Life’s choices

Prita had unknowingly walked into the marriage and in no time a bundle of joy was added to the family – the only source of pleasure in the communion. Ever since, there has been enough love in the relationship between husband and wife as there has been miseries. Her husband does take good care of her and the family, but simply cannot get over his addictions with women and alcohol. If Prita objects, he gets defensive and at times even physically violent.

As the years go by, Prita learns to live with it. She is an independent working woman – as most of us are in today’s world – but she doesn’t have a support system to fall back on, either on her parents’ side or her in-laws. Besides, there is a certain amount of father-son bonding that she doesn’t want to disturb. So walking out of the marriage isn’t an option. The one hope that keeps her going is that one day he will get tired of his activities and will come back home to be a good husband and a good father.

Now comes the trickiest part: Life gifts her two options to choose from.

Option 1:
One day, after encountering severe physical abuse from her husband and in-laws, Prita walks out on her family. She is so disturbed that she doesn’t even get her son along. She feels, he will get a more secure life in that home and will eventually get over his emotional need for a mother.

Soon after, she meets another gentleman, a recently-divorced father of two girls. But since they are both minors, the mother has their custody, leaving the father only weekends to spend with the kids. Prita and Pankaj get along like a house on fire and within a week, he proposes marriage to her. They have so much in common and so much to share and in desperate need to find a comforting shoulder – something she never found in her ex-husband – that this seems to be the most natural thing to happen.

PS: Should Prita put the past behind her and take a positive step towards another, supposedly more solid, relationship?

Option 2:
Prita meets a guy about her own age, single and charming, and they hit it off well right from the word go. He hears about her background, and having himself broken off with his girlfriend recently, empathizes with Prita’s life story.

Prita, on her part, is immensely drawn to this person and his affectionate nature. For the first time she wishes she was single again. She is so enamoured by him that all she yearns for is a night of passionate encounter. Afterall, her husband is always cheating on her; she doing it once wouldn't really harm anybody.

But deep down she is worried that the incident might mess up her mind and she can never face her son again. Besides she has developed a soft spot for this guy and doesn't want to encourage him to get involved with a married woman like herself and further complicate his life. He did tell her once that he doesn't want to lose out on having his own kids some day.

PS: Should Prita have a one-night-stand to douse the fire and move on with life?