{"id":7236,"date":"2016-07-06T00:15:04","date_gmt":"2016-07-06T06:15:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jerseydevilpress.com\/?page_id=7236"},"modified":"2016-07-06T01:13:05","modified_gmt":"2016-07-06T07:13:05","slug":"mr-senthil-chooses-love","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/www.jerseydevilpress.com\/?page_id=7236","title":{"rendered":"Mr. Senthil Chooses Love"},"content":{"rendered":"

Renuka Raghavan<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mr. Senthil met his wife, Mrs. Senthil, on the day of their marriage. It was a union that resulted after a vigorous process of matching astrological charts, personalities, professions, and ambitions, conducted and determined by the family units of the bride and groom. Mr. and Mrs. Senthil quietly obliged to the protocol, offering nary an objection, resigning themselves to fate, or their parents\u2019 selection, as it were. Numerous years of bucolic matrimony passed, during which Mrs. Senthil birthed four girls. Mr. Senthil worked hard, earning enough money and amassing enough land to wed each daughter off to respectable sons-in-law, each opting to move out of the village swiftly upon marriage.<\/p>\n

Before long, only Mr. and Mrs. Senthil remained. As days passed, Mr. Senthil grew tired and resentful of Mrs. Senthil. One night after an arduous day harvesting crop, Mr. Senthil came home hungry. \u201cWhat are we having?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve prepared dosas with tomato chutney.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Senthil made a retching sound. \u201cAgain? Every week dosas and chutney, every week for the last forty years! Why didn\u2019t that mother of yours teach you anything else? She was too concerned inquiring about my income, is that it?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI make dosas and chutney every week because one month after our marriage you said it was your favorite meal. If you do not like it, why did you say otherwise?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAt least I was able to choose my meals. Everything else was already chosen: my wife, my life, everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter all this time, have you not loved me at all? You despise me like you despise my dosas?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI accepted my fate. That is all. Love was not a choice given to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

That night Mrs. Senthil packed a small suitcase and left the village. In the morning, Mr. Senthil found a note in his shed, which read in a neat scrawl, \u201cI will not return. Go and choose love.\u201d<\/p>\n

So at the tender age of sixty-two, Mr. Senthil went to London, fulfilling his life-long dream to travel abroad. A short visit turned into a permanent residence, and before long, Mr. Senthil found work as a custodian in a local library. Through his children, Mr. Senthil learned that Mrs. Senthil was hale and hearty, working as a primary school teacher in Chennai, her hometown.<\/p>\n

A year later, Mr. Senthil married a frequent patron of the library he cleaned, making her the new Mrs. Senthil, only she went by the name Mrs. Tammy Harris-Senthil. One night, after returning to their one-bedroom apartment, he asked Mrs. Harris-Senthil about dinner.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know. But whatever you make, make enough for me, too. I\u2019m so hungry,\u201d she answered.<\/p>\n

\u201cHave you ever eaten dosas before?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDosas? What is that?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a thin pancake, similar to a crepe, made with batter which must ferment for hours.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cUgh. It sounds like a pain in the ass to make. Pick something else.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI haven\u2019t eaten it in years. It tastes especially good with tomato chutney.\u201d<\/p>\n

RENUKA RAGHAVAN<\/strong> focuses on brief, dramatic narratives. Her previous works have appeared in The Rio Review<\/em>, Boston Literary Magazine<\/em>, and Flash Fiction Magazine<\/em>, among others. She writes and lives in Massachusetts. Visit her at www.renukaraghavan.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Renuka Raghavan Mr. Senthil met his wife, Mrs. Senthil, on the day of their marriage. It was a union that resulted after a vigorous process of matching astrological charts, personalities, professions, and ambitions, conducted and determined by the family units … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"parent":7233,"menu_order":2,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-7236","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P15duy-1SI","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jerseydevilpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jerseydevilpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jerseydevilpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jerseydevilpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jerseydevilpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7236"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.jerseydevilpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7236\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7245,"href":"http:\/\/www.jerseydevilpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7236\/revisions\/7245"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jerseydevilpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jerseydevilpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}