I was invited to my young friend’s (MYF) home for lunch to partake in some goodies specially made for the festive season, currently going on.
The widow of my late colleague and friend brought a couple of very pleasant developments, to my attention during the lunch. The foremost being the fact that MYF, after the separation from his wife, was offered a promotion on transfer to another district, which he has readily accepted. Just imagine, he would not have been able to do so, last week!
The second development was that the estranged wife had telephoned both the son and the mother and expressed her very sincere apologies for the development and sought their forgiveness for not being able to resolve the issue in a better way. She particularly wished MYF all the best and hoped that he would find happiness with someone else soon. (Under the Indian system, the divorce to become legally valid will take another year or perhaps more!) She has assured both her husband and mother in law, that there will be no need for any financial commitments and that the separation process will take place quite amicably and with little fuss from her side. (Phew!)
Two unintended consequences of a misadventure!
The third one takes me back to about thirty years. Although we had known each other for a few years earlier, I was able to meet my colleague’s wife only when both our families were in the same town together for the first time. We had gone to their place for dinner and my friend’s late mother had made a local specialty with bitter gourds. Bitter gourd, is not exactly my favorite vegetable, but since the old lady had taken so much pain to prepare it, as I am wont to, I complimented her for an excellent preparation and accepted a second helping too.
That good lady has been gone for many years now, but her daughter in law Pushpa, has not forgotten that instance and every time that I went to their place for a meal, with prior notice, she would prepare bitter gourds without fail, fully under the impression that it was my favorite vegetable. I never had the heart to ever tell her the truth and would quietly compliment her and eat it up. I had been wanting to make an intended consequence at the earliest opportunity for a long time.
This time around, when she called me up to invite me for lunch, I requested her not to make bitter gourds and explained to her the truth. She had a good laugh and said that she understood and would prepare something else. She insisted on my sharing with her my true favorites and I obliged. That is what I got for lunch too! All three of us as well as a few others who had come for lunch enjoyed the story as told by Pushpa and had a good laugh.
Have you ever got stuck with such a situation? How did you get out of it?