A Friend Indeed

Gowri was beauty personified and an extrovert.

It was at her friend’s wedding that she met Anirudh, a charming six footer with a coffee estate and was completely floored by his handsome personality and suave conversation.   In no time, love blossomed between Gowri & Anirudh and they soon decided to exchange wedding vows.  

After initial tantrums, both the families gave in to the alliance and the wedding went off well.

Anirudh had a chain of coffee outlets in the city and the twosome set up their dream home in the city suburb.

Being an extrovert, Gowri was always the cynosure, be it at parties, family functions or any gathering, and this did not go well with Anirudh.  Initially, he tried to ignore it, but then his suspicious nature got the better of him. He started taunting her and hurt her casting aspersions on her.   Thus started the regular tiffs and shouting bouts that shook the very foundation of their relationship. Poor Gowri tried her best to arrest the slide.

The arrival of Arya was a consolation for Gowri, but the situation did not really improve as she had hoped. Anirudh was over possessive of Gowri, he refused all invites and did not allow her to go either. His suspicion and jealousy reached to such ridiculous lengths that he engaged only female servants to work at home and she was denied access to vendors or any stranger.  She found it so suffocating with her spirits sagging that she soon became drained emotionally. The only saving grace was that Anirudh was not physically abusive.

It appeared as if Anirudh derived sadistic thrill, in seeing Gowri miserable like this unable to give vent to her bubbly nature.  To make matters worse, he relocated the family to the estate.  It was a god forsaken place in middle of nowhere, with the closest neighbour being a good two kilometres away.

The once the lively   Gowri was now listless with little Arya being her only world. Many times she thought where she had gone wrong for Anirudh to change like that especially when she had done nothing by intent or action to make him jealous. One day when Gowri was at her mom’s place, she met her school and college mate Deepa in the market. She was now a psychiatrist with good practice. In the course of the conversation Gowri had to reveal her predicament when Deepa persistently asked her why was looking haggard and not the usual buoyant girl she knew of.  She was shocked to hear her woes but assured her that it can be cured by proper counselling.  

Gowri then decided to become mentally strong and make things alright.  On the advice of Deepa, she began to note what situations led him to behave like that, how he reacted and what were his words and action subsequently.  Based on the notings, it was decided that counselling was the only way out.

As it would be impossible for Gowri to convince Anirudh for counselling, she invited her friend to stay with her for a few days. Deepa went about unobtrusively studying him and after winning his confidence, Deepa in no time, with her tact and expertise was able to counsel Anirudh and change him to a normal man. Anirudh realized his folly and repented his foolish behaviour.

Today life is indeed blissful for Gowri thanks to the timely help of her friend Deepa