Nandini was happy to be back in Chennai again. Her company had posted here for two weeks as part of her training program. She was here after a gap of two years during which she had switched two jobs before landing up with this pharmaceutical giant.

She had done her graduation and post graduation in Chennai and had stayed with Mrs Dey as her paying guest in Nungambakkam, throughout the five years of her stay.

Now after dumping her things in the hotel booked for her, and after a a quick bath and lunch she took an auto that would take her back to the house that had been her haven all her college years.

Mrs Dey had been one of the kindest people she had ever known and they had spent many evenings together huddled in the drawing room, bonding in a way that was a fine amalgamation of the mother daughter and the best friends bond, making her feel Mrs Dey’s home was her home as well.

She had taken on to Mrs Dey as only the young can, with their unspoilt views of the world and its people, and it was only a natural shyness that had prevented her from calling Mrs Dey, “mom’ instead of the banal “aunty” which was the norm in all of India for the young to call all married women.

The auto put her at the doorstep of the familiar house, and she rang the bell cheerfully. The maid answered the door and Nandini grinned at her.

“ Shantamma, you are still here! Do you remember me?”

“Yes, yes Nandini, and madam has been talking of you the whole day “

She went inside and Mrs Dey came out of her bedroom, looking as immaculate and fine as ever with her neatly combed back hair and large gray finely lined eyes.

They held each other in a happy reunion and Nandini went on to chatter about all that had happened since she left Chennai and how her two jobs had taught her so much about how different the working world is from her carefree college life.

Mrs Dey listened with interest and with a smile said “ You have matured into a fine young woman, Nandini, from the seventeen year old who had arrived here seven years ago”

“And you look better Aunty” she said. “Surely Uncle has changed .….?” she blurted before she could stop

She quickly looked at Mrs Dey wondering she was hurt, but the doorbell suddenly sounded which made them both turn towards the door.

Mrs Dey went to answer the door. Nandini heard a man’s voice and Mrs Dey telling something in hushed tones.

“Come in . I have got a guest whom you should meet.” she finally heard her telling.

He was of medium height and good looking and he smiled at her.

“I remember you Nandini” he said. “ I met you once at the party we had here and Sunitha here never fails to mention you at least once in a day ”

“Surely you remember Ashok, Nandini? He was the one who bought the book I gave you on your 19th birthday. I could not go out because of my sprained ankle. you remember?.”

“ Yes, yes, I do “ Nandini said .

He stayed for some time and seemed to be at ease with some polite conversation before taking leave after a cup of tea.

“ Aunty, where is Uncle? “ Nandini asked as soon as he left.

“He is as usual on one of his trips” she said.

Major Arjun Dey had taken voluntary retirement from the army, and now he spent most of his time tending to the tea and coffee plantations he had in the hills.

“Aunty.” Nandini said earnestly looking into her face . “ What about all that which was happening when I was here … you know.I remember how pained you were .”

“Oh, yes, Nandini, you do not know what happened after you left isn’t it?”

Nandini looked at Mrs Dey’s fine face and recalled her anguish at the affair that Mr Dey had with a young woman. He was brash about it and even invited the woman to a party they had had on his birthday. It seemed to her that he always tried to provoke her to create a scene and to test whether she would rise to the bait.

It often raised her hackles to see the mockery Mrs Dey suffered, but she seemed to bear it all with a stoic silence.

The night after the party when Mr Dey had made off again to the hills, probably with that woman, Nandini, had asked Mrs Dey in her point blank way, why she bore with all that he did .

She had simply replied, “He is besotted with that woman in a way he never was and never would be with me. I was married off to him because he had wealth. My dad and his father were friends . Now too if I leave him I would not have a paise to fight my case, and nor do I have any relatives now to speak of, since both of my parents are dead. That girl is the thorn in my life which anyway did not have much in it”

Sometimes Nandini had seen her quiet tears and the helpless way in which Mrs Dey had to take it all infuriated her.

Now as she looked at Mrs Dey, she seemed more content and the lines around her eyes seemed to heighten her unusual beauty.

“What had happened after I left Aunty?” she asked quietly.

“Oh, Nandini…what do you think happened. I can only tell you the truth because you are almost my daughter. Well…he fell out of love, and I fell into it”

“With …?”

“Yes. You are right Nandini. Not with Arjun, but Ashok. Arjun fell out of love with Seema, after she disfigured her face in an accident. He became meek and wanted me to take him back into my arms.

But Ashok was already a good friend of mine and Arjun’s digusting behavior with that poor girl after seeing her scarred broken face only made me happier to have Ashok in my life.

After 12 years of a loveless childless marriage, I am thinking of a divorce."

“But.…” Nandini stumbled for words as scenes comfortably buried away, seared through her mind .

Two years ago she had vacated her room of five years, and after going home to her mom, she was on her way to join her first job she had got in Vizagapatnam. She was in the train speeding its way through the arid plains of Andhra, when she saw them standing outside the door, near the wash basin. He was holding Seema around the waist while she was looking out of the open door. They were laughing together with him pushing her hair out of her face. She felt again the fury rising in her as she remembered how in the the party, a sniggering drunk Seema was introduced to Mrs Dey and the anguish Mrs Dey silently took in.

As she watched from her seat in the AC coupe, she saw him going towards the bathroom, while Seema stood by the open door. She got up suddenly and moving out she went to the basin. She quickly reached across to remove the latch which held the door in place. The train sounded the horn loudly at the sharp bend as the door swung shut on its hinges. Nandini went back to her place with an uncomfortable triumph in her thumping heart.

She watched the commotion grow, after the Major returned and saw him frantically gesturing at where Seema had been standing . Finally the emergency chain was pulled.

The injured girl was found by the tracks and the ambulance was called. The Major got off the train.

The train had pulled off after a delay of about one hour.

She had somehow thought that now Mrs Dey would be happily reunited with her husband, with Seema out of the way.

She had never felt any guilt of crime. But now as Nandini saw Mrs Dey looking happy, at the prospect of breaking her “loveless, childless marriage” she wondered uncomfortably whether her role in trying to get rid of the thorn in Mrs Dey’s life had been an unnecessary one. She now had to carry within her the disquieting question whether she had wronged Seema who had to carry a broken scarred face for the rest of her life.