Did You Get Your Period?

CHAPTER FIVE.

Riddhi waits for her best friend near the school gate. They usually walked home together and today was no exception. They didn't live very far from school and so there really wasn't any need for a carpool. Besides, Shweta's paternal grandmother had been on her case ever since she'd gained a bit of weight. Shweta wasn't by any means overweight but her grandmother's eye had caught the slight bit of chubbiness settling around her belly. She had gained a bit more weight in comparison to her lanky frame from when she was fifteen. While most people told her she finally looked healthy and not like she'd been starving, her paternal grandmother didn't think so. She had huffed and grumbled about the lack of exercise and how the recent article in the newspaper had spoken about the ill effects of extra weight and how it might lead to cancer.

To Shweta, it seemed that her grandmother was always finding reasons to call something cancer; often trying to caution her daughter-in-law against it. While Shweta's mother was a woman who normally respected people; she drew her line at medical fiction. She had a rule: if it wasn't written in a medical journal, she wouldn't pay heed to it.

Shweta's grandmother had resorted to talking to her two grand-daughters and sometimes even the unsuspecting Riddhi. So today as the girls trudged back home, there was a special, cancer-aware seventy-one-year-old somebody waiting for them.

"Oh, you girls are finally back. Tell me, how are you Riddhi? And Shweta, you look very uncomfortable in that uniform. You need to run for twenty-three kilometers every day. It keeps away cancer." Her grandmother greeted her with a volley of words. A smart woman dressed in a crisply ironed beige sari. Her hair was entirely white; oiled and tucked into a neat little bun on top of her head. Her skin is light and she's got remarkable green eyes. Her mouth is slightly downturned, a constant frown on her face. She's tall, taller than Shweta and her body is very well maintained.

"Oh, dadi! I didn't know you would be coming here. You have given me quite a surprise." Shweta says, while Riddhi smiles and folds her hands in a namaste.

"What nonsense! I told your sister a week ago that I would be coming here to stay for three days. Then I'm going to the Kali Temple for my yearly visit and then go back home. That useless sister of yours, she forgets everything! It seems she's been forgetting to eat as well considering how skinny she's become! And you, you must be eating for two people at once! The two of you will drive me crazy someday! Stress causes cancer and a lot of other diseases. Is that how you want me to die?" She says, glaring at Shweta.

While normally, the spunky Shweta would have taken offense at someone so very much after her weight, but this time she doesn't mind. She knows that her grandmother belongs to an era as old as time herself and so she simply smiles fondly and says, "Well, then don't take so much stress. Let's go inside and I will make you some green tea. It's supposed to be really good for your body." She says and this appeases her grandmother a bit.

In the meantime, Riddhi escapes with a meek "Bye, dadi", vehemently denying the offer to come inside for some snacks and tea. "Green tea is very beneficial. It has anti-oxidant properties; prevents cancer." Dadi says, trying to lure her but to no avail.

Inside the house, Shruti seems to already be in the kitchen whipping up some food.

"Hi! Did you decide to cook again today?" Shweta says. They normally took turns in cooking to help out their mother. Their duties were divided during the weekdays but ever since Shruti had left for college- it had been only Shweta for their mother was often late. Shweta didn't mind this a bit and wanted to take up culinary arts in the future.

She just hadn't figured out a way to tell her mother that.

"Yes, I was planning to. But now I'm just chopping the vegetables. Dadi says she'll cook and that she cannot stand my way of cooking. That the amount of oil I put in will give her a heart attack!" Shruti says chuckling, sounding rather amused with their grandmother's ways.