A day of her life ..... everyday
4.30 am - Chaya wakes up to the regular bleeping voice of the alarm clock like millions of women in the country. She was never an early riser ( in what now seemed a previous life ) but 10 years of marriage and the tons of responsibility that comes with it does that to you. She grew from cursing the world ( albeit mentally ), to dropping the alarm in desperate attempts to turn on the snooze mode atleast 10 times to waking up at first ring and on somedays even before the first ring.
5.15 am - Chaya walks into the kitchen fresh from her bath and her daily rendezvous with the Gods. When she was growing up and studying her appointments with the Divine were limited to rushed visits to the temple the day before her exams , an attempt to strike a deal to help her score the desired marks. There were no visits if she didnt have any particular list of desires that required fulfillment. These days however Conversations with God, even if purely one sided, was the time she opened up and vented out. Like millions of women.
6:00 am - Breakfast is in " Work in Progress " stage. She knocks at her mother in laws bedroom and walks in with the steaming hot cup of coffee and local newspaper. Ma is in the bathroom and as has been routine she keeps the tea on the bedside table and rushes out to wake Gayatri. It takes a good fifteen minutes to get her out of bed and push her into the bathroom. Chaya still supervised the early morning routine of her eight year old like any other doting moms. On rare days however she did wish Gayatri grew older faster.
6.45 am - Back to kitchen. Breakfast is almost ready. Gayatri gets her school bag ready and laments for her missing Id card, her uniform belt, her science note book , while Chaya helps her locate the so called missing items by shouting their probable locations from the kitchen. Ma makes a snide comment on how Chaya should be more organised and get these things ready the night before. By 7.00 am Gayatri is at the table. Its a mad rush getting her to eat her breakfast by 7.15 am and by the time she leaves at 7.15 am Chaya feels like she has just fought fire.
7.15 am - Chaya rushes to her bedroom to wake Anand with his bed tea. He is still asleep , a daily routine. Earlier she used to pause to look at his drooling mouth ( which then for some now unfathomable reason looked cute ) wake him up with a kiss while he tried to drag her back into bed. Now she walked in, kept the tea on the bedside table and called him and kept on calling him while she took out his clothes for the day, made sure they were pressed and arranged them on her side of the bed.
7.30 am - She is back at the kitchen getting lunch ready. Hubby needs to carry it with him to work. He comes out of the bedroom , switches on the television and stretches his legs on the coffee table and begins his siesta with the English newspaper. His routine. Chaya finally decides its time to change her cellphone from Vibratory mode to Normal. 2 missed calls from her mother. Mom had the never dying habit to check up on her every morning. She didnt mind it except for the fact that it was always in between her fire fighting activities. And no amount of talks made her mom understand. She was just always concerned and always calling. So very recently Chaya decided that her phone would be on vibratory mode till she settles down in her daily chores. Unread whatsapp messages from 2 family groups, one school group, one college group, one PTA group of Gayatri's school. None from work as yet.
8:45 am - Anand walks in for breakfast. In the early days of their marriage breakfast used to be a slightly extended affair . These days its minimal,and any conversations if at all are restricted to him updating her on any deviations in his routine for the day or any trips scheduled for the week and sometimes on the party that she either had to organise or get ready for. She remind him of the evening trip to Megamall to buy provisions for the month and he says he could be held up at work. " We could do it tomorrow or else why don't you take a cab and finish it off ?", he asked.She replied with and " Ummm " . Earlier she would 'nag' him about it but these days she has taken it in her stride that like millions of women she has ended up being the sole caretaker of the home. Anand's responsibilities is these days confined to his work.
9:30 am - Anand has left for work and ma has drifted to her room to do some reading. Chaya switches on her laptop for a quick update on her facebook world. Birthdays are wished, Status updates read. A message from Shweta ....Ooh this is great! Oh seriously? No way... Shweta's ex sent her an email? Are they getting back together? No? She's so stupid! Oh he's going for an arranged marriage? Does that other girl know?
She runs through the various positive quote memes and hillarious memes. She wonders briefly whether people, other than those who put them, do actually read these things. Its kind of irritating when you have just enough time to run through your home page and notifications and these memes stare back at you. Chaya reads through a few movie reviews posted by a movie fanatic friend and ogles at foreign vacation snaps of another before switching the laptop off.
10:00 am - Mom is online on Whatsapp - time for the daily update! Chaya resumes her household chores of washing and cleaning in parallel. Mom says new neighbor's distant nephew has a girlfriend. "Oh Really !!! " Chaya types back. Wow... this girlfriend turns out to be my ex-classmate's school friend. She goes onto tell Chaya other nitty gritty details of her neighbourhood. At the end they briefly enquire about each others plans for the rest of the day and continue with their activities. Chaya fails to understand why her mom feels she would be interested in the going-ons in her mothers neighbourhood , but nevertheless she continues to entertain her moms need to engage in these conversations.
11:00 noon - Mrs Saxena,Chaya's neighbour walks in for her "discussions" with ma. - oh you have so many maids at home: I know... here we have to load the dishwasher ourselves! So what if one maid didn't come today? Well yeah I know... you can never trust them. Did you see the latest movie? Yes daughters in law these days hardly listen to us.( Oblivious to the fact that Chaya's ears are inconspicuously tuned in. Or then again maybe not so oblivious after all ) What other option do we have ? Yeah I know the son is getting fat. He works so hard and then the tensions at work and home. Oh yes I know... must ask him to go to the gym.
Chaya opens her laptop to start working. The work from home option has given her the much needed financial independence. It infringes on her time and some days she feels stretched like rubber but like millions of women she needs it and doesn't mind it for the additional perks she gets in return.
1:00 pm - Chaya Serves Ma her lunch. She comments that the Kichdi is overcooked and dessert isn't sweet enough and helps herself to large doses nevertheless. Chaya Opens Youtube - must watch Indian Idol and finish lunch. Mmm... these pakodas are good: I'm impressed with myself even if no one else isnt! They eliminated the cute guy! Bad. Stupid, stupid voters! Damn you … can't you get rid of that girl with the ridiculous make-up?
The phone rings tring-tring-tring - its her sister-in-law. Hmmf... must she call right now? She has absolutley no sense of timing. “Hi Riya ... good to listen to your voice again! Yeah it has been so long...I missed talking to you... how are you? Ma has just gone to sleep. Oh yeah we're fine... sure, will ask Ma to call... tata!”.
2:00 pm - Chaya finishes pressing and folding the washed laundry. She gets back to her laptop to finish her submissions and taking care of never ending deadlines. Sometimes she wonders for the briefest of moments if its worth it. Then the thought of the extra moolah and what she can do with it gets her typing furiously on the laptop. The boss has been critical of her last submissions. They didnt quite tally with their in house data. She's under review for 2 weeks. Damn....
3:00 pm - Anand calls. He will be home by 6pm. They have to go to Mr Malhotra's sons wedding reception. Anand has absolutely no qualms about giving her last minute plans. As like millions of women she is expected to drop everything to accomodate his plans. To be fair though she didnt have too many plans either ... But then again could she make any on her own without thinking of and arranging for a 100 things for the family. Chaya decides on dinner for the night. She has to get it ready for Ma and Gayatri before they leave.
3.30 pm - Gayatri would be reaching anytime soon. She meets other housewives in the apartment complex - More Gossips - Ooh yeah that Punjaban calls herself Jasmine now from Jaswinder - the phoneys I tell you. Ooh she can't even say patio any more - it must be pay-sheo! Haan... haan... she got that slur in her accent already. ( Why is the bus delayed today ? Hoping it comes soon to relieve me from these painful conversations .... Please please please ) ... oh nice the new girl just passed by with a smile... Hmmf... The new girl has no dress sense: still wearing anklets with those jeans. They're cute, though. She called me "Aunty"... am I that old?! No, the anklets are gaudy: nowhere cute. Hmm... Priya is dropping hints about what her hubby did last night. Goodness ... let me just talk to Mrs Shah . Ooh is that what I think I heard? That sounds kinky! Never thought Piyush would do that! - Shhhh shhhh... " Oh I'm sorry what were we saying? " Chaya asks absentmindedly to Mrs Shah just as the school bus arrives at the gate.
4:00 pm - Gayatri is all hands and actions about her day at school as she munches on the pakoras from lunch. She has about half an hour of relaxation before Chaya takes her to her Music and Dance classes. Gayatri hates it and would rather spend time playing with her friends. Chaya makes a mental note to try the classes for a year. She had so wanted to learn dance and music when she was younger and her mother had plans to get daughter well educated so that she would be prime eligible for the marriage market when the time was ripe. Was she living her life through her daughter or doing the same mistakes her mother did with her. Food for Thought. If Gayatri didnt enjoy the classes after a year Chaya would listen to her and try to develop her interest elsewhere.
4.35 pm - Chaya and Gayatri have missed the 4.30 bus. they will now have to take and Autorickshaw to reach the class on time. If only Ma hadn't been indignant about the colour of Gayatri's dress and further adamant that she changes it. There were times she wished they were living alone without Anand's mother. But what else were they supposed to do. A dutiful son and more importantly a good daughter in law wouldn't let an old lady alone in the autumn of her life. It wasnt always so bad ... just that she knew exactly when to get Chaya all worked up. She paid the Auto driver five times the amount she would have paid for the bus journey and dashed to the classes with Gayatri. No time for argument there. One hour to pass time before the classes end. She had decided to visit her grand mother and was about to turn when Veena called out to her.
" Did you go to the Open House ? Its so important . You must go every time they call. " on and on she went. Chaya's thoughts began to go helter skelter Ofcourse I go to the PTA and the Open House but I lack the giddy freaked out joy that seems to be bubbling from every single pore of this lady at the task of going to an elementary school open house.
Chaya looked at Veena dressed in Yellow Baby Doll T and Capri's. She even had a yellow ribbon in her hair. Chaya glanced at her fringe legged bell bottom blue jeans and paisley top. Her dark hair was wadded up in a knot and had a pencil running through it. The one she picked up near the door at home just before she had dashed out with Gayatri. She felt sadly lacking. Sigh !!!!!
She quickly bade her a bye and boarded the bus to her uncle's house. The beeps of Whatsapp Messages coming at regular and hurried intervals remind her that the world outside her own is fast paced and so full of life. She runs through the various jokes that go viral instantly thanks to the social connectivity of the times. The sardar jokes, the political jokes, manage to give her chuckle for their stupidity and insanity.
5.00 pm - She has reached her uncles place for a quick visit and hug for her grandmother. While she's old and rather frail, her mental capacity is anything but withering. She has very strong opinions and is hardly afraid of voicing them. Today she was telling Chaya how a woman should never marry the first son in the family as the wife would soon become a slave to her mother in law. Chaya was wondering however she came up with that theory , when her grandmother went on to cite the example of her grandfather. Ohhh , she was referencing to her marriage 60 years back. " Nothing has changed much since then " she grimaced. The age old beliefs and traditions and opinions and theories still hold. She kissed her grandmother on the forehead and mentally thanked her for the belated advise .... well if she had given it sooner life would have been different for her .... Or would it ????
5.45 pm - Chaya reaches the dance class and wilfully avoids Veena. She takes Gayatri and makes a dash for the bus that would reach her home just in time before Anand reaches home by 6 pm.
6.00 pm - Chaya flies into the kitchen and cooks up a hurried dinner. Chapatis and Matar Paneer ( Peas and Cottage Cheese ) will have to do. There must be some Pulao leftover from the day before, but Ma would make her life miserable if she dared serve that to her today.
6.15 pm - Anand arrives and starts grumbling that we are going to be late as usual. He feigns surprise that I even considered that Ma and Gayatri would be left behind. " You didnt specify that they would be coming ", she countered. " Do I have to spell everything clearly as if to a small child " , he countered. " besides they are family friends and it would be inappropriate if all of us didnt go ",he continued. Gayatri was ecstatic and Ma shot Chaya a look that could have been daggers for all she cared. ' I am sure she thinks I am the villian of the day ' Chaya rued.
6.45 pm - Anand asks Chaya if he should wear the blue kurta or the brown. She says the blue would be better and he decides to go for the brown. He gives some explanation on how it would look better in pictures. Chaya forced a smile on her lips and said " Yes I hadn't thought of that ". She decked up in traditional sari and wore her favourite jewellery. Chaya looked at the mirror and wondered what had gone wrong in the marriage. Was all marriages like this after ten years of constant togetherness. Did people tend to take each other for granted and did romance and care die a natural death under the burden of the stress of everyday living. She hadn't wanted an arranged marriage. Their parents had decided on the alliance and she met Anand after everything was fixed. There was absolutely no going back even if she hadn't found him to her liking. But she thought she could live happily with him. He was educated and had studied abroad for 2 years . Surely he must be open minded and different than the regular Indian Boys. Surely the exposure must have made him adaptable and easy to live with. For a year Chaya was blinded by the newly wedded bliss and her eager to please attitude that made everything about Anand 'cute'. But with time he stopped giving her the attention or consideration she cared. His parents didn't want a working daughter in law and rather she gave them a grandchild. Like millions of women in the country Chaya gave birth to her bundle of joy withing 2 years of their marriage. Anand kept drifting away from her and climbing higher and higher the Corporate World.
7.30 pm - Chaya was jolted from her reveries by Anand cursing the lack of parking space. " I told you we have to reach early. And this is why " he lamented." I fail to understand what you do the whole day , to never be able to get ready on time," he berated. She felt Ma's smirk behind her.
9.00 pm - The reception had been a gala affair. Chaya looked at the demure and blushing bride and wondered if one more girl and her dreams and aspirations had been sacrificed by the age old beliefs that marriage is the ultimate destination of a girls life. She looked at the charming groom and wondered if he would be any different from the countless men out there. Its true marriage in India was more of a union of two families than of two individuals. The family must be compatible and then it is presumed the couple would be. Chaya didn't believe this to be true but then this how marriage and married life was and has been since time immemorial. Men would be blissfully clueless and the women eternally miserable.
9.30 pm - They reach home. Ma is tired and Gayatri suddenly remembers she has projects and assignments for school the next day. Chaya promises to wake her up early and gets her to sleep after taking a loo at the work that need to be done. She would get the matter collected and sorted so that the early morning work would be minimal.
10.15 pm Anand is finished with his night time television viewing. He goes to sleep after poking his head into the kitchen. She is busy doing the final of dishes. Chaya keeps the dinner she had prepared wrapped in foil and into the refrigerator. She switches of all the lights and locks the door after keeping the garbage out. She walks into her room , exhausted mentally and physically. As she slides into bed Anand turns to her and begins kissing her. ' When would men realise that women need more than that to get into the act of making love. They need to be emotionally connected to connect physically. Is it just me .. ' she wondered before letting Anand take her. 'Its just for 5 minutes' she countered looking at the clock ticking on the wall opposite , as a single tear streamed down her eye. KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON - the poster on the bedroom door mocked her.
Meme (from Greek mimema, that which is imitated) is an element of a culture or system of behavior that may be considered to be passed from one individual to another by nongenetic means, especially imitation; a humorous image, video, piece of text, etc. that is copied (often with slight variations) and spread rapidly by Internet users.
If you do find the writing interesting and non repetitive - do cast a vote and concrits are in any which way welcome ....
5.15 am - Chaya walks into the kitchen fresh from her bath and her daily rendezvous with the Gods. When she was growing up and studying her appointments with the Divine were limited to rushed visits to the temple the day before her exams , an attempt to strike a deal to help her score the desired marks. There were no visits if she didnt have any particular list of desires that required fulfillment. These days however Conversations with God, even if purely one sided, was the time she opened up and vented out. Like millions of women.
6:00 am - Breakfast is in " Work in Progress " stage. She knocks at her mother in laws bedroom and walks in with the steaming hot cup of coffee and local newspaper. Ma is in the bathroom and as has been routine she keeps the tea on the bedside table and rushes out to wake Gayatri. It takes a good fifteen minutes to get her out of bed and push her into the bathroom. Chaya still supervised the early morning routine of her eight year old like any other doting moms. On rare days however she did wish Gayatri grew older faster.
6.45 am - Back to kitchen. Breakfast is almost ready. Gayatri gets her school bag ready and laments for her missing Id card, her uniform belt, her science note book , while Chaya helps her locate the so called missing items by shouting their probable locations from the kitchen. Ma makes a snide comment on how Chaya should be more organised and get these things ready the night before. By 7.00 am Gayatri is at the table. Its a mad rush getting her to eat her breakfast by 7.15 am and by the time she leaves at 7.15 am Chaya feels like she has just fought fire.
7.15 am - Chaya rushes to her bedroom to wake Anand with his bed tea. He is still asleep , a daily routine. Earlier she used to pause to look at his drooling mouth ( which then for some now unfathomable reason looked cute ) wake him up with a kiss while he tried to drag her back into bed. Now she walked in, kept the tea on the bedside table and called him and kept on calling him while she took out his clothes for the day, made sure they were pressed and arranged them on her side of the bed.
7.30 am - She is back at the kitchen getting lunch ready. Hubby needs to carry it with him to work. He comes out of the bedroom , switches on the television and stretches his legs on the coffee table and begins his siesta with the English newspaper. His routine. Chaya finally decides its time to change her cellphone from Vibratory mode to Normal. 2 missed calls from her mother. Mom had the never dying habit to check up on her every morning. She didnt mind it except for the fact that it was always in between her fire fighting activities. And no amount of talks made her mom understand. She was just always concerned and always calling. So very recently Chaya decided that her phone would be on vibratory mode till she settles down in her daily chores. Unread whatsapp messages from 2 family groups, one school group, one college group, one PTA group of Gayatri's school. None from work as yet.
8:45 am - Anand walks in for breakfast. In the early days of their marriage breakfast used to be a slightly extended affair . These days its minimal,and any conversations if at all are restricted to him updating her on any deviations in his routine for the day or any trips scheduled for the week and sometimes on the party that she either had to organise or get ready for. She remind him of the evening trip to Megamall to buy provisions for the month and he says he could be held up at work. " We could do it tomorrow or else why don't you take a cab and finish it off ?", he asked.She replied with and " Ummm " . Earlier she would 'nag' him about it but these days she has taken it in her stride that like millions of women she has ended up being the sole caretaker of the home. Anand's responsibilities is these days confined to his work.
9:30 am - Anand has left for work and ma has drifted to her room to do some reading. Chaya switches on her laptop for a quick update on her facebook world. Birthdays are wished, Status updates read. A message from Shweta ....Ooh this is great! Oh seriously? No way... Shweta's ex sent her an email? Are they getting back together? No? She's so stupid! Oh he's going for an arranged marriage? Does that other girl know?
She runs through the various positive quote memes and hillarious memes. She wonders briefly whether people, other than those who put them, do actually read these things. Its kind of irritating when you have just enough time to run through your home page and notifications and these memes stare back at you. Chaya reads through a few movie reviews posted by a movie fanatic friend and ogles at foreign vacation snaps of another before switching the laptop off.
10:00 am - Mom is online on Whatsapp - time for the daily update! Chaya resumes her household chores of washing and cleaning in parallel. Mom says new neighbor's distant nephew has a girlfriend. "Oh Really !!! " Chaya types back. Wow... this girlfriend turns out to be my ex-classmate's school friend. She goes onto tell Chaya other nitty gritty details of her neighbourhood. At the end they briefly enquire about each others plans for the rest of the day and continue with their activities. Chaya fails to understand why her mom feels she would be interested in the going-ons in her mothers neighbourhood , but nevertheless she continues to entertain her moms need to engage in these conversations.
11:00 noon - Mrs Saxena,Chaya's neighbour walks in for her "discussions" with ma. - oh you have so many maids at home: I know... here we have to load the dishwasher ourselves! So what if one maid didn't come today? Well yeah I know... you can never trust them. Did you see the latest movie? Yes daughters in law these days hardly listen to us.( Oblivious to the fact that Chaya's ears are inconspicuously tuned in. Or then again maybe not so oblivious after all ) What other option do we have ? Yeah I know the son is getting fat. He works so hard and then the tensions at work and home. Oh yes I know... must ask him to go to the gym.
Chaya opens her laptop to start working. The work from home option has given her the much needed financial independence. It infringes on her time and some days she feels stretched like rubber but like millions of women she needs it and doesn't mind it for the additional perks she gets in return.
1:00 pm - Chaya Serves Ma her lunch. She comments that the Kichdi is overcooked and dessert isn't sweet enough and helps herself to large doses nevertheless. Chaya Opens Youtube - must watch Indian Idol and finish lunch. Mmm... these pakodas are good: I'm impressed with myself even if no one else isnt! They eliminated the cute guy! Bad. Stupid, stupid voters! Damn you … can't you get rid of that girl with the ridiculous make-up?
The phone rings tring-tring-tring - its her sister-in-law. Hmmf... must she call right now? She has absolutley no sense of timing. “Hi Riya ... good to listen to your voice again! Yeah it has been so long...I missed talking to you... how are you? Ma has just gone to sleep. Oh yeah we're fine... sure, will ask Ma to call... tata!”.
2:00 pm - Chaya finishes pressing and folding the washed laundry. She gets back to her laptop to finish her submissions and taking care of never ending deadlines. Sometimes she wonders for the briefest of moments if its worth it. Then the thought of the extra moolah and what she can do with it gets her typing furiously on the laptop. The boss has been critical of her last submissions. They didnt quite tally with their in house data. She's under review for 2 weeks. Damn....
3:00 pm - Anand calls. He will be home by 6pm. They have to go to Mr Malhotra's sons wedding reception. Anand has absolutely no qualms about giving her last minute plans. As like millions of women she is expected to drop everything to accomodate his plans. To be fair though she didnt have too many plans either ... But then again could she make any on her own without thinking of and arranging for a 100 things for the family. Chaya decides on dinner for the night. She has to get it ready for Ma and Gayatri before they leave.
3.30 pm - Gayatri would be reaching anytime soon. She meets other housewives in the apartment complex - More Gossips - Ooh yeah that Punjaban calls herself Jasmine now from Jaswinder - the phoneys I tell you. Ooh she can't even say patio any more - it must be pay-sheo! Haan... haan... she got that slur in her accent already. ( Why is the bus delayed today ? Hoping it comes soon to relieve me from these painful conversations .... Please please please ) ... oh nice the new girl just passed by with a smile... Hmmf... The new girl has no dress sense: still wearing anklets with those jeans. They're cute, though. She called me "Aunty"... am I that old?! No, the anklets are gaudy: nowhere cute. Hmm... Priya is dropping hints about what her hubby did last night. Goodness ... let me just talk to Mrs Shah . Ooh is that what I think I heard? That sounds kinky! Never thought Piyush would do that! - Shhhh shhhh... " Oh I'm sorry what were we saying? " Chaya asks absentmindedly to Mrs Shah just as the school bus arrives at the gate.
4:00 pm - Gayatri is all hands and actions about her day at school as she munches on the pakoras from lunch. She has about half an hour of relaxation before Chaya takes her to her Music and Dance classes. Gayatri hates it and would rather spend time playing with her friends. Chaya makes a mental note to try the classes for a year. She had so wanted to learn dance and music when she was younger and her mother had plans to get daughter well educated so that she would be prime eligible for the marriage market when the time was ripe. Was she living her life through her daughter or doing the same mistakes her mother did with her. Food for Thought. If Gayatri didnt enjoy the classes after a year Chaya would listen to her and try to develop her interest elsewhere.
4.35 pm - Chaya and Gayatri have missed the 4.30 bus. they will now have to take and Autorickshaw to reach the class on time. If only Ma hadn't been indignant about the colour of Gayatri's dress and further adamant that she changes it. There were times she wished they were living alone without Anand's mother. But what else were they supposed to do. A dutiful son and more importantly a good daughter in law wouldn't let an old lady alone in the autumn of her life. It wasnt always so bad ... just that she knew exactly when to get Chaya all worked up. She paid the Auto driver five times the amount she would have paid for the bus journey and dashed to the classes with Gayatri. No time for argument there. One hour to pass time before the classes end. She had decided to visit her grand mother and was about to turn when Veena called out to her.
" Did you go to the Open House ? Its so important . You must go every time they call. " on and on she went. Chaya's thoughts began to go helter skelter Ofcourse I go to the PTA and the Open House but I lack the giddy freaked out joy that seems to be bubbling from every single pore of this lady at the task of going to an elementary school open house.
Chaya looked at Veena dressed in Yellow Baby Doll T and Capri's. She even had a yellow ribbon in her hair. Chaya glanced at her fringe legged bell bottom blue jeans and paisley top. Her dark hair was wadded up in a knot and had a pencil running through it. The one she picked up near the door at home just before she had dashed out with Gayatri. She felt sadly lacking. Sigh !!!!!
She quickly bade her a bye and boarded the bus to her uncle's house. The beeps of Whatsapp Messages coming at regular and hurried intervals remind her that the world outside her own is fast paced and so full of life. She runs through the various jokes that go viral instantly thanks to the social connectivity of the times. The sardar jokes, the political jokes, manage to give her chuckle for their stupidity and insanity.
5.00 pm - She has reached her uncles place for a quick visit and hug for her grandmother. While she's old and rather frail, her mental capacity is anything but withering. She has very strong opinions and is hardly afraid of voicing them. Today she was telling Chaya how a woman should never marry the first son in the family as the wife would soon become a slave to her mother in law. Chaya was wondering however she came up with that theory , when her grandmother went on to cite the example of her grandfather. Ohhh , she was referencing to her marriage 60 years back. " Nothing has changed much since then " she grimaced. The age old beliefs and traditions and opinions and theories still hold. She kissed her grandmother on the forehead and mentally thanked her for the belated advise .... well if she had given it sooner life would have been different for her .... Or would it ????
5.45 pm - Chaya reaches the dance class and wilfully avoids Veena. She takes Gayatri and makes a dash for the bus that would reach her home just in time before Anand reaches home by 6 pm.
6.00 pm - Chaya flies into the kitchen and cooks up a hurried dinner. Chapatis and Matar Paneer ( Peas and Cottage Cheese ) will have to do. There must be some Pulao leftover from the day before, but Ma would make her life miserable if she dared serve that to her today.
6.15 pm - Anand arrives and starts grumbling that we are going to be late as usual. He feigns surprise that I even considered that Ma and Gayatri would be left behind. " You didnt specify that they would be coming ", she countered. " Do I have to spell everything clearly as if to a small child " , he countered. " besides they are family friends and it would be inappropriate if all of us didnt go ",he continued. Gayatri was ecstatic and Ma shot Chaya a look that could have been daggers for all she cared. ' I am sure she thinks I am the villian of the day ' Chaya rued.
6.45 pm - Anand asks Chaya if he should wear the blue kurta or the brown. She says the blue would be better and he decides to go for the brown. He gives some explanation on how it would look better in pictures. Chaya forced a smile on her lips and said " Yes I hadn't thought of that ". She decked up in traditional sari and wore her favourite jewellery. Chaya looked at the mirror and wondered what had gone wrong in the marriage. Was all marriages like this after ten years of constant togetherness. Did people tend to take each other for granted and did romance and care die a natural death under the burden of the stress of everyday living. She hadn't wanted an arranged marriage. Their parents had decided on the alliance and she met Anand after everything was fixed. There was absolutely no going back even if she hadn't found him to her liking. But she thought she could live happily with him. He was educated and had studied abroad for 2 years . Surely he must be open minded and different than the regular Indian Boys. Surely the exposure must have made him adaptable and easy to live with. For a year Chaya was blinded by the newly wedded bliss and her eager to please attitude that made everything about Anand 'cute'. But with time he stopped giving her the attention or consideration she cared. His parents didn't want a working daughter in law and rather she gave them a grandchild. Like millions of women in the country Chaya gave birth to her bundle of joy withing 2 years of their marriage. Anand kept drifting away from her and climbing higher and higher the Corporate World.
7.30 pm - Chaya was jolted from her reveries by Anand cursing the lack of parking space. " I told you we have to reach early. And this is why " he lamented." I fail to understand what you do the whole day , to never be able to get ready on time," he berated. She felt Ma's smirk behind her.
9.00 pm - The reception had been a gala affair. Chaya looked at the demure and blushing bride and wondered if one more girl and her dreams and aspirations had been sacrificed by the age old beliefs that marriage is the ultimate destination of a girls life. She looked at the charming groom and wondered if he would be any different from the countless men out there. Its true marriage in India was more of a union of two families than of two individuals. The family must be compatible and then it is presumed the couple would be. Chaya didn't believe this to be true but then this how marriage and married life was and has been since time immemorial. Men would be blissfully clueless and the women eternally miserable.
9.30 pm - They reach home. Ma is tired and Gayatri suddenly remembers she has projects and assignments for school the next day. Chaya promises to wake her up early and gets her to sleep after taking a loo at the work that need to be done. She would get the matter collected and sorted so that the early morning work would be minimal.
10.15 pm Anand is finished with his night time television viewing. He goes to sleep after poking his head into the kitchen. She is busy doing the final of dishes. Chaya keeps the dinner she had prepared wrapped in foil and into the refrigerator. She switches of all the lights and locks the door after keeping the garbage out. She walks into her room , exhausted mentally and physically. As she slides into bed Anand turns to her and begins kissing her. ' When would men realise that women need more than that to get into the act of making love. They need to be emotionally connected to connect physically. Is it just me .. ' she wondered before letting Anand take her. 'Its just for 5 minutes' she countered looking at the clock ticking on the wall opposite , as a single tear streamed down her eye. KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON - the poster on the bedroom door mocked her.
Meme (from Greek mimema, that which is imitated) is an element of a culture or system of behavior that may be considered to be passed from one individual to another by nongenetic means, especially imitation; a humorous image, video, piece of text, etc. that is copied (often with slight variations) and spread rapidly by Internet users.
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