Experts

Mir Mahboob Ali

“Everything that glitters is not gold”, has proved so mind-bogglingly right about Niharika that Arman could not believe. She seemingly has a perfectly happy married life with two children. Both the husband and wife are physicians gainfully employed and have no conceivable reason for any discord. Since they are so successful in their married life they passionately advise others on marital matters, often volunteering their help in solving dispute between spouses. They project themselves as knowing all the mantras for conjugal happiness. People with problem come to them, as they have become recognized unofficial experts in matrimonial tribulations. Arman is a colleague of Niharika and her husband Abdel Bayati. He has known them for quite some time and never can imagine that they may have any marital problems.

He is stunned hearing them argue when he drops at their house on the way to a party, unheralded. Their maidservant answers the doorbell and ushers him in. In the living room Arman hears Niharika shouting at the top of her voice “it is me that tolerates you… a good soul like me can only do that… you are a scoundrel, a bustard and a son of a bitch…” Bayati equally vehemently roars back, “you bitch … you are a tart, it is my goodness that I am tolerating you for such a long time.”

“Who begged you…?”

“You …”

“Never… I give a damn to man like you … spineless, characterless hypocrite.”

“Be careful do not cross limits, otherwise …”

“Otherwise, what…? Will you beat me? … O.K why don’t you do that too…why? …you brute, uncivilized rustic…”

Right at that moment Arman announces his arrival, and shouting at the top of his voice, he begs them to stop. Suddenly, everything comes to standstill.

Bayati regaining his composer asks, “when did you come… how did you get in?”

“About five minutes … your maidservant let me in. I heard you shouting at each other and was surprised that you two could fight! It is incomprehensible! If I had not seen you today, I would never have believed that you really could fight. It is hard to imagine that there is any discord between you two. Never in my dreams had I thought I would see you fight.”

Bayati is angry with the maidservant for not informing them of Arman’s arrival before letting him in.

“She tried to … but you were so engrossed in fighting that she could not … failing to inform you she let me in … I was standing for quite sometime at the door,” Arman explains.

Niharika does not say anything and suddenly stars crying uncontrollably. A bewildered Arman watches her intently for a clue.

Niharika begins in a subdued saddened voice, “He is having an affair.” Bayati protests, it is not true rather she is having an affair for quite sometime. Both begin narrating their own stories.

Arman with difficulty gathers that Bayati has a friendship with a lady known to him for a long time. Niharika has fallen for a man who belongs to a different profession, a poet, a fiction writer.

Niharika had a fascination for literature and wanted to study literature but her parents forced her to study medicine. She passed out at the bottom of her class, as she never took great interest in her studies. A creative mind always eager to create cannot find solace in basic studies in medicine and surgery. Perhaps higher studies in any science with research opportunities might have satisfied her creative urge to some extent. Her insatiable urge to create finds a refuse in embroidery and knitting. In her work place, she is often seen occupied with those whenever she can find time. She is not satisfied with work as a physician or a nutritionist. These days she is posted in a department dealing with Nutrition. She has even taken a higher degree in Nutrition. However, her longing for creative arts does not go away.

Probably with an artistic bent of mind, she finds her own penchant for playing with words in Mehdi and therefore attracted to him - a colorful fiction writer and a poet as well. In fact she herself is a good writer but not a good conversationalist. Now she has no time and inspiration to write. Her parents forcing her in a medical college killed her appetite for writing creative prose. Mehdi writes less and talks more. He is a master conversationalist. His narrative skills are extremely polished, informative and interesting even unimportant things get interesting in his narrations. When Mehdi weaves words, she is mesmerized by his deftness. She wishes to do the same. A journalist by profession he is not a prominent writer but is struggling to be established as a Fiction Writer and also writes poems. Mehdi and Niharika come to know each other by chance while attending a seminar on Social Marketing, a few years ago. Gradually over a period, he becomes friendly with Bayati too. Bayati is now his physician. Whatever ailment he suffers, Mehdi does not take any medicine without consulting Bayati. Bayati is a clinical microbiologist and is very good at diagnosis. He practices as a general physician.

Tall, darkish Niharika in her sari with very long braid reaching beyond her waist is very attractive. She becomes much more alluring with her braids dancing on her behind rhythmically. Beautiful may not be the word to describe her but she is extremely desirable. Her slim tallness has definitely attracted Mehdi to her. Smoking a pipe Mehdi is sometimes atrociously showy. With a neck to mix with women very easily, he gets friendly with almost all other lady colleagues of Niharika. In them, he gets overfriendly with Sanchita another married lady. Sanchita has a propensity to fall in love. Niharika with her sharp sense of detecting budding liaison is quick to recognize Sanchita's weakness for Mehdi much before Mehdi does so. Moreover, she takes upon herself the task of saving Mehdi from the clutches of Sanchita. Somehow, she does not hold Mehdi responsible at all for being over attentive to Sanchita. Mehdi is not that innocent. Mehdi knows about Sanchita’s unhappy married life.

Niharika along with Mehnaz an unmarried colleague comes to Mehdi and warns him of Sanchita’s weakness for him. They expect Mehdi to disassociate himself from Sanchita. Mehdi is enjoying his friendship with Sanchita and does not expect her to fall in love with him. However, according to Niharika she is already in love with him. The very thought of Sanchita in love with Mehdi and Mehdi responding to her, drives Niharika crazy for some unknown reason. She in all earnestness pursues the matter with the sole purpose of breaking the liaison. Somehow, since others are not as interested in Mehdi and Sanchita as Niharika is, nobody bothers enough to pursue the matter as single mindedly as Niharika does. Their interest is confined to gossiping. It is a hot topic. For Niharika it is very serious and she felt an irresistible urge from within to break the friendship, which according to her has turned into something more than friendship.

Niharika pursues other telling them, “We can not be mere onlookers…we must do something. Break the relationship we must. She is a married woman. He is a married man. Two families are involved. So many lives will be miserable if this goes on.” She does her utmost to emphasize the gravity of the matter. She goes to each of her colleagues independently pleading her case. Niharika tells them, “You know Sanchita is not a good lady … she has this propensity of falling in love … she is now spreading her tentacles to catch Mehdi, a very good man,” making it sound like Mehdi is an angel who cannot do anything wrong.

“Let her drown, why do you care?” Colleagues in a chorus encounter her. “No, no, it is not for her … I’m doing it for Mehdi because he is a good soul. He does not deserve the punishment of entanglement with Sanchita … Oh, poor Mehdi!” Fortunately, Mehnaz, Niharika’s unmarried colleague supports her strongly. The two are in complete agreement about saving Mehdi from the clutches of Sanchita. Both the ladies, younger to Sanchita, have developed strong dislike for her for some unknown reason. Earlier Sanchita and Mehnaz were great friends. Now Niharika and Mehnaz have joined together to disinfect Mehdi of Sanchita. Together they carry the house and a unanimous decision is taken to save Mehdi, the angel. Mehdi himself is not so sure about his own faultlessness. He is very much in doubt about his angelhood. He is not even very sure about Sanchita’s mental state. She is very unhappy in her conjugal life, so she tells him. Very naturally, he feels sympathetic. Mehdi does not want to disturb Sanchita’s metal equilibrium, which seems to vacillate alarmingly when she talks about her miserable life. Mehdi is at a loss to fathom if those stories are a ploy to induce sympathy in him or are they genuine. He decides not to probe further and not to exacerbate her wounds by the slightest expression of apathy. He is very cautious not to cause any further upheaval in her mental turmoil. Nevertheless, the ladies are not very sympathetic to her. They blame her squarely for dragging Mehdi in a scandalous situation. Together they make her life miserable to the extent that Sanchita begins to ponder loudly a transfer to another department.

Bayati continues, “You know Arman, she is in love with Mehdi! Moreover, she blames me of having an affair. It is she, who is having an affair. She even in her sleep murmurs, Mehdi… Mehdi … Oh, Mehdi! …. “Why does she do that”, Bayati questions. “At the slightest criticism of Mehdi she flares up. In addition, she always talks about Mehdi. Mehdi drives perfectly; Mehdi says this, Mehdi says that etc. I’m fed with her Mehdi syndrome. I am tolerating it for the last two years. At times, she withdraws in a shell and even refuses to have any conjugal relationship. Moreover, at times when we are together alone she remains so perfectly aloof that I begin doubting that she is a living being. She has stopped caring for the children and me and now mainly we depend on the maidservant’s services. She even does not supervise anything. I have to fill in for her.” Niharika protests vehemently saying, “He is accusing me to hide his own sin.” Arman is dumbfounded when Mehdi is cited as the cause of their conjugal unhappiness. He murmurs, “But Mehdi… Mehdi is supposed to be entangled with Sanchita and Niharika is merely trying to save him from a scandal!” He only wishes that what he is hearing is not true, is not happening.