Janani's Revenge - Part 4

The Story so far:
Janani gets married to Vishnu and goes out of her way to make everyone at his house comfortable. Everyone loves her and it is all perfect until Janani starts to be completely emotionally dependent on Vishnu and has mood swings and strong reactions when Vishnu comes home late from work or seems to be busy at work. Janani becomes pregnant with her first child and Vishnu leaves abroad on an important assignment.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

Part 4:
Vishnu reached London and as soon as he was able to, he called home. He knew Janani would have been crying the whole time and was desperate to console her. When Kamala did not say anything and told him to talk to her directly, he feared to hear a sad tearful voice over the phone. But, he was surprised when Janani's voice was cold and aloof. She asked a few questions out of courtesy and passed the phone on to his father who was at home this week. Vishnu understood that she was still angry with him, but decided to let it go and was too tired to think about it.

Janani carried on her with routine with ease and seemed to be oblivious of the fact that Vishnu was away. She was happy and glowing. Kamala finally breathed a sigh of relief that Janani had taken it easy and was getting on with life. She was worried about Janani being too emotional especially now that she was carrying another life inside her. Janani was still not on on very good terms with Vishnu, but she was not totally ignoring him now. She talked to him when he called and chatted with him a few times a week, but it was more of a courteous general talk. Vishnu was surprised to see the change, but thought it might have been Kamala's or his mother in law's advise that had changed her and all was well. Janani's parents visited her everyday. Her mother was surprised at this change and when she tried talking about Vishnu, Janani tried to divert the subject and Vijaya thought Janani was trying to distract the thoughts so that she would not miss him.

Soon, two months had gone by and Vishnu decided to return home, a week earlier than planned and had not informed anyone at home. He wanted to surprise Janani and had been eagerly waiting for this moment since long. When Janani opened the door and saw Vishnu, she was overjoyed, but simply smiled and took his bags. Vishnu had expected nothing less than an wild emotional outburst and was surprised at her composed reaction. He let it go and after spending some time with his parents and inlaws, who had come to visit Janani, he wanted to spend time with Janani and was desperate to talk to her, ask how his little one was doing, ask her about the doctor visits, tell her how much he missed her, about his trip, there was so much to talk about. He went up to his room and after freshening up expected Janani to come and talk to him. He waited long before going down to see her chatting with her parents. After her parents left, she was busy with cooking(Kamala did offer to cook that day) and it was almost 11pm when she came to the room. Vishnu was wide awake and when he tried to start the conversation, she smiled and said she was too tired and they could talk the next day and went to sleep. Vishnu did not know how to react, he was not sure if she was aloof or just sensible and not emotionally clinging on to him and he did not know if this was good.

Vishnu had taken off from work the whole week and decided to accompany Janani on her daily walks, doctor checkups and just spend the whole time with her at home. The next morning, Janani was gone before he woke up and he saw that she was busy at the kitchen. He went to the kitchen and sat at the dining table just watching her run around the kitchen. The baby bump was well visible now and Janani was simply glowing. She looked all the more divine with the baby glow now and Vishnu just wanted to sit like this and watch her the whole time. Janani saw Vishnu sitting at the dining and promptly brought him coffee and breakfast. When he asked her to sit with him and have breakfast, she mumbled something about having already eaten and that she eats early these days for the baby and moved saying she had to get on with pooja. Vishnu finished his breakfast and waited for her to finish the pooja, but she would not come out of the pooja room until noon. He had planned to take her out for lunch that day so that they would get some time to talk to each other, but she had refused saying that restaurant food did not suit her well these days and she wanted to eat at home. Kamala was aware of Janani's behavior and decided to spend the day at her great aunt's house and was planning to stay there for a day or 2. Vishnu's dad was on a trip and wasnt expected back until 2 weeks. Janani's parents too had given some lame excuse about the need to pay some bills and had decided not to visit her today.

So, now that only Janani and Vishnu were at home, he decided to talk to her. He knew she was angry and strongly believed that if they could talk, it would break the ice and she would become alright. He saw Janani sitting at the Balcony and sat next to her. He slowly took her hands in his and sat quietly waiting for her to react. The moment he took her hands, all her resolve had vanished into thin air and she had simply melted. She had cried for long and he let her cry, to let go of all the anguish that had been stocked up these two months. They had gone out for dinner and had a long peaceful walk at the beach. When they got back home, Janani was back to normal and smiling.

Vishnu was back to work and had so much to catch up with. He knew he had to work for long hours but did not want to upset Janani again. He loved her as she was no matter how insecure and emotional she was at times. He could not take the anger or aloofness again and preferred her to be just herself no matter whatever compromises that he had to make. He came home early every evening and accompanied Janani on her daily walks. He helped her with dinner and spent every minute with her until she went to sleep. Janani was happy that he was spending more time with her and that's all that mattered to him.

He tried to complete some work from home after Janani had gone to bed and the endless hours that he put in started taking a toil on his health. He was tired and sleep deprived and was unable to focus at work. Spending an hour or more at work everyday would help him manage work properly and Kamala could still accompany Janani on her daily walks. He would be home for dinner and still spend time with her. But, he knew how Janani would react to this and decided to wait until she had delivered the little one. He knew things would change once the baby is here as it would keep Janani on her toes all the time.

Time flew by and soon the little one was on its way to see this beautiful world. Janani delivered a lovely baby boy, who was crying and demanding all her attention from the minute that he was born. He was just perfect and Janani felt so complete once she had become a mother. Vishnu had taken two weeks off from work to be with Janani, even though he knew it would be a full house with his parents and inlaws running around to tend to Janani and the baby. He spent every wakeful moment with Janani and the baby, and his beloved wife tending to his little bundle of joy who was so delicate, was such a beautiful sight. Janani was completely exhausted and yet had blissfully became oblivious of food or sleep or even Vishnu at times, when she was with the baby. They had named the baby Arya and Arya was a very active baby and really kept her on toes every minute of the day.

Vishnu was back to work and could not avoid the long hours. He was surprised when Janani was not even aware of the time or that he was late and was happily playing with the baby. His thoughts proved to be right and little Arya did keep her busy. Vishnu did not receive much calls at work these days and when he called home to talk to Janani, she was busy either feeding the baby or sleeping. Janani refused to let go of Arya even when Kamala or her mother, offered to look after him for a few hours. Knowing Janani, this was no surprise and they knew soon Janani would get tired and long for some rest.

Life had changed so much last couple of months after Arya had come home and they had barely spoken to each other, other than talks about the Arya's smiles, boo boo noises that he made or about Janani's health or doctor check ups. Vishnu longed to spend time with Janani, but knew that this was a phase when Arya demanded all her attention and he need to be understanding. He felt jealous seeing Janani focus all her love, attention and time at Arya and scolded himself for being so childish. He did not understand how he had become almost invisible to Janani now that Arya was home and wondered if this was how it worked at all homes with a new born. He could not understand why Janani did not have the same feelings about missing the 'us time' and if she really did not have the time to talk to him on the phone or just talk to him for a few minutes when he was back home. Whenever he started a conversation, she carefully brought it back to Arya and filled him with Arya's mischief and activities the whole day. Vishnu was quite eager to hear all about Arya's day but also longed to talk to 'his Janani'. She was no longer his wife but only Arya's mother and he was not sure if this was just a passing phase or if she was doing it intentionally.

 

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