The Gentleman
(He wipes his forehead sweat with arm and continues stirring the gravy for dinner’s egg curry. Dialogues of mother in law’s television serial disturbingly intrudes in his ears.)
‘The man right now in the kitchen, talking in his mind is me, Paul. The one and only man of this house. And that itself is my weakness.
I have shamefully confessed to myself that I am a man only by my organs, nothing else. I am not able to be like my father. I am not able to live the way he lived.
This house consists of 3 women, one is my wife Tessa,working on her computer at the office room, another my daughter Nidhi, sitting in her bedroom room and reading some book written by some bitch and the last one, who has right now fixed her ass on the drawing hall’s sofa and watching her women oriented T.V.serial, my wife’s mother. To hell with her name! If my mother was alive she would have also been of the same age, but she doesn’t remind me of my mother, so it’s fine. Fucking bitch!’
(Nidhi entered the kitchen to fill her water bottle.)
Nidhi: Paul what’s for dinner today?
“Chapati and egg curry”, He responded lifelessly.
(She filled the bottle and walked back to her room.)
'The girl went away just now, as I said is my daughter. Yeah, she calls me by my name. Imagining me in her place , my father would have smacked my ass'
(He puts the boiled eggs into the gravy and cooks at low flame.)
‘So frankly speaking, because no one is hearing this, my life is under these women. I can’t oppose or fight with my wife nor her itchy mother. I can’t even scold my own daughter. As a father, I am not allowed to scold my own daughter. I need rights to scold my own child? My father would be laughing at me from the top. I don’t know why and how I got dominated by these women , I don’t know where I went wrong. Maybe because I don’t have enough guts to control them or they have more guts than me. I don’t know. But this is not my fault. And I am not saying this to pacify myself but it's the time. The times have changed and so have the people.’
(Paul served the dinner on time without disturbing the routine.)
“You didn’t take the egg?” His daughter asked, looking at his plate.
“No, I don't want.” Paul said
Wife gazed at him and commented,''yeah, good only. You are already gaining so much weight. Start exercising.”
He reluctantly adjusted his t-shirt stuck around his 3 inch tummy & exhaled heavily.
(The ladies finished their food, the mother in law gave a long burp as an appreciation to his cooking and left to their own rooms leaving the plate on the table.)
‘These leftover plates lying on the table remind me of my childhood, when my father used to similarly eat ,burp and leave the plate and my mother would wait for him to get up from the table, so that she could take his plate for washing and then have her food. My father was the one who really lived his life. A man feels the strongest when his woman is under his control, but a man feels the weakest when he is under his woman's control. Like a committed housewife or maybe a homemaker, I washed all the plates of the day, setted the kitchen for the next morning and went to the bedroom.’
(At the left edge of the room there is a bed where Tessa and Nidhi were lying down and discussing something.)
Nidhi : Mom, don’t you think this time inflation lasted the longest. Why is that?
Mother: It’s mainly because of the government budget I feel.
‘Huh! Filling your tummy with food made by someone else and then chit-chatting on bed till sleep is the biggest privilege one can have. Neither respect nor regards for the food mother and daughter guzzled in their mouth. The cat living in the backyard is more faithful to me.’
He takes his foldable mattress from the shelf and lays it on the floor.
Tessa coughed.
Tessa: huh! dust is blowing out from your bed Paul.
He annoyingly threw his pillow on the bed and lay on it closing his eyes.
‘Her Cough and dust! If it's dusty then clean it with your tongue.’
The people in the house slept.
“Get up! Hey man, get up!” They shook his shoulder.
He opened his eyes disturbingly.
“Get up man!”
Paul popped up from bed. He saw 2 white hair men, his dead father and grandfather, sitting next to his bed gazing at him.
Father: didn’t you want to see us, that’s why we came.
Paul’s breath got harder and eyes began to thump.
Paul: Dad!Grandpa?you all?How?
Father: Nowadays you are remembering me very badly , especially when you are crying. That’s why we came to see you. It feels really bad to see a man crying like that. And it’s unbearable to see my own son crying like a woman.”
Paul felt relieved and apprehensively looked at his sleeping wife and daughter on the bed.
Father : Those women will not open their eyes till we are here. Don’t worry about it, now say what you wanted to say.
Grandfather roused up
Grandfather: My boy open your mouth and say something! It’s not easy for us to come like this.
Paul exhaled heavily.
Paul: Grandpa I am…. I am nobody in this house, nobody. I don’t matter to anyone here. In my own house I am not able to be myself. I can’t talk or do anything according to my liking. I am not even able to laugh on the things I want to. I am made to feel guilty of my pleasures.
Grandfather: You are talking to your wife?
Paul: Not just her, her mother and even my daughter also. No one is there for me in this house. Nidhi doesn’t even respect me as a father.
Grandfather: Disgusting! What a shameless being you are? How come you turned out to be my grandson? Pathetic!
Father gets annoyed.
Father: I am not getting what you are saying Paul?
Grandfather : your son is under his wife’s control. That’s it.
Father: God! I can’t believe that is this your problem? How did you become like this? Don’t you have a pinch of self respect within you Paul? It’s such a shame for us to hear things like this from a man from our family.
Grandfather: When I was alive, your grandmother’s mutter was also according to my convenience. Don’t you at least remember how your father was in the house?
Paul : Stop your bragging! Because of you people only, I am suffering today.
Grandfather roused up.
Grandfather: Hey! What because of us? From my forefathers to till your father mind it till your father ,have lived a life of pride and manliness.
Paul: Why are you all blaming me? The situation right now is only like that. None of your ruling is gonna sell to today’s girls. My own 16 year old daughter is the one who intimidates me the most. Every time I say something to her, she comes up with her own terms and philosophy to use it against me. I can't even properly scold her as a father. Immediately she will start countering me with no respect. She even called me a ‘misogynistic’ during an argument , that too on my face.
Father crinkled his face in strangeness.
Father : Misogi.. what?
Paul : Misogynistic. I also didn’t knew the meaning when I heard. It actually means hatred towards women.
Father : What?? You have a separate word for that!
Paul: This is just one. There are many more, toxic masculinity, gender politics, political correctness and there one on which my daughter lives, ‘feminism’.
Grandfather: Is it Something related to communism?
Paul : It's much more dangerous than that. I don’t know who brought up that term. But after its arrival, times have been really hard. You can’t even joke or laugh at women now. They will stumble up on your heads with political correctness. Not only me, right now all men are shivering under a ghost called feminism.
Grandfather was terrified.
Grandfather: I don't understand what bloody crap you're talking about? On which planet you all are living right now?
Paul smiled pityingly.
Paul: The planet is the same, only the times have changed. Can you imagine grandma getting angry at you or even showing her disagreement to you?
Father: What grandmother? Your mother also never did anything like this! Don’t you remember how nice she was with you and how respectful she was with me.
Paul: huh! And how were you to her ? I was still a little kind, but you were a terror for her! She always behaved according to your mood and temper.
Grandfather: Jesus! Thank god I was not born at this time.
Father : But son, was I really that bad? I never felt that I was wrong with your mother. I didn’t do anything odd? I was like every other husband was.
Paul : Yes you were like that, that's why I also want to be like that.
Grandfather in a composed voice.
Grandfather: Paul, we are able to understand you. But what you are talking, is actually useless. Behave according to the times.
Paul: Please take me with you, I don’t want to live in these times anymore.
Father: Do you know what you are saying? How can you come like that? You can’t come like that. And we can’t take you like that.
Grandfather waved his hand softly on Paul’s head.
Grandfather : It’s just different times son, just accept, adjust and live with it, Like your grandmother and mother did.
Paul : But why should I live like my grandmother and mother, as a man I always want to be like my father, weren’t you both like that?
Grandfather gave an awkward smile.
Grandfather: Look dear, after all ,whether you live like your father or mother, one day we all will have to die. So just live peacefully. After dying anyway you will become free from everything like us. You just ignore everything and live quietly.
Paul: It’s so easy for you to say this! After all you didn’t have to bear any of this , you anyway had a king size life. I am the one who got stuck….
(The 7am alarm ring intrudes into the dream, his eyes opened quickly as flash. He angrily shut down the alarm and got up from the bed. His heart thumped aggressively. He stood near the door and wondered about seeing his father and grandfather in dream. He felt a heaviness in head. He came out of the room and walked towards the kitchen, on the way he glared at the study room where his wife was working on the computer. He boiled the water for coffee, put in coffee powder and waited for it to brew.)
‘Was it just a dream? It was so real! Felt like they really came. The way they were sitting, they were talking, everything was so real my god! But how?’
(He kept a coffee cup on the dining table for Nidhi and took one to the office room for Tessa. )
Tessa: Give mom also one coffee, she has woken up, doing yoga upstairs.
Paul: hmm..
‘Hell with her yoga! For what she is stretching her wrinkled body? To eat and shit till 100 years?’
‘How can a dream be so clear and perfect? I still remember each and every word my father and grandfather said to me. I remember their expressions…. But did they come? Is it possible? They even asked me about what I said looking at the father’s photo. Did they really come? Fuck! I don’t have any idea.’
(Mother in law entered the kitchen with disgust.)
Mother in law: Paul this coffee… it’s too strong. My mouth is bittering. You would made me tea only.
(Paul dashed his coffee cup on her face.)
Paul : shut the fuck up oldie. Just shut your fucking mouth! I am not your servant!
Mother in law: Paul!! What are you thinking?
‘Oh yes, what I just did, was in my mind. Not in real.’
Paul: no nothing, give that, I will make the tea.
(He boiled the water for tea.)
‘ We cannot decide our way of life , it relies on the times we live in.’
