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Unit 7: The Agony of Win by Malavika Roy Singh

Amrita was rejoicing her moments in fool’s paradise, when the brick hit her again. A couple of Notes
months ago, a credit card fraud had left Amrita a little better than bankrupt. Family members
had poured in financial support but, the one from whom she expected the most had backed off.
“I have a family to look after dear. I cannot go about giving you a lakh of rupees. That is just too
much for me. I am a married man Amrita, you can’t expect this from me”, a frustrated Sunil had
suddenly spoken to her harshly over the phone.
“See Amrita, I cannot let my family suffer because of you. It’s the question of my children’s
future, damn it”, a heartless voice had boomed through the receiver.
The familial concern in his voice had surprised Amrita. She remembered how she had generously
extended her unconditional love over him again and again. She had splurged a fortune on him
and much more on his children and now there the chameleon was, changing to his true colours.
Amrita wiped the fresh tears from her face. She was shaking badly. More than Sangeeta’s words,
her own foolishness was driving her crazy.
Infuriated by herself, she slowly got up and went to the washroom. As she checked herself in the
mirror, she found an irrational but, a self-assumed smart woman staring back, who had been
fooled again and again by life, by love. She had spent more than half of her life clinging onto the
words of a deceptive man, who had been cleverly sweet for material reasons. How foolishly had
she allowed herself to fall prey to him? Even though she knew the answer to this, she could not
help but think of him. She still found herself eagerly waiting for his phone call.

As if through telepathy, the phone rang and was soon answered by the answering machine.
A familiar cherry sounding voice of Amrita said “I’m not at home, please leave a message”.
Amrita froze when she heard the voice.
“Hi, Sunil here”, a firm masculine voice spoke. “Congrats on clearing away the credit card mess.
I knew you would get out of the mess. Do call me soon” and the line had gone dead.
Amrita tiptoed near the telecom, picked it up, and heard the tape again. In a fit a rage, she banged
the handset on the wall, shattering it completely. She stared blankly at the bits and pieces of the
tangible item that had been the sole and integral link into her world of fantasy.
Overcome by guilt and remorse, she decided to give herself one last chance. Shivering badly,
she bent down to gather the remnants of the handset, forcing herself to accept defeat and rise as
a winner, yet again.

7.4 Analysis

If you know you are doing something wrong then you should be prepared for the consequences.
That is what happened with Amrita. Another latent theme of the story is that not anybody
should sacrifice his or her self-respect and self-esteem for anything in the world. People should
also not let others hurt their self-respect and self-confidence.
When Amrita realised the true nature of Sunil, she decided to end things. This throws the light
on the fact that you are responsible for your actions. If the other person is doing a wrong thing,
it is his responsibility and not yours. However, in this case, both Amrita and Sunil did the wrong
thing. Sunil’s selfish nature is clearly depicted in the scene in which he proclaims that he is a
married man with a family to take care of. His denial in lending a helping hand to Amrita and
later calling her to sort out things is the final blow to their clandestine relationship.
A person is responsible for his or her own happiness, if you depend on others to make you
happy, you are probably in for a big surprise. Also, do what you think is right and appropriate

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