Roshni could not believe, those words came from Suraj’s mouth. After all these years of selfless, nameless existence, after all the sacrifices she had made, just to be with him all throughout his struggle days and his success, here she is, being blamed for everything that had not been right. Suraj left the room, after breaking the flower vase, she had finished painting last week. It does not surprise her anymore. Those sudden fits of rage, the sudden blame games, finding fault in everything she does… have become as common as his eating and snoring. But today the question he had asked her, left her to reminisce all the times she had to give up her choices, just to suit his.
12 years back, when Suraj was struggling to meet his ends, with continued business failures, she had offered him to share her small rented apartment. They were still not married and she fought with her family to take this bold step. She was working at an IT firm with a decent-paying job. She made sure Suraj did not have any complaints after they started living together. Within 2 years, Suraj's business started to see some success and they decided to get married. By that time, they shifted to a bigger apartment and were living a quite nice life. Suraj's temper started to fluctuate sometimes, mostly when there was some sort of financial loss in his then successful business. The blame game had actually started from those days, but very rarely.That followed up with some sweet hugs and kisses. Roshni did not pay much attention to those moments of misunderstanding. Meanwhile, due to Suraj's continuous coaxing of starting a family, she left her job. She took charge of everything. In the process of making her family perfect, she forgot her hobbies, her friends, her family ties, her own life, and most importantly her existence. Suraj had been very nit-picky since the start, so she had to make sure, she did everything perfectly. Even the minute details did not miss his eyes. Every time Roshni had to purchase anything, as small as a paperweight also, she had to ask him. And these things started increasing day by day. Roshni never raised her voice, nor did she ever object to whatever Suraj had to do or say.She just adjusted like a good wife. Never in all these years, Suraj had gifted her anything, even he did not like taking gifts from her as he thought those were useless expenses.
For the last 2 years of the Pandemic, Suraj's Electronics business has suffered huge losses, and he had to shut 2 showrooms, out of the 5 they own. Roshni has been very cautious all the while. She started doing all the work of the house by herself. Suraj did not go out much because of the lock-down and the continuous phone calls of losses made his temper go downhill. He started to get sadistic satisfaction in releasing all his frustration by emotionally and verbally torturing Roshni. And today, when his 3rd showroom is getting shut, he asked Roshni what is her contribution to the family, what is the purpose of her life, why does she even exist!
Roshni stood up and went to the drawing-room. Suraj was watching the news. She took the remote and switched off the Tv. Suraj was a bit shocked as she walked closer to him and said, “Suraj, this whole family is my contribution, keeping this family is the whole purpose of my life. You exist because I exist. Without Roshni, Suraj can not exist.”
" This story has been written for the season 2 of #StoryTellersBlogHop hosted by MeenalSonal @AuraofThoughts & Ujjwal Mishra @mywordswisdom"
