An Ideal Wife by Sanjay Grover

myself.’
    ‘Why is that so?’
    ‘Leave it, you won’t understand.’
    Payal decided not to probe any further, caught up as she was in all the excitement of visiting Goa for the first time.

    I entered heaven with pride (along with a bit of arrogance; the side-effect of staying long enough with Sameer) and walked with a strut all the way to the conference room to apprise all the other gods who were eagerly waiting for me, or rather news of my failure.
    Just like before, everyone was sitting in the conference room with Bhagwaan Dada positioned right at the centre. I was over the moon while providing details of what had happened in Mrityulok. This time the projection on the big screen was telling tales of my glory, not shame.
    My face was glowing with the pride of victory and even my body language was clearly mocking everyone; I had achieved something that none ever before had. I was getting tremendous pleasure seeing all the gods and god aspirants squirm in their chairs; things had not gone the way they’d hoped. Bhagwaan Dada, on the other hand, was extremely happy. Now all accusations of favoritism would stop.
    Suddenly one of the god aspirants (who was number one in the race to become the god before the Biggest God rejected him favouring me) spoke.
    ‘You haven’t finished your work yet.’
    ‘I’ve delivered what I had promised, haven’t I?’ I looked at everyone present in the room to seek their approval but everyone seemed pretty lost.
    ‘Is that so?’
    ‘You can see it for yourself.’
    I pointed towards Mrityulok. Everyone looked down and saw Sameer and Payal were enjoying each other’s company while driving towards Goa.
    ‘Don’t jump to any conclusion too soon.’
    ‘What do you mean?’ I was still confused.
    ‘Haven’t you heard what Jimmy said in the party?’
    All gods, god aspirants and even Bhagwaan Dada were on high alert.
    ‘I am still not sure what exactly you want to say?’ I asked for a clarification.
    ‘Okay, let me show it to you again. Can you please play the film from the reception party?’
    I reluctantly did what was asked off me. The film started playing on the screen again and as expected everyone was hooked to the projector screen but with little more attention this time.
    ‘Stop stop,’ god aspirant primo asked me to stop the film after Jimmy said this at the party.
    ‘Keep these bills with you. If after one year of the marriage you still say that Payal is your ideal wife then I will gladly pay you every single penny. ’
    Everyone looked at the god aspirant primo, as they were still confused.
    ‘What do you mean, buddy?’ I once again asked for clarification.
    ‘Didn’t you hear that Sameer will win the bet only after a year when he will agree that he got his ideal wife?’
    ‘So??’
    ‘This means till then you haven’t completed your task!’ god aspirant primo twisted the tale in his favour.
    I didn’t know how to react to this new twist so I looked at Bhagwaan Dada with an innocent face. Bhagwaan Dada looked around and found everyone was looking at him. Allegations of favouritism were still fresh in his mind so he played safe in order to avoid any more controversies.
    ‘I kind of agree with the logic put forward by the others. I think your work is not complete yet.’
    Just one line from Bhagwaan Dada turned the situation upside down and left me wondering about my future. All others in the conference room were beaming and secretly congratulating god aspirant primo for coming up with the brilliant logic.
    ‘You can stay here for sometime but if anything goes wrong with their marriage then you will have to go down to Mrityulok to sort things after out,’ he continued.
    I heaved a sigh of relief hearing this, as I was confident that nothing could go wrong now.
    ‘Also remember, apart from not having any god powers, this time you will have to make your own arrangements in Mrityulok. You can’t stay with Sameer anymore,’ Bhagwaan Dada decided to up the