Well, as you can garner from the title, this isn’t exactly about broken relationships, but it is about the souten - who is so fundamentally the reason for so many break-ups.
My Sout, was present in my husband’s life even before I entered it, so I don’t know if you can call her that. I am a fool, I should have seen it in the very beginning, certainly my hubby had never hidden her existence. To his credit, (?) he has been very open about it, tho from the beginning, Sout never came out into the open, but always hovered in the background, arms wide open to seduce, the minute my pathetic partner succumbed to her enticements over and above his wife’s.
For a brief time during the start of our courtship, I held centrestage in my hubby dear’s life, and she was relegated backstage. Knowing the hold she had over my hubby, Sout was quite happy to stay there, biding her time.
Post our marriage after a long courtship of 6 yrs, (9 yrs of knowing each other)though we were still delighted with each other’s company, it is rightly said that no man is an island, and gradually, our idyll was broken into by friends, family and assorted acquaintances.
This was when my Sout came back into her own.
She came on stage with a vengeance, while poor young wifey slogged in the kitchen to prove her culinary skills to friends, family et al.
Hubby would occasionally come in and hug me in the middle of my slicing and dicing, and swear that he loved me so much, but then, would go back to Sout, who would be preening in front of the guests.
Even when I came back all freshened up, to become the light of the party, I would still have to be nice to all our guests, but Sout needed to put a show on only for hubby dear’s eyes/interests. And while hubby dearest tried to remain loyal, his attention would inevitably stray.
To my irritation, even I could see she was so much more interesting than I was. Sout was a veritable library of topics- and could swiftly shift from one subject to another almost without a break, be it sports, movies, music or the perennial current affairs.
Initial days saw me being very gracious and sharing all the attention with my Sout. But gradually, I started realising that Sout certainly had no such compunctions. When Sout wanted to hog my hubby’s attentions, Sout didn’t give a d- for me. Sout even started getting all our friends more interested in her than me. Some of our well-meaning female friends would occasionally give Sout the cold shoulder and one dear friend of mine actually ventured to say that Sout should shut her mouth and let the rest of us enjoy ourselves!
I couldn’t shut my eyes any longer. I had to come to terms with the unpalatable fact that hubby dear had fallen for another’s charms, and that too after just 2 years. (I could probably have -just probably-condoned a 7 year itch!) The weekends stopped being lazy, enjoyable days spent curled up cosily with our respective books or re-reading a much loved Wodehouse together. Sout thought nothing of interrupting our cosiness any time of the day, and once she started to hold sway, everything else was a blur to my hubby.
My nasty side started surfacing. I would be openly sarcastic and bring the conflict into the open. My hubby’s reactions to my accusations went from- "Don’t be ridiculous!" to "Stop being so melodramatic!" to "You must be joking! Do you mean to tell me you are jealous of HER?!" and finally to a guilty, defensive "Everybody does it!
Dear readers, do you tknow who my Sout is?
Our television set.
These days when we enter our home, hubby dearest reaches not for the light swith, but the tv switch!
He neither drinks nor smokes, but he suffers from withdrawal symptoms- when our cable operator(I LOVE that guy) switches off., which is quite often, BLESS him.
He gives pleading looks and winsome smiles to get me to search his misplaced/lost stuff , passing me dirty looks and nasty comments if I refuse pointblank. But he can be more diligent than a police dog when it comes to searching for the remote, and by now he knows better than to ask my help in that!
GRRRRRR! I would have done anything to get rid of the dratted idiot box, and even given my soul to get rid of the remote! For folks, I can put up with watching the news at 9, the news at 9.20, the news at 9.40 at 10 etc but I draw the line at having to catch a glimpse of CNN, NDTV, HBO, Star Movies/Sports Mallu news channels, mallu GE channels, and sometimes just a blur on the screen and a loud drone in our living room, which once upon a time used to be full of chat, laughter or melodious music.
But, God decided that He values my soul. For we have been blessed with a little son- our little bundle of joy. And that little gentleman being his father’s son, of course took to TV like a duck to water. And he has a mind of his own, and very strict ideas of what to watch and not to watch.
So now once again peace reigns at home, for all of us sit and watch Pogo or Disney or Cartoon Network in cosy togetherness. And the remote is a useless rectaangular piece in my husband’s hands.
So all of you long-suffering wives, take heart and get down to work, and produce results- your own little bundle of joy! Rest assured, you’ll face no competition form Sout’s wiles anymore. Cheers.