This is the story as told by a 75-year-old man. And it mainly dwells on two years of his life beyond 75.
The man, a retired bureaucrat, is still to come to terms with the loss of power and position. His plans of opening a bookshop or doing consultancy work seem unpromising. S he takes to writing autobiographical fiction; his way to redeem a modicum of pride.
Preparations are afoot to celebrate the Couple’s Golden Wedding Anniversary falling on December 25, 1999. Three days before, the wife, otherwise meticulous about her health and only 67, suffers a stroke in sleep. And she dies in the hospital on her very wedding day.
In time he begins a love affair with a teacher of his deceased wife’s school.
The affair, carried out in secrecy, soon assumes the shape of a scandal. What upsets him most is the very vocal opposition of his younger son (in the IAS) who fears that a new marriage could complicate his claim to the house. The widowed lady suffers abuse from her adult son who rates the whole thing as obscene, even comic.
Yet the real dilemma of the man is not the opposition from family members or social disapproval. It’s his own misgivings about the desirability of remarriage.
And eventually they agree to the suggestion of their hosts that the best way to marry in a simple, short manner was to marry in USA itself in a Gurudwara. |
