The ex-PW club

#101st POST:

I wrote this story almost a decade back. This is one of the 30 stories I wrote that felt intuitively a movie script. I tried marketing it on Twitter by writing to Tamil and Hindi movie production houses but nothing transpired. I showed it a half a dozen friends and they also felt: This looks a movie script.

           “The ex-PW club” is a story of a model who is a born survivor and reaches the pinnacle of glamour world through grit and smart networking. I based this story from pUsHpA my sole date in life so far – this model Pushpa (the fictional one) had four lovers and this I conjured from my own Sindhi tryst. Bits and pieces of her past lovers and oodles of imagination and this story felt tailored to a cine screen. But I never had the energy to chase any director or production houses. Last month I sent this tale to my IMT friends on Facebook:  Smita, Anu, Deepak, Ashish, Lakina and Darbari.

            Smita is turning out to be a great friend. Now back in London she called and she got my life tale out of me. I spoke to her twice in the last fortnight and these felt more affectionate than I ever had with my own two sisters. She knows how to connect, something we all saw even at IMT, Ghaziabad during the 1990-92 days.

            Darbari is in Los Angeles and he writes: Sathya, this is a professional work and I am sure you will hit the headlines big in a while. But the best value I got was from Deepak  who is  a banker in Dubai.

Dear Sathya,

Loved reading the story. It is fast, racy and gripping. Four episodes of Pushpa’s life.

Frankly, both the climaxes do not do justice to this lively and entertaining narration. I would possibly take a cue from what you have mentioned in the last line; about the doctor. Maybe, the climax can be about a secret that Yadeesh is hiding from his wife all this time – about his affair with Pushpa. But even this fifth episode of Pushpa’s life would not be unexpected. Climax should have a twist in the tale – somehow!!

Best regards,

Deepak Mehra

One thing led to the other as I explained that the third character in the story, “Surya” was me and Deepak wrote a great mail which I immediately saved it in a special folder so as to preserve it. 

Dear Sathya,

Let us be clear, you want a wife not a high-maintenance girlfriend. Please define this as your goal.

I just hope you get a simple, homely Tamil girl who is culturally and socially compatible with you, who will look after you, make your home, raise your children and be a good wife. She will look up to you and respect you for your wisdom and kind heart. You will never have to prove yourself in front of her, you will not have to bother about how you look, what you wear or what you do. You will not be smitten by her beauty at first but over time you will fall in love with her beautiful heart.

If I were in Chennai I would have gone asking all elders in my social circle and would have found a wife like this for you. There will be so many good girls like this in Chennai.

As your friend, who feels that you deserve the best in life, I have to say that the core issue is that if you don’t know what you are looking for, you are unlikely to find.

Happy to hear your views on this.

Best regards,

Deepak Mehra

I replied and it came almost as a flow:

Deepakji, you are truly great.

Yeah, I never articulated with that much clarity on a woman. 

LOVE is so difficult to predict. In my life, I felt drawn and attracted to many but anything with a staying power were only KIRTI, who was my classmate during graduation (for one of the hottest infatuation known to man!!! I did not even introduce myself to her though we were only 8-9 students in the class). Then Madhulika Vajpayee when I was 34 and Pushpa when I was 38. Both M and P were women I was drawn into by their writing. In fact with Pushpa, we were exchanging "I love you's" even without a photograph being exchanged (just reading and talking on the phones led us to that point).

I still remember praying at a Besant Nagar temple, “God, let Pushpa be beautiful,” on the day when our photos were exchanged." 

I really think every man and every woman is LOOKING for UNDERSTANDING in a relation. Words that bind and soothe. Seriously caste and language are secondary. 

Pushpa was very brave to LOVE me and then almost put a seal as it were. Look, I was 38; just starting at TOI, my salary was 50 k while she was twice that. Mine was very, very short careers (I would average less than 5 months of work each year) while she was climbing up the ranks. She had built a house, owned cars and a manager for over a decade. But where she failed was SHE INSISTED ON THAT BARE MINIMUM of a TOI job. Once that went off, it made no difference to me for I was OBSESSED WITH WRITING and never to a job. So my inference of her was: Brave enough to explore a romance with a writer, chickened out at the last minute.She failed as a LOVER in 2008, failed as a FRIEND in 2009 and failed as a HUMAN BEING ever since. 

I loved your definition of a wife; companion with a great heart where love grows by the day. I also loved the part of not bothering about how much I make as earnings or what dress I wear. This is really amazing even for a concept. Certainly, there is no need for a high maintenance girlfriend (I loved this part). 

You are right. How would I imagine a future wife for me? YOUR DESCRIPTION IS BEAUTIFUL and if there is one editing I would do, I would remove the word TAMIL from that. You want a UNDERSTANDING person and she can be from anywhere even if her past were like Vivian in PRETTY WOMAN. 

I also learnt so many things from Pushpa's encounter: WE LOVE A WOMAN ONLY AS LONG AS SHE LOVES US. Once that love is removed then the entire edifice falls down. My mistake in this relation was:

- I should have WALKED OUT the moment she refused to learn a smattering of Tamil and show any interest in my cuisine

- I should have walked out every time she kept postponing the wedding.

- Certainly I should have walked out when she converted a love and romance thing to a friendship.

Next time I will never give such a long rope to a woman if I am caught in the vortex of romance. 

We are just tennis balls to be played by gods in areas like a lover or a spouse, one's job and earnings and also one's children. These are things which no one can fix; they are given to you by nature. 

Love between a man and a woman is the grandest emotion on earth. It even beats the mother and child relation. And if anyone were to trivialize this emotion, then the society gets corrupted. This was also Pushpa's error. My most charitable explanation is that she lost that innocence after her first break up. 

I certainly would like to love a woman if only to erase this scar. It is also important to die in the arms or company of a loved one. Being alone or living alone is really not the way nature intended of a man or a woman. I think romance or marriage is about one long conversation where you would love to talk and love to listen. This is just one parameter that I will abide by when I fall again. 

Deepak, thank you so much for your friendship. No one ever said, "Sathya, I will search a woman for you so far." I will try my best to meet you next week in Dubai. I get the dates tomorrow and then the process of Visa and tickets start straightaway. I would love that interview to click. But in my heart, I feel no sense of anticipation or excitement. I really was thrilled on the Bangalore thing; it almost was a sealed thing. That job was managerial in terms of supervising others; that rejection did hurt me a while. 

As I keep saying: Career and earnings as also love and romance is God's territory and largess. I love this definition: any person who gives you understanding and unconditional love is GOD and anywhere you find them is HEAVEN. So a good marriage is like meeting one's god and one's home can be heaven. Every being looks for God to love and a heaven to reside. 

Regards
Sathya