While cleaning her dad’s soiled clothes Trina recollected the book Family Matters that she had read as part of her M.A. curriculum. She had never imagined that one day her life would eerily resemble the life of Roxana. When Trina got married to Ashish she was very happy to see that her father Ramen and husband bonded well, however, ever since Ramen became bedridden she can see the irritation on Ashish’s face.
She doesn’t blame Ashish. In a city like Mumbai, staying in a one bedroom hall with a bed-ridden person is not easy. Trina tries to manage the house as smoothly as possible but she notices that the more her father becomes dependent, the more Ashish gets irritated.
Ashish works as a medical representative and throughout the day he travels all over Mumbai. At the end of the day he feels very tired and just feels like relaxing, however, now his home is no more a place to relax. The moment he enters the house he is greeted with a bad stench emanating from his father-in-law’s room. These days he feels Trina is so busy with her father that she has no time for him. She even forgets to give him a glass of water when he comes back home after an exhausting day.
Trina feels tired taking care of her father, her five year old hyperactive child and above all a finicky and irritable husband who picks up a fight with her at the drop of a hat. To ease her burden she appointed a nurse to take care of Ramen. The nurse was working fine but Ashish started cribbing that a full time nurse was causing him financial burden. Every day after coming back from office he started telling Trina to fire the nurse. Trina tried her best to negotiate with Ashish to keep the nurse however she couldn’t withstand his extreme irritability and ultimately fired the nurse. Trina understands that for Ashish it is not easy to manage expenses in a city like Mumbai. Ashish has to pay a heavy home loan, school fee, and household expenses and above all ever since Ramen came to stay with them he had to be hospitalised so many times. Even though Ramen paid the bills yet Ashish also had to pay a lump sum.
Just like Nariman from Family Matters, Ramen also started suffering from humiliation due to deterioration of his health. His life now consisted of bedpans, sponge baths, urine pot and medicines. However unlike Roxanne, Trina herself started getting irritated with her father. Trina’s mother-in-law Sabita is a good lady and she understands Trina’s agony and tries to help her as much as possible. However she is a weak lady who had been subjugated by the men in their family the entire life. She is scared of her son and prefers pampering Ashish to keep his temper under control.
Just like the novel Trina’s son Om loves his Dadu. He does everything possible to keep his Dadu happy. He cleans Ramen’s urine pot, massages him, serves his food and most importantly talks to him nicely. Nobody else in the house talks to Ramen nicely. Trina and Ashish stay irritated with each other and they treat Ramen as a burden. Trina once loved her father but ever since he became bed ridden she has become very irritated. She often screams at Ramen. Trina is scared of Ashish and whenever she gets angry with him she turns Ramen and Om into her punching bags.
Ashish always finds faults in whatever Trina does. He treats Trina like an idiot, a good for nothing and he subtly always reminds Trina that he is doing a big favour to her. Trina’s mom-in-law Sabita understands the plight and she tries her best to give comfort to Ramen. She is herself not well yet when Trina goes out of the house she even cleans the bedpan of Ramen causing him enough embarrassment.
One day when Trina went out of the house Ramen tried to get up from his bed. He lost his balance and fell on the floor. Sabita and Om were alone in the house. Sabita got nervous when she saw Ramen on the floor. Ramen was bleeding. Sabita and Om tried to pick up Ramen from the floor but Sabita being an arthritic patient herself and Om being a small boy they couldn’t manage to pick him up.
When Trina entered the house she saw Ramen on the floor, Sabita and Om trying their best to pick him up. Trina got very angry at Ramen and she started screaming at him. What was his need to get up from the bed? Was there any less trouble for her that he was creating more? She went on with her ramblings. She knew that at night when Ashish will find this he will scream at Trina for leaving Ramen alone. Ramen was bleeding but Trina ignored. Somehow she managed to pick him up and put him on the bed. Ramen was panting and so were the other three.
The floor of Ramen’s room was full of blood clots. Trina feared that if Ashish saw marks on his new floor tiles he would get furious. He is very fond of his house and hates when there is even a scratch on the floor or walls. Trina started cleaning the floor vigorously.
The next day morning when Trina came to wake her father up, she found him lifeless. She saw the blood clot on his hand. She started cleaning the blood clot on her father’s hand, and then she started cleaning the blood clot on the floor and then the blood on her hands. She knew that her hands had blood now. Trina starts washing the blood on her hands; she was washing them again and again. From Roxana she now turned into Lady Macbeth.
About the Author
Comments