Yours, With Love

To change perceptions

Things had been going on. Perhaps normally, perhaps a bit different. No one could really tell, because the perceptions of normalcy were far too different in Radhika's home.

But one thing was for sure, her papa's eyes held a different sort of emotion when in her vicinity. It was something quite akin to guilt and regret, probably for the other day, she felt, but there was also something on which she couldn't pinpoint. Maybe her bhai had something to do with it.

The other day, just after the night her papa had slapped her, she had waken up late and had decided to skip work for that day. The exhaustion of all that had happened seeping in, when she heard something outside her room. It was her papa and her bhai - that was apparent from the voices heard, and as much as she hated eavesdropping, after hearing her being addressed in that conversation, she just could not turn her back and not listen.

So she did.

Her bhai was having a not so pleasant conversation with her dad, more like a heated conversation. He pointed out a lot of things, a lot of flaws and she could clearly tell that her papa was not happy with Kartik's accusations.

He even went to the extent of pointing out how she had been distanced by them from him, thanks to their notions of how a woman should be, how they had kept her from achieving what she deserved personally and professionally, how in the pretext of keeping her safe, they had made her miss the thousands of opportunities she deserved, how they had time and again tried to keep her under control by taking decisions without giving her the choice, how she had found happiness and how they wanted to keep her away from that, and how what the people would think, what the society would think took up the major chunk of their thought process.

Kartik was nearly having an emotional outburst, which was so unlike him and she heard her papa growing increasingly silent with his every word. It seemed as though his every word was weighing down on her papa.

She did not know what had transpired between the two of them after that heated argument, but her papa and also her maa had gone a lot quiet after that. They were not their usual selves, especially around her, and this was not some pretense as it had been that day when they had permitted her to go to Ujjain with Rajeev. This seemed genuine.

Today, she wanted to go discuss a few things about pursuing her PhD with her professor from during the MSc days, and Meeta was to accompany her since she knew important details related to this degree, being a PhD holder herself. When Radhika had approached her parents about going for the same, she had received a 'yes' without much questions, and just a sincere 'stay safe'.

"Mom.", Radhika was extremely happy to see one of her favourite persons.

"Hey my favourite daughter in law.".

Meeta had parked her car just outside Radhika's home and was walking towards her through the garden.

"I am your only daughter in law mom.", Radhika replied with a playful scowl.

"No, I have two secret sons and two secret daughters-in-law.", Meeta whispered, as though telling Radhika a secret.

"Mommmm", Radhika could not contain herself and burst out in laughter. Meeta chortled alongside.

Vijaya saw the scene through the window. She could clearly see her own daughter being so relaxed and happy with some other woman. And as much as a twinge of jealousy hit her, she could not help but blame herself for this. All her life, she had been so dedicated into molding Radhika into what was socially acceptable and what was permissible for her gender, as per how she had been taught by and conditioned by her own mother, that she failed to recognize the distance she herself created in between her and her daughter.