Dada understood what she was upto but he wasn’t sure how this would play out but he too smiled and nodded yes looking at everyone. Sabitri leaned in and whispered something in Dada’s ear which made him smile. Kamal was too lost in his world to even worry about it.
Both men placed their elbows on the table sitting diagonally opposite to each other and locked hands. Sabitri said “Sushil you be the referee and start when I say go”. Sushil stood in the middle holding both their hands while Sabitri saw the wall clock waiting to say go.
Kamal was all wide smiles feeling overconfident as ever and Dada just smiled casually knowing what Sabitri had told him to do. When the seconds needle hit twelve, Sabitri said go. Kamal used all his strength thinking he would knock Dada’s hand down but was surprised to see Dada smiling and sitting calmly.
Despite all his efforts he was not able to bend Dada’s hand even an inch. Sabitri was looking at the wall clock and counting down “50…40…30…”. Sushil screamed “cmon dad, you can do this”. The wrinkles on Kamal’s forehead showed how much he was struggling now.
Kamal’s overconfidence just went poof seeing Dada put up such a fight… Sabitri continued “20…10…” but still Kamal has not been able to bend Dada’s hand even a little. She patted Dada’s back when the needle hit 55 and Dada simply in one swing hit Kamal’s knuckles on the table defeating him.
Sushil watched wide eyed, Sabitri screamed “I won…I won…”. Kamal came to his senses staring at Dada in disbelief. He said “wow Dada, you are really something even at this age…”. Dada only smiled at everyone without saying anything.
Sabitri looked at a heart broken Sushil and teasingly said “you just saved me a hundred bucks dear”. At the same time, Kamal’s face had turned red with shame having lost to an old man… Sushil still unable to overcome his grief of losing, murmured “c’mon dad, you couldn’t even win this…”.
Sabitri said “enough Sushil. Take it in the spirit of the game. Let’s all have dinner now”. Sabitri smiled inwardly because she knew what she had achieved today… She knew how she had made Kamal feel by losing to an old man like Dada.
Dinner was relatively quiet with minimum talks only between Dada and Kamal. Sabitri still ensured to shower extra attention on Dada and Sushil while serving them and minimal attention to Kamal. This got Kamal irritated but he knew there was nothing he could do about it.
After dinner Sushil left to his room, still very upset while Dada and Kamal made small talk sitting on the sofa. Then Kamal got up to leave and so did Dada. Sabitri was watching them from her kitchen. So she came running and held Dada’s hand.
She asked “where are you leaving to Dada darling”? Kamal was still pissed with Sabitri so he didn’t register the darling word, but Dada did. Dada quickly replied “I am going home Sabitri”. She side hugged Dada and said “why go home and sleep alone Dada darling? Stay back here so we can give eachother company”.
This time Kamal caught the darling word and that made him very uneasy… But Dada was family so he overlooked it thinking of it as a figure of speech. Dada looked at Kamal expectantly. Sabitri quickly said “Dada darling why do you need to look at him when I have already said it…”.