Editorial Music & Art Humour Reflections Travel Short Story Women Power Book Review In News Poetry Prev Issue Next Issue

Walking pretty over the wrong side of forty, she wanted to take stock of the bygone times. Life wasn’t that bad. What if it failed to deliver what she expected. Amidst her friends she was always considered as one who was destiny’s favourite child. Tall, slim, fair with eyes always twinkling, she was beautiful by all standards. What made her more beautiful was her good nature. She was everybody’s friend in her age group, everybody’s darling daughter among the older. This attention filled her with warmth for all, a confidence unique in its quality. Her presence filled everyone with inevitable zest.

It didn’t take long to her parents to find a match for her. It would indeed be a blessing to one who chanced to get her as a wife. Adorned with finery and jewellery she sat as a bride but looked as a goddess. Friends and relatives swore by her dainty looks. Evil eye, God save the pretty bride. Mother rubbed kohl behind an earlobe to ward off the evil effect. She blushed. It added to her demure. There she sat among her friends waiting for Arun to come as the groom. Sleep lent heaviness to her lids. Friend cracked jokes which she responded half-heartedly. Suddenly she was wide-awake. Everybody seemed to be walking with heavy feet. Tension seemed to be overpowering. Tears in Mother’s eyes. She was no longer a beautiful bride. She was a worried daughter, a worried sister, a bewildered person.

The upheaval was soon controlled. Without her realizing the actual cause of this now pacified storm, she found everybody in an ununderstandable hurry. The ceremonies were performed in a jiffy. Her departure was laden with tears with an uneasiness.

She was no longer a child, no longer a pampered girl. She was a daughter-in law now and she was expected to don that role without a qualm. A night’s stance changed her entire person. Veiling tears, she smiled. Father’s little pet, Mother’s little mouse; she was now a responsible woman. Responsibility came in the form of getting up early, reaching out to fulfill everyone’s needs. Ailing grandmother, working mother-in-law. Running from one room to the other, answering individual demands, she would become breathless. Arun would watch her from the bed. Pretending to be reading newspaper, he would secretly congratulate himself for having got a selfless wife. Lucky guy, his friends would tell him. His heart swelled.

Arun was unable to notice gleam dying out of his wife’s eyes. A brief visit to parents spoke it all. She wasn’t asked any embarrassing questions. Mother’s silence was roaring.

She returned with a resolution. She would not look back. She would accept her new role without any grudge against her fate. That was her fate where she was to stand alone without Father’s benign hand and Mother’s care.

She didn’t give anyone any chance to complain. Her servile nature bore fruit. She was slowly being acknowledged for her good qualities. But she alone knew what price this acceptance came of.

With two college going children, husband serving some one thousand miles away , serving a widowed mother-in-law , she is anybody living next door .

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