“How do you like the place?” she enquired in a tone commonly assumed by all landladies while talking to their tenants.

“It’s a nice little place,” said Roopa who took to the penthouse from the beginning.

“For eight-fifty,” said Lalitha condescendingly, “you can’t get anything like this, anywhere in the city.”

“Maybe,” said Roopa, “you know I’m new to Hyderabad.”

“You can take my word for it,” assured Lalitha.

“I hope,” said Roopa, “you don’t mind having some tea.”

“I don’t mind,” said Lalitha as if in repartee, “if you mind about sugar.”

Over the cup of Lipton tea that Roopa served her, Lalitha enquired, “How are things otherwise?”

“I have nothing to complain about.”

“That’s the way it starts for a bride but come middle life and all that changes,” said Lalitha getting closer to Roopa as if to whisper in her ear. “Woman needs a large heart to put up with the problems that her mid-life poses. Having mooned away during the honeymoon, she finds her life souring well before she turns forty as by then her man would have developed a roving eye.”

“You seem to be generalizing,” protested Roopa as Lalitha paused for her response.

“It’s stupid to think ‘it’s not for me’ way, and smartness lies in taking precautions,” began Lalitha in an undertone as though she were recanting some taantric mantra to Roopa. “Don’t fail to keep your man in your grip or else he would slip without your ever knowing it. Strong though he would seem, man has his weak spots and weaker moments besides. Though nature blessed him to make it a man’s world, when it comes to the crunch, it endowed women with what that matters most to him. Hold your own when he needs you the most and you’ll find him prepared to pay whatever is your due. That’s the time to fix him, and in time he won’t be bothersome, if only to reach the goal of his passion.”

While Roopa sat perplexed as all that sounded alien to her ears, after more of the same, Lalitha said, “Aren’t you looking for a maidservant?”

“Can you find someone reliable for me?”

“I’ll get you a decent woman,” Lalitha promised and left as a neighbor called for her. The next day, true to her word, Lalitha fetched Yadamma, who looked twenty-five.

“Pay me sixty,” the prospect quoted after ascertaining the nature of the chores.

“When can you join?” enquired Roopa as she found Yadamma quite decent-looking.

“If you’ve any work left still,” responded Yadamma, “I’ll attend to it right now. Otherwise, tomorrow, sharp at seven.”




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