Ladies Coupe Read Online Free PDF Page A

live alone.’
    ‘Why should a woman live by herself? There is always a man who is willing to be with her,’ Janaki said, taking her glasses off and rubbing the bridge of her nose. ‘Didn’t you ever meet anyone you wanted to marry?’
    ‘I did,’ Akhila said and a faint shadow settled on her face. ‘But it was not meant to be.’
    ‘Why?’ Prabha Devi asked. ‘Why was it not meant to be?’
    ‘We were not right for each other. Besides, these days, getting married is hardly on my mind. All I am trying to do is convince myself that a woman can live alone.’
    ‘You should trust your instincts,’ Margaret said. ‘You have to find your own answers. No one can help you do that.’
    Akhila paused for a moment, then began again. ‘My family said that, if I talked to other people, they would tell me how stupid it was for me, a single woman, to want to live by myself. But I expected my family to say that. So I pretended to them that I would talk to a few people. I was certain that I wanted to live alone and I didn’t need anybody to tell me that. But one night, I woke up with a start. My heart was hammering in my chest and I was paralysed by a nameless fear. How can I? I asked myself. How can I, who have never spent a week away from my family, survive a future alone? What do I know of running a household? What will I do when I fall ill? Who will I turn to? What do I know of life?
    ‘And then, when I entered this coupé and saw all of you … I know you are all married … I thought that if I talked to you … it would somehow help me make up my mind.’
    Prabha Devi and Margaret looked at each other in amusement. Then Margaret peered at her fingernails and said with a sly grin, ‘What if I tell you that you should live alone, but she,’ she gestured to Prabha Devi, ‘tells you that you can’t live alone. That you should continue to live with your family. What will you do then?’
    ‘Don’t mock her,’ Janaki said. Janaki, who could very well have been her mother and theirs. How easily they slipped into familiar roles. Mother and three daughters. Two siblings ganging up against one.
    ‘She is serious. Can’t you two see that?’
    Akhila shrugged. ‘I don’t know if you will be able to help me. But you must tell me what you really think. Can a woman cope alone?’
    ‘Is it advice you are looking for?’ Janaki asked.
    ‘I don’t want advice. I just want you to tell me if you think a woman can manage alone,’ Akhila said in a low voice.
    Janaki peered at her face, searching her eyes. Akhila sat there saying nothing. Janaki sighed. ‘They,’ she said gesturing to the other two, ‘are closer in age to you. You should speak to them. Their opinion will mean much more than mine. I am the wrong person to talk to. My husband and I have been married for forty years. That’s a long time for a couple to stay together. How can I tell you what it means for a woman to live alone?’
    There was silence in the coupé. For a moment, Akhila had thought they had established a connection. Foetuses jostling within the walls of a womb, drawing sustenance from each other’s lives, aided by the darkness outside and the fact that what was shared within the walls wouldn’t go beyond this night or the contained space.
    ‘I don’t know enough about the world or you to offer advice. All I can do is tell you about myself, about my marriage and what it means to me,’ Janaki began suddenly, slowly, as if every word had to be chosen with great care. ‘I am a woman who has always been looked after. First there
was my father and my brothers; then my husband. When my husband is gone, there will be my son. Waiting to take off from where his father left off. Women like me end up being fragile. Our men treat us like princesses. And because of that we look down upon women who are strong and who can cope by themselves. Do you understand what I am saying?
    ‘Perhaps because of the way I was brought up, perhaps because of all that was