Goodbye, honey :Story of an Indian bride

#In-laws

When it was just Puneet, Ankita and I, we somewhat lived like bachelors. We'd stay up late at night, splash water on each other. Sometimes I'd get up late and just give him  tea before he left.

Ankita was not that bad. She just had a habit of saying rude things.

Well that's what she said every time she offended me. For example, once she accused me of being an alcoholic.Then she said that you are trying to seduce my brother by wearing such provocative clothes.

My husband my business lady. I so wanted to say that. It literally was on the tip of my tongue. Instead I just drank water and shut up. I also wondered if she somehow got knocked up fully clothed.

Despite of her regular comments, whenever she and her husband fought on the phone, I sat with her to wipe her tears.

Sadly, she just turned a deaf ear every time Puneet and I fought. The whole building might have heard our fight. She never did. She definitely needed hearing aid, didn't she?

***
A month was up and so were our bachelor days. His dear ma and pa came home and so did their expectations.

In order to meet them, I got up on time joined her in the kitchen and cooked breakfast. Sunday was the 'Cleaning the house' day. Maids won't don't do it so nicely, my mother in law had said. So every Sunday we cleaned four balconies, one for each room. Sometimes, toilet cleaning also came in that list.

Once before going to work my mother in law asked, "Beta, where do you eat your lunch?"

"At my mother's house. It's nearer from my workplace and I get to eat home made food, so it's pretty convenient," I told her.

"But beta, you are married to my son so you are our responsibility now. Don't eat at your mother's place. Take a lunchbox." She said in the sweetest voice like she had my best interest in her heart. Oh how sweetly vicious you are, sasuma(mother-in-law).

So I did what she told me to do. Partly. I made a lunchbox for myself and took it at mother's place. I had my food there.

Still my mother's house didn't seem like my house anymore. Whenever I  came home, my mother would start behaving extra sweet with me. She'd always welcome me and never yell at me. I was treated like a guest in my own house.

I couldn't call Puneet's house home either. It didn't feel like one. Now that I thought about it, I virtually belonged nowhere.

***
Vivek Chabra. My dear father in law. You'd think he'd be someone nice since he's the elderly male of the house. He'd go to work all and never pay heed to kitchen politics.

That happens when your father in law does go to work. Mine didn't. He mostly stayed at home whereas Puneet took over the business.

That's when I understood having a sasur at home is equivalent to having two sasumas. Couldn't be any luckier, could I?

So one day Puneet and I are peacefully sleeping and I hear a knock on the door, "Priyanka, get up and make breakfast for Ankita."

Umm okay, did I just hear him correctly? Did he really ask me to make breakfast at 7 am while everybody's asleep?

I groaned got up and did it. Sucks to be me.

***

Coming back to my mother in law,her viciousness just got worse. It seemed like taunting me was the highlight of the day for her. Sometimes I even felt like asking her which daily soap had she jumped from.

Puneet didn't help the matter much either. Once, we had gone for shopping and when I came back she asked me what I had got and then said, "I gave my daughter a lot of  clothes to wear before she went to her sasural. Guess yours didn't."

I told Puneet about this incident expecting he'd take my side in the matter. He just agreed with her. He also told me that his mother was his first priority and I had to agree to whatever she said even if what she said was wrong.

I was appalled but I didn't say a word. I didn't want to be the reason a son and his mother fought, I wasn't that girl. But I also wasn't a person who agreed with whatever whoever said.But what say did I have in this matter. How was I to fight a mother in law without my husband's support?

And why did it matter how many clothes I bring from my house? Because I clearly remember Puneet telling my father that he just wanted my hand in marriage. No dowry was required. Then why did he tell me to get my gold that I'd left at my parent's house ?

It seemed like he was turning his back on every statement he'd said before marriage.There was nothing left in me, but despair.

Author's note:

For those who are thinking this an extreme case scenario, your wrong. It's a true story.

Sasur-father in law
Sasural-Husband's house

Indain daily soaps usually surround mother and daughter in law dramas.That's the reason such a reference is used.