Salim and Kayal #Watty's 2016 # YourStoryIndia #ProjectWomanUp

Who am I?

Salim's POV

As soon as we entered my Athai and Maama's place (In law's place) Athai (Aunty, Mother in law) hugged my Azhagi (Beautiful woman). I think Athai also identified the after sex glow in my sweet wife's face. Both Athai and Maama (Uncle, Father in law) gave me a warm welcome. But, I was in a hurry. So, I tried to be as polite as possible and hurried towards my laptop. Just when I started working, my Azhagi came near me and said, "Salim, why don't you have your tiffen first?"

"No ma. I will have it after some time. Already mails have started pouring in my inbox. I have to reply to everything at the earliest."

She simply nodded her head and left. I secretly hoped that she would insist that I should eat. May be I am a little disappointed. Did I have high expectations? Pushing back those thoughts, I tried to concentrate on my work. Within few minutes, I heard her opening the door but didn't bother to turn back. I kept telling myself, to not ruin my day as well as hers. She sat in front of me with a plate of Idlis and Mutton gravy. Before I could comprehend why she was having her tiffen in the bedroom, she brought a piece of Idli near my mouth. I was surprised. She said, "Salim, I know that my Amma (Mother) makes beautiful idlis. That doesn't mean that you can just stare at them and not eat them. You can eat it, she wouldn't mind that you are eating her work of art."

I smiled and ate the idli from her fingers. Along with the gravy, I also sucked her fingers.

She smirked and said, "The only reason why I am feeding you now is because I didn't want you to miss your breakfast in between your work. If you are not going to concentrate on your work, here have this. You can eat by yourself." She tried to give the plate to me.

"No, no, no. I have lots of mails to respond. So you please continue feeding me."

She smiled and fed the next piece of idli to me. "Hey, why don't you eat too?"

"I will eat after feeding you."

I said in my teasing voice, "You don't have to prove your respect for me by eating after me. I wouldn't mind if you ate along with me."

She gave me a mock glare and started eating. I smiled and tried to concentrate on my work. She has fed me before as well during our wedding receptions. I was happy then. But now I am extremely glad because she is now feeding me not because somebody asked to, but she wants to and she cares for me. I don't know how many Idlis went down my food pipe. In between my work, I was happily opening my mouth. I think last night's hard work made me really hungry.

Finally when I was full, I said, "Enough ma."

"Just have one more Idli."

"No ma. I am done."

I had some water from the bottle she had kept on the side table. When she stood to get up, I said, "Please tell Athai that the combination of Idli, Mutton gravy and ladies fingers tasted great."

At first she gave me a confused look, then she looked at her fingers and smirked. "Yeah, I will tell that to Amma."

With that she left the room. I tried to finish my work as soon as possible so that I can spend some time with my in laws. It was around mid morning when my work got over, and I thought of going outside. Suddenly I heard voices from the garden. My Azhagi, Athai and her Paati (Grandmother, Mother in law's aunt) were in the garden. What surprised me was all of them were speaking in Chaste Madras Bashai (Madras is an old name for Chennai city, Bashai means language). I have never heard Kayal speaking in this dialect. She normally speaks in a very formal way with respect to everybody. She was calling her Paati as 'Aaya'(Granny in Madras Bashai). The thing is whole of Tamil Nadu mocks and belittles Madras Bashai. It is a very funny and cocktail like dialect. It has borrowed words from Hindi, Telugu, English and even Burmese. Like 'Bashai' is from Hindi Bhaasha, 'Naina' meaning Father from Telugu 'Nayanah' and 'Kammunaaty' from English which is actually 'Come You Naughty', 'Attu' is adapted from Burmese 'Attu' which means worst or duplicate. I tried to understand what Kayal was saying about me. Only after few minutes I realized she was saying that my husband has brought few pots to grow plants. I will take these seeds with me. With that she jumped from her garden to the balcony and then walked into to the bedroom. "Salim, are you done with your work?"