“No,” I replied laughingly, “I’m going to turn just before the Oakland onramp - good question though. You sound like my girlfriend. She thinks my routes are crazy.”
“Have you been together long?”
“Five years.”
“Why aren’t you married?”
“Another good question,” I said laughing again, “We’re too old for kids and everybody ends up divorced anyway, so why marry?”
“That’s probably the right approach ... of course one can’t do that in India.”
“No living in sin?”
It was her turn to laugh.
“Of course but not for respectable girls like me.”
“Are you happily married?”
“We are now but we had a rough patch. I’m certain we would have divorced if we’d lived here. He used to beat me. Have you ever beaten a woman?”
“No - where I come from it’s lowest thing a man can do.”
“Where I come from the man has the right to beat a disobedient wife.”
“And you were disobedient?”
“Not only disobedient but defiant - as my mother-in-law put it."
"It started when I invited her over to dinner and she said that I should clean my house better. I told her that my house was as clean as I could get it ... I make more money than my husband although his family is richer ... I said if she didn’t like it she could clean it herself because I needed to work to pay the bills that her son couldn’t pay ... that’s what started it ... I’m only telling you this because I’ll never see you again ... after that my husband and I fought all the time.”
“Did he hit you hard.”
“Oh yes - as hard as he could. But, to the tell the truth, I wouldn’t let myself be beaten. I fought back and I beat him worst than he beat me.”
“How long did this go on for?”
“Several years ... finally we sat down and had a talk. We decided that all our fights were about our parents so we would never discuss our parent again. Since then we’ve been very happy.”
“That was it?”
“Indian men are mama’s boys. If I didn’t mention his mother, there was no reason to fight. I’m raising my sons to be independent so the question of disobedience will never come up.”
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