the great old man himself with a few words.
“Okay,” Thatha said, looking at Sowmya as if he had never seen her before. “Whatever Lata wants.”
Lata, who was waiting by the back yard to hear the outcome of her announcement, smiled. “We will leave for the night,” she said, coming into the kitchen. “We want to go to my parents’ house so that we can drop Apoorva and Shalini off at school tomorrow morning.”
Jayant washed his hands in the plate but unlike his wife did not bother to put his plate away.
“Thatha,” I started, and fell silent when he raised his hand.
“I will not accept it, Priya. If you marry this man, then you are not my family,” Thatha said.
I had expected it all along but I had not been prepared for the pain that followed his announcement. My heart felt heavy and I clenched my teeth in an effort not to cry. I didn’t want to give the old man the satisfaction. He had hurt me just as deeply as I imagine I had hurt him. Were we even now?
“Then that is your choice, I have no problems with who Priya marries,” Nanna said clearly and rose from the table with his plate. Jayant and Lata who were about to leave stood still by the doorway between the dining area and the hall to see the drama through to its end.
Sowmya took Nanna’s plate and he walked up to the sink by the doorway to the back yard. No one said anything while the water from the tap splashed on his hand and cleaned it.
“And you think that marrying this American is going to make her happy?” Thatha demanded while Nanna dried his hands on the towel hanging on a rusty nail over the sink. In all the years we had all been together, I had never seen or even heard of Thatha and Nanna having a confrontation.
“I think that how she lives her life is her choice and yes, I believe that she will be and actually she is happy with Nicholas,” Nanna said, still standing, keeping his advantage by looking down at Thatha.
Thatha washed his hands in his plate and looked at Ma. “Radha? Is this okay with you?”
Ma sat still for a very long moment and then nodded.
“It is going to only end badly,” Thatha told Nanna. “And when it does,” he pointed a finger at him, “I want you to know that you will be the person with the most blame. You can stop her. Do it now.”
Nanna shook his head. “She is my daughter and this is my choice to make, just like you are making yours. I trust her. I believe her to be a smart and intelligent woman. I think that if she says she is happy with Nicholas, she is telling the truth. Priya is no fool.”
“But you are for letting her do this,” Thatha said agitated, his chest heaving with the rage he was trying to control. This was his family, he was supreme here. How dare anyone go against him.
“In that case, my family and I will take leave of you,” Nanna said politely, so politely that it was insulting in its weight.
Ammamma cried out then. “No, no. Why do you talk like this?” She looked at her husband of fifty-one years with admonishment. “He didn’t mean it, Ashwin.” She tried to assuage my father.
“Then he shouldn’t have said it,” Ma said angrily. In all the years that we had all been together, Thatha had never called Nanna names. This was quite an event and I was solely to blame, or so I felt. Guilt that I had banished just a little while ago came back in big waves rolling me into them and throwing me on the shore of repercussions.
“I shouldn’t have said it,” Thatha said slowly, realizing that he was breaking up his family.
“It is not right but . . . she is a daughter’s daughter,” Ammamma said, patting Thatha’s shoulder. “And if Radha and Ashwin feel it is okay, who are we to say anything?”
Thatha nodded grudgingly but didn’t look at Nanna or Ma or me. This was the end, I realized. There would be no sneaking away to the pomegranate tree or taking walks with him. There wouldn’t be phone calls on the weekend where he would complain about the Indian politicians and how the corporation he had leased the mango orchards to was treating him.
“I hope that you will one day feel better about this,”