The Normal Family

The Nosey Aunty

Krishnan's POV

Pankaja's family was coming for dinner today. Pankaja was very happy to see her parents and sister again, but when I opened the door there was also an uninvited guest standing there. It was a quite old looking lady, with white hair nd a large body, who I kind of remember seeing at my wedding. She came towards me in an attacking manner. "Do you remember me dear?" She asked. "Sure" I replied. "Then tell me, what is my name?" She asked. I stuttered. "Oh..., you forgot aunty, fine I will tell you my name" She said sounding upset. "Amrutha... Poorva... Sundari... Aunty... She actually expected me to repeat after her. She fell on a chair. Then she waited for somebody to ask her what she wanted. 

As Shiva was setting the table, she asked him "You are Krishnan's older brother right? Why are you doing all this work? Where is your wife, I don't see her around." Shiva asked Sriram to call Akhila. 

Sriram's POV

I went to find Akhila she was sitting in her room and Srihari was sleeping keeping his head on her lap. I told her Shiva is asking her to come to the dining room because some aunty was asking for her. She replied "He is sleeping why are you disturbing him. I will come after sometime." "Should I actually go tell her this" I asked. "Tell her, I don't care." she replied. I lost my mom at a very young age, maybe if she were alive she would pamper me this way. Anyways Akhila made the right decision of not seeing that 'Aunty'. I conveyed this message to the annoying aunty. She asked, "isn't that guy in 10th grade." I asked whether I should convey this message to Akhila. The aunty said yes. When I told this to Akhila she said, "Are you her messenger or something? conveying everything she says, don't you have anything better to do. Useless fellow."

Narrator's POV

The Aunty asked Krishnan and Pankaja if they were parents yet, Pankaja said she didn't have any kids, the aunty said, "Oh poor child, don't you want kids." "No, we are not interested." Krishnan said after seeing his wife was getting upset. The aunty tried to convince them to have children though it wasn't her business.

When Sharada entered wearing a crop top, the aunty looked disgusted. "dear, where is your top." she asked. "This is a top." Sharada said confused. The aunty nodded disappointed, even though there was a five inch gap in her saree. "How is school, you are in 7th right. Are you studying well?" "Yes" Sharada said. "I am more in interested in dance." "It can't replace studies right?" the aunty said. She turned to Sreeja and asked the same question.  "Yes I am the topper of my class, I study most of the time." she replied. "But you should do other things as well right? like singing or dancing." When Srihari entered the aunty asked him the same question he said. "I do neither of these." trying to escape the Aunty's comments. "So you sleep all day like today." the aunty said laughing. 

The aunty then asked Shiva how much he made, and asked him whether he didn't feel bad that his wife was earning more than him, since he didn't react much the aunty moved to the next person. She started a conversation with Gopal and Sathya. Pankaja told me "you both teach art and PT, in a school. I can't believe they have teachers for these menial subjects, this was not important in our time." They both looked hurt, there was an empty silence in the room. Shiva offered the aunty some cake. "Are you trying to kill aunty, Aunty has sugar." she said biting her fifth jalebi.

She then asked Vijaya and Varadaraj how their life was, when Varadaraj mentioned his writing the aunty looked disappointed. Varadaraj braced himself as the aunty opened her mouth. "Does it actually pay, you know how many broke starving writers are on the street now." When Varadaraj went to get water. The aunty turned to Vijaya, "Poor thing, because your parents are not there, your brothers married you to such a guy." Vijaya changed the subject but the aunty was not interested. She turned to Sriram who was trying to hide himself, "Haven't you thought of settling. No job no wife, what is this. She then asked whether she should look for prospective brides for Sriram. Everyone declined as they didn't want a mini aunty in their house.  

She then started talking about how children were into relationships, she looked at the children in the table and warned them about such things, then her eyes focused on Srihari, she asked, "Are you interested in such things." He hated this aunty and wanted to give a retorting reply but couldn't think of one. "Actually, no.. but yes even though...However." he blabbered. Akhila who didn't want her son thinking of Pallavi again said, "Why are you confusing a child like this." Srihari offered her another jalebi in hopes that she will die soon.

The aunty continued "I was thinking of staying here for a few days. Is your place free, they haven't booked hotel room for me. I actually joined them in the last minute. Pankaja not wanting her aunt to stay said, there was no room. Shiva offered to book a hotel for her. "No need, you yourself don't have such a good pay, your wife is itself earning more I will feel bad to take money from you." she said, thinking it was very funny, and was shocked seeing that nobody was laughing. She spent a lot of time talking about fertility treatments with Pankaja. This ended up hurting her feelings very badly, since it was a topic she was very sensitive about.

 Finally she said, "All you kids come visit me one day." looking specifically at Srihari she said, "Don't fall asleep like today." Then she made her dramatic exit. Srihari looking irritated said "I am not interested to eat." he was about to leave. Akhila stopped him and said "Why should you feel bad, it is that lady who should feel bad for making us feel that way in our own house, I didn't say anything because she is Pankaja's aunt." Everybody was hurt by the Aunty's comments. Pankaja was really upset, she had found out a couple of years ago that she couldn't conceive. When they were younger, She and Krishnan were not interested in having children but now they regretted that after getting this news. They had also lightly discussed other options such as adoption.