My husband is insanely jealous.
Over the years his expressions of jealous anger, the bitter sarcasm and even some of the things he did ostensibly to please me, or to just lay his claim on me as his wife, was done out of some jealous grudge. All the little, petty things that I noticed convinced me that my husband was not simply jealous, but insanely so.
Oh, Ved is smart, cool, and confident. He exudes that sense of inner power and smiling control that men like him seem to be born with. He's not handsome, or good-looking in a film star or male model kind of way, but because of a certain inexplicable attitude that he conveys, people find him very attractive; and it's not just the women, I can tell you that!
But I know that's only a faΓ§ade. And I know you think I'm the eternal wife with her eternal bitching. But so what? I'm entitled to some bitching. How long do you think you guys are going to get away with it?
Me? I've been a transparent person most of my life And things never really changed after Ved and I married, till very recently. No, children, I wasn't born in a glass factory, and being transparent means that I don't hide my opinions and emotions, and come out very strongly when I have to.
At first Ved just coped with, perhaps tolerated, my occasional dramatic outbursts of pain, anger, and possessiveness. Then a year or so later, he began to retaliate. I've suffered the stinging slaps that filled my eyes with tears, the drunken punch on my jaw that rattled my teeth, and the verbal abuse. While the pain subsided, an unexplainable something seemed to create an indifference in me, and while it may be an over worn clichΓ© to use, there was a void in me.
Now, three years after we married, I've stripped Ved down to the bone. I like to believe he's now as transparent as I want him. But he's capable of concealing that transparency from everyone else; and when he so desires with selected people, he reveals an opacity that wins their trust and beguiles them into thinking they are sharing some earth-shattering secret with him.
Ved is the good guy with all and sundry. I must admit in all fairness though, that is a quality to admire. Oh, and I've been told that I'm certainly the best thing that's happened to him. When Ved's blood relations tell you something like that, you better believe it! Because, for their 'darling Ved' nothing could be better than them. They've mollycoddled, pampered and protected him; showered him with the gifts a fortunate family like theirs can well afford, who are bestowed not just with wealth, but with an abundance of family love. They indulgently allowed him a first marriage with a girl of his choice, the consequent messy divorce, and sooner than they could react, a second marriage to me, again without their approval.
Anyway, to get to the point, Ved's jealousy hit me in spurts and bursts. Look, I'm on the plump side, but I'm nice to look at with an attractive enough body, though my tits do need a little propping up now and then. I wear clothes well; apply makeup strategically but sparingly; can actually make both 'intelligent' and 'appropriate-noises' conversation whenever occasion demands; I drink and smoke like the men, not because I'm trying to prove something as some of them presume, but because I was doing it before I even met some of these jerks.
At first it was the little things like his "confirmed" suspicions that I was being especially "overt" with one of his friends.
And what was Anil doing putting his finger in your glass of rum, then licking it as if it was your pussy?
Now that I come to think of it, it was probably some hidden sexual message that Anil was giving me. Yet from what I recall, at that time all Anil had done was something as innocuous as removing a peanut floating in the glass of booze that he'd got me from the bar and eating it up.
That's another thing. Men are very attracted to me too. I'm not Aishwarya Rai or Sushmita Sen, or even close to those beauty queens, but at any party I eventually end up with a lot of the men surrounding me. Wives who don't know me get jealous and form their own catty clique which excludes me, or they pretend its all terribly good fun and hey, let's party! Then there are the few who'll make it a point to join me with the men, which I actually welcome, because I do get self-conscious among all those leery men.
And see, I do love Ved. I married him because I love him. He isn't the first guy I've had. I've been through a couple of affairs myself, both lovely when they started out and traumatic at the end. I've had a number of one-night stands and heard many promises never kept. So when I finally make myself realise that things couldn't carry on the way they were, along comes Mr Ved Vihar. The first year was bliss for the two of us. Despite all the jealousy and transparency, life was good together. We were both doing well, and though our dual income was assuming a certain recklessness in disposability, we were happy.