Family Story – Sleeping Tablets
Photo credit: Melodi2 from morguefile.com
It was late on a Saturday night in Goa, but Sapna wasn’t feeling sleepy. It wasn’t due to noisy rave party on the beach, which she used to hear every night from her bedroom window. It was mostly due to the heaviness of her heart after the huge fight she had with Gautam, her father-in-law, and during which in his anger, Gautam removed from his mouth the truth of her true thoughts about Sapna, and about his preferences for his other daughter-in-law Archana, who was Sapna’s husband Vikram’s younger brother Ajay’s wife.
Sapna couldn’t believe how Gautam, whom she always venerated like her Heaven, could be like all those two-eyed people in front of one vision! Logically, humans’ both eyes should see the same things when both opened, and even when one is open and the other one is not. But it seemed that unfortunately, Gautam was part of this kind of people too! This, Sapna knew it very well and had accumulated a lot of proofs about Gautam’s preferences for Archana since she entered the family.
She had been fighting to prove to her in-laws that she was capable and could be a good spouse and a good mother as well as Archana, though both sisters-in-law were different like day and night. Archana coming from a poor but united family, Sapna coming from a rich but disordered family, which Sapna rejected wildly because of the insanity of her native family environment, for running away with Vikram and leaving a life where she thought she would have found love and security. Unfortunately, her attempt was a total failure.
Since she escaped from her family, she got disinherited by them and retrieved herself completely ruined. Archana, who never tolerated Sapna, despite Sapna being a sweet and sincere girl, then found all sorts of opportunities to denigrate Sapna together with their father-in-law when Gautam was together with Archana. And Archana knew very well how to attract Gautam since she knew all his weak points, especially his obsession for material comfort money… and even beautiful women! Sapna knew very well all their malignances and even had a fatal proof against them… A fatal proof she was forced to keep with her secret to avoid creating disorder in her family-in-law and even in her marriage life, accepting silently all the humiliations she had to face because of her in-laws, and mostly Gautam.
Regarding Anjani, her mother-in-law, her relationship was rather okay with her, but Anjani was constantly mistreated verbally and physically by Gautam, who was known to be an extremely severe, authoritarian and dominating husband for her, and much more since Archana entered the family as the second daughter-in-law after Sapna.
But on that night, after whatever Sapna heard from her father-in-law, she estimated that this time it was too much and that it was the straw that broke the camel! Also, there was one and only solution to forget those harsh words, which was a good and long night sleep. Because one shall sleep on it. And Sapna decided to sleep for a very long time… And that time she was convinced she would be able to sleep, after the sleeping tablet she took… No, one sleeping tablet wasn’t enough; she still remained sleepless and agitated! Also, she felt necessary to increase the dosage… two… three… four… five… finally, all the sleeping tablets! Until she would fall asleep, she decided to relax also by listening to her favorite song, “One and One” from Italian DJ Robert Miles. The lyrics didn’t really inspire her, but the video clip did. Especially all the scenes showing some unlucky people being brought away from the miseries of their daily routine within a halo of light sent to them as a pathway to Heaven to be set free… And while visioning that clip, Sapna fell asleep at her turn…
The words that triggered everything
During the day preceding that famous night, Sapna accompanied her son Vivek, her husband Vikram and Gautam, who was in visit at Vikram and Sapna’s place in Mumbai for about 2 weeks. Vikram was on his way to airport, and afterwards Gautam would drop Vivek at school alone. Usually, Sapna never accompanied them since she stayed at home to complete some house chores, but exceptionally, she had to come with them since she was carrying with her some personal stuff for Vivek’s birthday, which would be celebrated with his teacher and his classmates at school.
But that morning, Vivek behaved difficultly because he refused to take his breakfast, and Vikram was very tense since he was limited on time while packing his suitcase. He had to leave for Dubai on that same morning to have Sapna’s mobile phone repaired since the supplier was settled there and since the mobile battery got damaged at night while being in charge, due to heavy thunderstorms while everyone was all asleep!
At first, Gautam and Sapna were amused by the scene regarding Vikram stressing for nothing, but the atmosphere became more tense when Gautam dared comparing the way Sapna was softly trying to make Vivek eating, and the harsh and authoritarian way Sapna’s elder sister-in-law Archana, who was Vikram’s younger brother Ajay used to make her son Nikhil eating his breakfast in the morning when Nikhil was behaving difficulty. But the way Gautam mentioned about Archana was very offensive to Sapna, and Sapna felt having been put in a lower position, as if indirectly, Gautam was overestimating Archana and underestimating Sapna, taking Sapna for an incapable unable to look properly after her child!
That remark offended Sapna in such a way that Sapna was very aggressive during the ride and that a huge fight exploded between her and Gautam when she was pressurizing Vivek to eat his breakfast, which Sapna had to bring with her in the car since they were short of time. Seeing all that, Vikram was angry after Sapna because she was pressurizing Vivek to eat. In reality she wasn’t pressurizing Vivek of her own will, but she was pressurizing him in a way which wasn’t at all natural because Sapna was offended by Gautam’s remark and wanted to defeat him. At a moment Sapna couldn’t bear the unheard silence boiling within her anymore and she openly said to Vikram about how Archana proceeded to make Nikhil eating his breakfast in the morning.
Vikram, despite the tension in the car, disagreed with Sapna on that subject since Vivek wasn’t the kind of child who liked being forced for eating. Sapna admitted Vikram was right, since she herself experienced it so many times and since in usual, she used to let Vivek eating quietly his meals when she was alone with him. Moreover, Sapna always made of the atmosphere a cool and relaxed one while making Vivek eating in case Vivek wanted his mummy to spoon-feed him, which made that most of the time Vivek succeeded into eating well and relaxed.
Gautam refused to lose the battle and leaned more on the subject, pretending that neither Vikram nor Sapna were enough authoritarian with Vivek and that, if they continued to be passive towards Vivek, he would dominate them someday! Then Vikram mentioned also that both Nikhil and Vivek shouldn’t be compared with each other because they are both different in all ways and also, the methods to be used with them should be different as well. Vikram even mentioned that when he himself was a teenager, he experienced about being forced by his uncle Devanand, who forced him to eat all his food, a platter full of food which was too much for whatever Vikram could consume in his stomach. And the way Devanand forced Vikram to finish his food was so tense that Vikram always threw out all his food and even fell sick with indigestion! Once more, instead of trying to understand Vikram, Gautam took Devanand’s defense, pretending that it was for Vikram’s “welfare” that Devanand was acting like that with him, even though Gautam knew perfectly that Devanand was wrong!
At a moment, during the fight, the tension increased at such a level that Sapna exploded and reproached Gautam about always seeing both her and Archana with two different eyes instead of seeing them equally despite their differences! Sapna then replied to Gautam very authoritatively that she would always be Sapna and that she would never be Archana. Then Gautam, who was hurt in his ego and pride since both Vikram and Sapna disagreed against his old-fashioned principles, hurt Sapna more through those harsh words, “Indeed, you will NEVER BE ARCHANA!”
Sapna was so hurt that she replied “I know very well that I will never be able to be like her, and I don’t want either to be like her, because we are both different like day and night, we have our qualities, imperfections, strengths, weaknesses, and we shouldn’t be compared all the time with each other as if one was always superior to the other!”
Gautam then menaced that he wouldn’t tell us anything anymore since both Vikram and Sapna always wanted to be right in all ways, and Gautam added that instead of staying with them until the week after as he scheduled previously, he would go back to his native Bangalore the day after! Sapna was herself so hurt and so angry that in her anger, she exploded and replied to Gautam those harsh words “Ok then, go back!” words that Gautam couldn’t digest at all and against which he wanted Sapna to pay, whereas he knows perfectly he hurt her as well!
When Gautam and Sapna dropped Vikram at airport, though Vikram begged them not to fight and to try to arrange things, both Gautam and Sapna kept on fighting in the car, from the airport to the school, and even got stuck in traffic jams. Sapna even had to yell to Vikram how hurtful Gautam was against her and even reproached to Vikram of being mostly besides Gautam as his father, because they shared the same blood! Vikram was extremely worried about the atmosphere at home and even called several times to make sure everything was alright. As usual, Gautam avoided going into details, except that he kept on reproaching Sapna about ordering him to go away, whereas Gautam didn’t want to understand that he also hurt Sapna and that his hurting words pushed her to force him to go away!
Both Gautam and Sapna kept silent on their way back home after they dropped Vivek to school, avoiding any conversation with each other and avoiding any contact with each other. Gautam, though, wasn’t feeling well, since his blood pressure suddenly increased after that fight, which obliged him to take some rest on his sofa on the terrace, facing the sea view like he always did when he visited Vikram and his family in Goa, while Sapna was doing all her chores and deep cleaning the house. But she was so troubled with what mishappened that, when she dropped Vivek and his birthday stuffs at school, she completely forgot to leave his bottle of water and had to call back school to inform them and to let them know that Vivek had a box of apple juice in his lunch box in case he would be thirsty until Sapna would him his water when she would fetch him in the afternoon!
While Sapna was doing her chores also, she wasn’t feeling well, because deep inside herself, she was boiling with rage and hatred against Gautam and even against Archana. Unfortunately, despite always claiming that he loved both Sapna and my Archana equally, Gautam always saw the both of them differently, not as two different entities, but as one always been superior to each other.
Even though Sapna was conscious that she deserved what was mishappening to her, the sorrow was nonetheless very difficult to bear for her, since she came to know about the truth regarding the opinion Gautam had on her, and that despite the numerous efforts Sapna did to improve her personality, improve her responsibilities and personality as a respective Hindu daughter-in-law, spouse and mother should have within her, contrary to the messy person Sapna became through the fruits of the miseducation received from her parents. When she closed her eyes, this was not peace which fulfilled Sapna’s heart, but a deep feeling of sadness and heartbreak. But at least, by closing her eyes, she would give victory to her rival sister-in-law Archana, who turned from Gautam’s most disliked to favorite daughter-in-law.
It was late in the morning after and Gautam was still asleep, when he got awaken by Vivek, who was crying and yelling loudly after his mother, who was still asleep. Gautam, whose blood pressure drastically increased the day before due to that fight, thought that it was either a caprice from Vivek, or a bad joke by Sapna for revenging against her father-in-law. He rushed to her bedroom, and first scolded Vivek for making so much noise! But then he saw Sapna, who was still asleep and scolded her to wake up, treating her as a lazy girl and insulting her loudly. But since Sapna wasn’t moving, Gautam had to use extreme measures and then he pulled Sapna by the arm to wake her up. But at his biggest surprise and shock, her body was incredibly cold and heavy, exactly like a dead corpse under effect of rigor mortis! Gautam then understood what Sapna did… but silence was his only answer to her desperate action, because the words were useless… Only silence had to be heard…
–END–
