Hard to break a heart that isn't whole: My entry for the Get Published contest

For 32 year old Tanya Sethi - dutiful daughter, loving wife, and consummate corporate executive - choices are scary. Because no matter what she chooses, regret inevitably follows. A painstakingly curated exquisite silk scarf could have been silkier, brighter. A proposed bid amount with a client could definitely have been lower. Her suitably compatible husband, well, could have been different. Every choice, once made, sprouts persistent misgivings. She is a peaceful person, but peace eludes her. More so now, when despite her best efforts, her new business client seems to be taking note of just how unsure she is of everything, and she is appalled that he is making her neither anxious nor uncomfortable.

Sameer Sharma has everything going for him - a wife he dotes on, a one-year old he cannot wait to teach football to, and a job he is good at. And yet, the subtle restlessness in someone he hardly knows, is making him uncertain of his own contentment. It bothers him that she doesn't look convinced with a bid document she herself has crafted. Sitting across her in vendor-client meetings, it surprises him that she doesn't even try to feign interest in whether or not they give her company the deal. It disturbs him that he frequently finds himself contemplating ways to provoke some reaction out of her. And it irks him that nobody else is uncertain, bothered or disturbed by anything she does.

They eventually form an uneasy friendship, both limiting and liberating. Is she unhappy? Is he bored? Is that all it is? In trying to understand each other, they might just have a shot at understanding themselves. If only understanding each other hadn’t been so effortless. If only they could ignore the doubts that constantly nag them. In a society that dictates not only behavior, but also feelings, should they have met earlier for their relationship to be permissible? But they are human in an imperfect world, and they struggle to rationalize tempers, boundaries, jealousies and emotions in a journey that had promised to be uncomplicated, and now refuses to remain that.

Spread over twenty years, their story proves how little it takes for lives to change, while trying to answer if there are any wrong choices, and if some choices, no matter how wrong, are finally worth the regret.

This is my entry for the HarperCollins–IndiBlogger Get Published contest, which is run with inputs from Yashodhara Lal and HarperCollins India.