Periods, Pyaar And Patriarchy

Chapter Three

There were no perks to having a best friend in her third year of medical college was what Shweta realized on a Sunday morning as she rolled over in her bed and checked her phone only to see the text message, she sent Riddhi still unread. Having taken a gap year to enroll in coaching classes and then successfully managing to crack the NEET examinations; Riddhi seemed to have only wrapped herself further in the never-ending loop of stress. She seemed to be having examinations all the time and when she didn't, she was off preparing for the viva. While Shweta was very proud of her best friend's dedication towards becoming a top-notch surgeon, there were times she got a bit annoyed. The unread message sat on her phone, the words sounding pathetic to her now.

I need to talk to you. Having a bad night.

The doubts from the previous week hadn't subsided even now that she was back home and settled into the comfortable humdrum of everyday life. Shweta quite liked the ease and the laziness of the routine something that seemed quite unlike her. It felt two parts funny and one part peaceful when early in the morning, she sent Seema off with a lunchbox filled with aloo paratha on Tuesdays and Poha on Thursdays.

She had been testing her mother's patience by using the most ridiculous tiffin boxes she could find. She wondered how long it would be until Seema decided that she would stop taking homemade lunches and returned to eating the bland food at the bistro in the hospital. Shweta wondered if she could stretch the joke and admonish her mother by talking about 'spoilt mothers who only like restaurant food'.

But once her mother left for the long hours at the hospital, Shweta was relegated to spending the entire day at the house and the thoughts came buzzing back. Vaibhav was now all set on covering the Trek. Until a few days ago, he had been at Manali but now that he was on the trek the messages had become sporadic and the last phone call had been quite a while ago.

Shweta sighs, how nice would it have been to have had gone on a trip herself. With Sanskriti and Aditya, instead of this drop year. In fact, Shweta wasn't sure she was so hot on the idea anymore. If anything, the ample free time gave her too much time for introspection. And the problems and knots that were surfacing; Shweta wasn't sure she wanted to face. Shweta had never been a meek person- but when faced with her own thoughts, she wished she could recoil. She wished she could hide.

The cellphone buzzes, jolting Shweta out of her nightmarish thought process. She is disappointed when she's met with not Riddhi's caller id but a pink-haired Shruti smiling at her through the phone screen. Shruti had also pierced her nose and was totally rocking the desi urban-chic aesthetic; the piercing was something their mother was unaware of.

"Baby Bitch!" Shruti greets her and Shweta cringes so hard, that even Vaibhav is forgotten. 'Baby Bitch' was how Shruti had lately taken to greeting Shweta knowing full well her hatred for such names.

"Ew," Shweta says, still cringing. "Gross morning to you."

Shruti doesn't return the warm greeting but says, "I'm coming home! My hair is black. I'm going to Belgium next year. And Ashish proposed."

The series of news is so surprising and ground-breaking on their own that Shweta cannot comprehend them. Dealing with the most important one first, she asks, "He did, WHAT?"

"He proposed!" Shruti giggles, her voice is almost breathy so very unlike the serious twenty-one-year-old she had once been.

"Oh, my goodness! What did you say? Please tell me you didn't say yes." Shweta asks, biting her nails momentarily having forgotten all about Vaibhav.

"Of course not, silly," Shruti says and then adds as an after-thought. "Can you imagine what maa would do if I had said yes?"

The thought of Seema in a murderous rage makes the sisters shudder.