Randhir watched Sanyukta as she slept peacefully, looking ethereal in the faint moonlight filtering through the bedroom windows. He could not sleep with unsettling thoughts crowding his mind. How easily she had been provoked, he told himself, at the mere mention of Sara, whom she saw as a potential rival. He knew that if he actually dated another girl Sanyukta would be devastated. He had done his best to dispel her fears by reassuring her with his talk, and later compensating for his mischief by pouring out his feelings for her during their frenzied lovemaking. Later she had calmed down and fallen into a deep slumber. Her worries were not entirely unfounded, a lot of spouses fell into temptation especially when separated by distance or time, or simply to seek thrill and excitement while being in a committed relationship. He pecked her gently, fervently hoping he could go through life staying true to her.

A relationship is like an idyll to a faithful partner, any turbulence can easily destroy it in a single sweep, disillusioning the person. After Randhir got married Nobin da had meticulously explained to him the psychology of betrayal through a series of mail. He put in effort to narrate the experiences of his own unfaithfulness during the best years of his youth. Unable to relate to his vulnerable and unsophisticated wife Nobin had resumed his affair with his pretty personal assistant Rosa. He maintained her for over a decade, even after Madhabi bore him two children. Had he married a trophy wife he probably would not have sought comfort elsewhere. Meanwhile Madhabi remained faithful to him obliging him to play the absentee husband, providing for her and their children, but taking his pleasure with Rosa.

Life had not prepared Madhabi for this situation and she turned reclusive. She withdrew within herself, confiding into her night jasmine and penning her thoughts into her diary, weaving her anguish into short verses addressed to her husband. Seeing her wilt like a dying flower Nobin did feel guilt but it was not enough to keep him from going back to Rosa, though he took care to not get involved with his mistress on an emotional level. After Rosa left him to marry someone he simply plunged himself into work and it took the pernicious illness of Madhabi to jolt him out of oblivion. He made haste to seek amends, managing to nurse her back to health just in time. However she remained frail till the end, a part of her broken beyond repair, which could explain her early demise. For all his wealth Nobin could not salvage the fragile Madhabi from the jaws of death, and he had borne that cross of guilt ever since, even after remarrying in his late years.

Nobin cited another example of a marriage that had been affected by the indiscretion of the husband. An esteemed scientist and a visionary from an affluent business family whom Nobin had idolised surprised the conservative society of the day by marrying a budding danseuse from another community. Theirs was a whirlwind romance and he generously encouraged his wife to pursue her life's passion for classical dancing. She became a distinguished artiste, touring the world and winning accolades for her performances, even after having two children. Their long separation caused the man to drift toward his protege, a young widow academician, who incidentally was known to his wife through her university years. 

So besotted was the man by his new found companion that he moved heaven and earth to establish a prestigious institution of higher education in his town, jump starting the academic career of his lover and ensuring that she was not tempted to move away from him. Unfettered by societal norms he began dividing his time between his wife and her, hurting the wife immensely and driving her deeper into the pursuit of artistic excellence. The wife was disturbed by the betrayal of both her husband and her former acquaintance whom she had warmly welcomed into her own home. The man and his work were so illustrious that the scandal that spanned nearly twenty years remained an open secret, without being subjected to undue media publicity although it distanced the wife even further from her husband. People condoned the man's infidelity because he nonchalantly defied tenets of society and also because his family was known for their unorthodox take on morality. 

In fact some of the responses were surprisingly insensitive. Some people blamed the wife for enabling the unfaithfulness by remaining too occupied with her own career. Even if she had been a stay-at-home type chances were that the husband could still have gone ahead with his affair; because a man takes a lover simply because he wants to, often because he cannot deal with boredom or because he is attracted to the other woman while spending time with her professionally. Other people expressed surprise that a man so brilliant had confined himself to a single mistress, as if to state that the more glorified his work the greater his right to stray. Needless to say, arguments that it is the wife's fault for having become less appealing over time, that she was not being supportive enough were absurd indeed. Betrayal stems from either disengagement of one partner from the relationship or from their low threshold to resist temptation which breaks the covenant of any marriage.

The man wrote appealing letters to his wife professing his love for her at the same time showing unwillingness to let go of his lover, expecting the wife to unconditionally accept the presence of the other woman in his life. The wife showed grace under pressure but it cost the man her trust and the discontent of the other woman who was unhappy because unlike the wife, her relation with him continued to remain illicit as he would not consider divorce. His lover was an intellectual, probably complementing his brilliance better than his wife, but that did not stop her from wrecking his solid marriage. The fiasco earned the man the ire of his teenage daughter who refused to speak to him or even share the same space with him for years. The wife dived deeper in her art, relinquishing the right to a normal family life. Finally when the man worked himself to the point of exhaustion, culminating in his death under mysterious circumstances, neither woman was by his side at the time.

Nobin felt that many wives who are betrayed have a surprisingly high resilience and tolerance for emotional pain. They choose to suffer in silence rather than shame the man for his behaviour or seek retribution by asking for a hefty alimony. There were other costs too- some wives experimented with unfaithfulness themselves claiming to be in open marriages. In any case the children of the couple were left the most hurt, evident from the fact that growing up in a less secure and volatile domestic environment many are unable to form steady relationships in their own personal lives. Spouses rarely recover from being cheated on, though they may reinforce their coping mechanism to help dull the pain or repress it, but deep down the scars always remain.

Randhir was grateful to Nobin for having confided into him such intricate personal details. In the face of temptation he would have a clear perspective to evaluate and predict the outcome. His bond with Sanyukta was too precious to him and he hoped that it could withstand the test of time, especially because he was certain her devotion to him would remain unwavering. And he planned to have children with her someday, at least a daughter and a son who would be their own little world, drawing them close and securing their future together. He picked up his phone and typed out a text message to his newly-acquired American friend Andy, asking for her assistance to help him find a suitable apartment for Sara. The sooner he could move her out of his mother's apartment the better, he told himself.