asked for a single buck and she had claimed that she wanted the divorce. Suddenly, the contract killer flashed in Rajesh’s mind.

He fished into his pocket and took out his phone hurriedly. He dialed his number but it came out of service.