In the country
by a. gautam
every day after the wedding, sarita sat underneath a big fig tree looking sad. she would sit under the tree after finishing all the chores. at first, i thought she was sad from having to cook elaborate meals for a family of eight, but she seemed to enjoy cooking. she sang a song while peeling the potatoes, cleaning the rice, cutting the vegetables, and making the fire. i had noticed the way she constantly poked the wood into the clay oven. there was a hint of restlessness about sarita even during the morning worship when everybody in my family closed their eyes and listened to her melodious psalms. she would squat like everybody else in front of the idols but move her knees about constantly.
back then, i was a young boy of twelve, and sarita treated me like her little brother. it hurt me to see her unhappy. i wanted to ask my brother if he had noticed the sadness in his wife's eyes, but my brother was a man of few words. he would probably have said that it is hard for a young woman to leave her parents' home and adopt a new one as her own. perhaps he would have expected me to understand that without him having to say it. i waited for things to change and for sarita to spend her afternoon talking to the neighbors or reading a book instead of brooding under the fig tree.
a change came, and it was not what i expected at all. one morning after the morning meal, my brother, raj, announced that he was moving to the capital with sarita.
"she is expecting our first child, and we believe that we need to move to the city to give the child a better education and healthcare," raj said without meeting my parents' eyes.
my mother, who was ready to take a nap on the hemp mattress, got up suddenly—as if to protest. my father kept looking into my brother's eyes for an explanation. he had crumpled the newspaper in his hands, but he was silent. rita, my elder sister, stood by the door looking very shaken. we all waited for our grandparents, the oldest and the most respected members of our family, to say something. only my grandmother took a break from reading her book and spoke, "if that is what you have decided. you are a man with your own family now." she stopped my grandfather from saying anything as he was about to open his mouth.
"we will come home at every festival. we will only be a bus ride away—only five hours apart," my brother explained his decision. "now, ravi has to take responsibility and look after you," he was talking about me. he did not give the responsibility to rita, who was much older and abler than me. she was the right age for marriage, and i knew she would move away from the house soon.
i would have never left my family and moved so far away, i thought. "you are abandoning us," i screamed at raj and stormed out of the house. as i looked back at my old house falling apart in places and four old people sitting inside it, i realized i wanted to grow up fast. i needed to show my brother that i was better than him.
which of these best shows what raj considers most important?
a.
he does what his mother and father think is best for him.
b.
he cares a lot about what others might think of his decisions.
c.
he thinks his little brother should learn manners and respect.
d.
he puts his wife and unborn child before everybody else.