Losing Touch Read Online Free PDF

doesn’t want to hear about her day at the office, her frustrations with the kids, her ideas about the shelving space in the kitchen, the food mixer that would allow her to make bread. Sometimes he gets angry. You’re just a low-class woman from a low-class background. You’ll never change . She struggles to be a better-class person, like Arjun wants. Jesus has helped her: He is the answer to all the sadness, the disappointment. Even so, sometimes she goes to stand at the bottom of the garden, pretending to tidy up the compost heap, and allows the forbidden thought to come: divorce .
    She can only whisper it. It’s a bad word. Bad people do it. But in the Woman’s Own magazine at the doctor’s office, she read that Elizabeth Taylor had done it. She’d done it so many times that it was just part of her normal routine. Get up, put on face cream, divorce Richard. How daring it sounds, so chic. Sunila practises. Get up, put on Johnson’s Baby Lotion, divorce Arjun. I’ll just divorce him and he can take his disapproving face and jump in the lake . She laughs.
    Pavi says, ‘What is it, Suni? Why are you laughing?’
    â€˜Just thinking about that Morecambe and Wise.’
    â€˜Funny fellas.’ Pavitra sighs. ‘Thank you for listening. I always feel better after talking to you.’
    But Sunila has given no advice, offered no help. ‘Pavi, how about having lunch? We can go to that Chinese place you were telling me about. The one in Hounslow.’
    â€˜King Chow’s? Oh, you’ll love it, Suni.’
    â€˜Let’s go on Sunday. How would that be?’
    â€˜Are you sure? How about Arjun?’
    â€˜He can take care of the children.’ Let him do something around the house.
    Pavi continues, ‘The boys are going on a church outing, so I won’t have them on Sunday. Thank you, Suni. How sweet you are.’
    â€˜No, no. Don’t thank me. I’ll be so glad to get out of this place.’ Sunila hears the words jump out of her mouth. ‘You know, just for a change.’
    There’s a second’s hesitation before Pavitra says, ‘Yes, a change is always nice.’
    â€˜And then you can tell me all about it.’
    â€˜Yes.’
    Sunila hears the hesitation. ‘It’ll do you good to get it off your chest. If you’d like. I don’t want to press you.’
    â€˜You’re right, Suni. It’s better to talk about these things.’
    Sunila will wriggle the truth out of her sister-in-law one way or another. She loves Pavitra, but information is power. If she learns one thing about Pavitra, then it is all right that she has said that she’s ‘glad to get out of this place’.
    Does everyone know the truth about the endless arguments and the times Arjun has hit her? But surely everyone has troubles from time to time. She’s seen the bruises on Pavitra’s arms and neck. At least her own bruises are easily camouflaged, as though Arjun instinctively knows what long sleeves and skirts can cover.
    He says nothing about the plan to meet Pavitra. It is a big favour, even though she spoke so airily about it on the phone. Tarani and Murad are getting together with their cousins, and despite the fact that Arjun will go on about Haseena and Nawal’s superior cooking, Sunila feels better about taking a whole day off for herself.
    Until six months ago, Arjun always had an excuse to visit Haseena. And then it was have-you-tasted-Haseena’s-fish-and-coconut-curry, or why-don’t-you-wear-a-shalwar, or Haseena-is-so-elegant-in-a-sari. But in May, just after he’d taken Haseena and Sadiq to Richmond Park, he suddenly went off the boil. When Sunila innocently suggested a family visit to Haseena and Sadiq, Arjun quickly changed the subject. Which meant that he’d had his knuckles rapped. Good. At least the woman has some moral standards and keeps her meddling hands off other people’s