The news! - part 2

A car arrived in the porch area of her home.. her daughters were sleeping..she informed her in-laws that she was leaving to meet her husband.

When she got in the car she found her husband dressed impeccably.. as usual.. and she said to herself..
Gosh I could fall in love with this man forever!

Her husband took her to a beautiful lounge area.. 
she had never been there..It was beautiful..well lit well decorated..

They sat down. She was brimming with happiness. She couldn't think when was the last time they sat like this and spent time ..and she was again feeling so fresh and so young!

Her husband then told her that he wanted to discuss something very important.. 

his serious looks took away the smile from her face...

A very beautiful young female approached their table and her heart started racing when she placed herself right next to her husband.

She was actually very beautiful.. more beautiful than she was.. more beautiful than she could think of..

And her husband started speaking..

" I wanted to give you a news"

"I was trying to tell this to you since a long time.. This girl has been in my company's Human Resources department since about 5 years. She has helped the company in the most difficult times and has been a strong pillar of support for me as well. We attend our business meetings together.. and now I have decided to stay with her. I would keep giving you the expenses .. no matter how much you need.. but you have to take care of your daughters and my parents both, just that I don't want to stay with you anymore!

Instead of creating a hue and cry about it.. you could just go home and live your life the way you want to.

If you wish to start some new venture of yours.. I am ready to help you with that also.

Just that I never found myself happy with you...

but with this female I find myself happy every second."

In her mind she started sinking... her world was coming to an end.. in the most subtle manner it could..she took a deep breath..drank a glass of water, got up and with great difficulty moved towards her car.. when she sat in the car she felt as if her mind and body both had become numb!

On her way back home a million thoughts flashed in her mind.. 
her job ...
her boss ...
her parents ...
her marriage ...
her 2 beautiful daughters ..
her bed-ridden mother-in-law her father in law.. 
the beautiful lady she met today..

she felt as if she was dying a thousand deaths every second..

She reached her home...

Should she call her parents.. but she was their only daughter..how could she tell them this had happened to her?!

Should she tell her in-laws? 

But what if they don't agree or just laugh it off? 

She slept.. and felt she would never get up. 

The first time - Part 1

2001

SLAP!

Shashank slapped her on her face and she fell on the floor.

Pragya went numb...

Was this happening to her!

Was it her loving husband who was doing this?

What had gone wrong?

She would have cried very badly if she was physically more hurt.. but she was mentally torn..

It had been just 3 months to their marriage..

Their's was a love marriage.. isn't a love marriage supposed to be the one that has all the goody features in it.

Her mother did ask her to think twice about the guy, as he looked behaved and acted very possesive about her..

Her father couldn't say anything because his only daughter was hell bent on marrying him. The only thing he told her was - "Please do take care, and always remember , we are there for you"

Pragya was a homemaker for about 1.5 months and then she realized, she could very well restart her teaching career. 
She thought of applying for a job..luck favored her and she got selected within a week.

Shashank did not like this idea, he even confessed this 

"It is a big bad world out there, you don't know what type of people are there.. trust me, my salary would be good enough for both of us"

Pragya replied "Its not about salary, I like teaching, and I shall be working in a school, probably the safest place to work, please don't get worried about me. And I was teaching when we met 3 years back in Pune, isn't it.. so why are you so worried now?"

Shashank didn't say anything but he clearly wasn't in favor of this decision of hers.

Pragya started working with the pre-school section of a very renowned school.

The principal was a sensible female in her late fifties whereas the administrator was a young dashing guy in his late 20's.

Shashank was very skeptical as to how would this new guy behave with Pragya, but she assured him all would be well.

First few weeks, Pragya managed everything well, home, cooking, managing all the other errands herself and that too very well. Then she started getting exhausted, but neither did she complain nor did she ask Shashank to help her.. 
as she was scared this could backfire !

You could consider it a bad luck that the administrator guy shifted into their campus in the other building. Shashank started behaving very differently since then.

One evening - when Pragya was taking her casual evening walk in the campus and the administrator guy also joined her.

Shashank came early from office that day. He saw them walking together, called Pragya and asked her to come and home and help him with something important..

Pragya entered the house 
and this happened!

She couldn't quite analyze what went wrong!

That she had joined the job.. despite of Shashank not agreeing to it..

or that her administrator was a good looking fellow...

or she had chosen the wrong person to get married to

or its okay if Shashank hit her..

he would apologise the next morning and things would be better..

After a lot of thinking she decided that the last option was right..

Shashank did this in spur of the moment..

it was impulsive.. He must be really tired .. 
it would never happen!

With myriad thoughts in her mind ... she slept!

[Part 2 to be continued ]

Mummy ki Saree - Post series

Mummy and everything associated with her is amazing.

And the reason me and my mother repel each other is maybe because of the fact that we are very very similar to each other.. 
As they say - Likes REPEL!

Have been posting about Mummy's sarees and how and when do I wear them on Instagram, since quite sometime.
On seeing my posts a friend advised me to start a blog series in which I post one thing that I learnt from my mumma alongwith a picture of me wearing her saree!

My mother has been a handloom fan since I can remember.. 
The handlooms about which I derived more knowledge after studying a lot from the internet and window shopping... she knew all about it since I don't know when...

Graceful is one word which describes her and always when I don her saree I try to look like her :)

Thought before I start with these posts.. I should put up an introductory post.

Goosebumps

It was my first experience of travelling in a flight!
Though it was an economy class but the thought of travelling in a flight itself was awesome! And that precisely was the reason I was so looking forward to it...

We entered the flight, made ourselves comfortable and voila - The flight took off!
Was it scary.. Hell YES!!! It was scary. 
As it is I am scared of heights and those few seconds when the plane is at 45 degrees was good enough to give me goosebumps..and I recited the Hanuman Chalisa almost 4 times..

The flight took off from Mumbai airport.. 
Oh the beautiful skyline! and the amazing sea...
I had already started dreaming about ... how nice it would have been if I would have been a bird... I could fly above the clouds.. or maybe beneath them or just between them...

The flight attendants started announcing about the Lunch packets to be distributed.. It did get registered somewhere in the back of my mind but
I was so caught up with the window view that I barely paid attention to the Lunch announcements..
And suddenly I realised someone was calling me..
I looked to my left and I became speechless...

Hrithik Roshan's movie "Kaho na pyar hai" had just released..
and this guy the flight steward, who was calling me 
was almost his replica! 
No actually he was a perfect mix of Milind Soman and Hrithik Roshan! 
( If you have been a person who had their teenage during 90's you can get it and you can get it even more if you are a female! )

Gosh... I can't explain it in words..what exactly was I feeling...goosebumps.. hypnotised.. God knows what had happened to me!

Was I seeing this in reality..and then I got reminded ..
he was asking me "Mam, what would be your preference for Lunch? /vegetarian or Non-vegetarian?"

"Vegetarian" - I mumbled, my voice was not even clear to my own ears! Thankgod he understood it (maybe they are experts at lip reading) gave me a very courteous smile, handed me my lunch packet and left!

I felt so happy..... I was like Yayy.. if all flight trips are like this! I definitely want to be a regular traveller !!

And then I saw my mother giving me this I know whats going on expression and then asked me  
"Kya hua, kyu smile kar rahi ho itna..aur tumko sunai kyu nahi de raha tha, us bechare ne 5 baar pucha.. tab tumne jawab diya!?"

I just smiled.. took a deep breath and said 
"Bahut accha lag raha hai sab kuch Mamma...
aur hum kuch soch rahe.. vaise khana accha hai naa...!!"


What reminded me of this.. well Milind Soman has just put up his 1991 modeling days picture on instagram.. and this pic again gave me lmost the same goosebumps..

I came to check on you !

This dates back to 18 years. somewhere in the year 2000.

They were newly married staying in a joint family.

Both were in the same office. And despite of being in the same office their marriage was a thorough arranged one, the probable reason they did not know each other was - 

because it was a big company.. and they were 2 floors apart.

The another very important fact was - they came from home to work, did their work sincerely and then again headed back home.

She often saw her friends hanging out after work, but she knew she had to help her mother with little housework, and not because it was mandatory but because she knew her mother was tired at the end of the day.

Being the eldest son in the family, He knew his parents would be waiting for him to come home and run some errands.. and hence he finished his work and used to leave for home immediately.

Yes there still might be some such species left!

Thanks to some good common family friend, they got married.

She had father-in-law, mother-in-law, 2 brothers-in-law and one sister-in-law who was the youngest and the most pampered child of the household.

(Daughters are almost always pampered, isn't it?)

Initially all was good. She never quite understood - how much work exactly a 'Bahu' should be doing? Still since she knew she was the eldest and it was her duty she kept doing everything, that was assigned to her.

(The funda of feminism and boys should also share house chores, was not that evolved during that time!)

After she finished all the housework, they both used to leave for office together.

One day 

She had some work and had to leave early, and both of them left together.

Before leaving she had finished doing the basic chores - arranging the clothes, dusting, cooking - except for Rotis packing the tiffin for rest of the family members.

When both of them reached the office, they started with their work.

Since they had reached 2 hours early that day

they both went downstairs for a tea-break..

In their 3 months of marriage, this was the first time they had come together in the office tea-zone - to enjoy the office tea break, which usually happened at both of their office tables.. 

they were so happy that instead of spoiling the moment with words, they just had an ear-to-ear smile on their faces.. It was a super happy moment for both of them...

but before they could absorb it properly..

they had someone from the security who came and informed them...

"Sir - aapki sister aayi hain, unko aapse kuch kaam hai"

Both of them asked her to be sent to their tea-zone, so that they could share a nice cup of tea/coffee with her too!

They got up to welcome her but before both of them could utter something

She started speaking in a very soft yet stern tone

"Accha - Bhabhi ghar se aadha kaam karke nikli hain office mein kaam hai yeh bolke - aur aap dono yaha canteen mein time pass kar rahe ho, accha hua I CAME TO CHECK ON YOU before leaving for my college. 

Mummy was right, we need to tell Bhabhi's mother, that she has started making excuses of office work, so that she leaves early and Mummy has to finish the remaining work, and if she continues like this, she might have to discontinue her office"

Saying this .. she left.

Both of them were stunned...

What could they say.

The wife was almost in tears, but then she gathered herself up and went to her table.

The husband knew he was not in a position to say anything, he kept quiet.

They made sure that they reached home early, 

and then as usual she started doing her household work, finished it late at night and came to sleep. It was hard for her to keep her calm infront of her agitated mother-in-law and sister-in-law, but she managed to keep quiet.. her mother always told her 

"When you cant think of something, keep quiet, that always is the best solution"

That night was a very quiet one.

She did know what to think, react, act and finally discuss with her husband.

He did not know - "What led to my mother and my sister think on such a note"

A female narrated this incident to me on a tea-gupshup.

This made me think

Are daughters-in-law the bonded labor that you get with your son's marriage?

Is this what we teach our daughters, who become daughters-in-law?

Is arranged marriage a sort of unspoken contract that the female is not supposed to raise any voice especially when it comes to leaving her work and being the whole and sole entity responsible for housework, despite of there being other females in the household, but who have the title of "IN-LAW"

And whats the big-deal if a newly married couple tries to spend a few moments together, away from everyone else!?

aah the Indian society!