Last Man in Tower - Aravind Adiga [83]
Mumtaz watched her husband follow Mrs. Puri up the stairs. He would come down speaking like her. Saying “Oy, oy, oy” in every other sentence. In the way that the body of an unfaithful husband took on other fragrances, Ibrahim’s voice took on the accents of the women he was trying to impress.
If asked to decide who made the most incompatible couple in their building, the residents of Vishram would have had a hard time choosing between the Puris and the Kudwas. Before Mohammad’s birth Mumtaz Kudwa had worked at a dental clinic in Khar (West); now she left home once a day, to bring Mohammad back from school, and the other residents rarely spoke to her except on festivals like Republic Day. Ibrahim made his nest in other people’s homes. Always pressing the bell to chat, to offer a ride on his scooter, the free use of his internet café, and you felt he would have been happier watching TV on your sofa than on his own.
It had been an arranged marriage; even in the earliest, happiest days, Mumtaz had noticed odd things about her husband. If Ibrahim was treated like an adult, he acted like a child. Grateful to be included in a group, he would do anything others wanted of him, even if it demeaned or endangered him. In his own home, with his own father and mother, he was so thrilled when he got attention at the dinner table. One day she felt bold enough to ask: “Why do you worry so much about what they think about you?” He was angry for days; and then, without consulting her, he announced that they would now live away from his family. They moved to an old building full of Hindus and Christians, and Ibrahim’s behaviour became worse. Mrs. Puri pestered him for little favours—a free tube of potassium nitrate toothpaste for Ramu’s sensitive teeth, for instance—and Ibrahim, incapable of saying no, had forced her to smuggle six tubes out of the dentist’s clinic (“it’s not stealing, it’s for a neighbour”).
She thought it would be worth leaving Vishram just to take her husband away from that woman.
With her child on her lap she looked at the door, only dimly aware that voices were rising around her as Ajwani and the Secretary argued.
Feeling too weak for the evening train, Masterji had hailed a taxi outside Gaurav’s building. Why not? A rich man could travel like a rich man. He put his hand out of the window and tapped at the side of the black Fiat. The trip by road took at least half an hour longer than the train would have; by the time he passed the Mayor’s mansion near Shivaji Park, Masterji felt stronger. Alighting near the Bandra mosque, he crossed the busy road and waited for an autorickshaw to economize on the last leg of his trip home.
He had barely unlatched the gate of Vishram Society when a dark body ran out of the bright building and put its arms around his neck.
“Thank you, Uncle! Thank you so much.”
Radhika Saldanha—he realized, after some confusion, as she turned and bolted back into her home.
Mrs. Saldanha, watching through the tear in her window, smiled at him as he entered the building.
He stopped, from habit, at the noticeboard: a new typewritten sign had been hammered with a nail into the central panel.
NOTICE
Vishram Co-operative Hsg Society Ltd, Vakola, Santa Cruz (E), Mumbai—400055
Minutes of the extraordinary general meeting of “A” Building, held on 6 July
Theme: dissolution of Society
All members were present by the time, 5:30 p.m.
Ramesh Ajwani (2C) took the chair and presided over the meeting.
ITEM NO. 1 OF THE AGENDA:
All members have agreed, unanimously, to accept the offer made by the Confidence Group. The residents of the Society have agreed unanimously to the dissolution of the Society, and to the demolition of its physical structure.
No other items were discussed in the meeting.
For the Vishram “A” Tower Executive Committee,
Signed, Ashvin Kothari, Secretary, Vishram Tower (A)
Copy (1) To Members of “A” Building, Vishram Co-op Hsg Society Ltd
Copy (2) To the Secretary,