As I Write This Letter...

7. A Drop of Golden Sun

Sujata Maheshwari had two defining characteristics, both of which were contradictory and had their roots in her traditional upbringing and the strict schooling she had received. 

One was her talent for embroidery and the other was her disenchantment with rules and planning. She loved needlepoint, was a master in that art and had also won quite a few awards for her works. She could embroider landscapes, garden scenes and even portraits with skill and patience and the finished work resembled paintings or photography. She would spend a couple of weeks assembling the myriad colours and the subtle different shades before commencing the work. It took meticulous detailing and ample patience to design, embroider and finish her projects, which she did with an appearance of effortlessness.

Then there planning and preparation for the daily tasks, one in which she consistently and spectacularly failed. 

One could argue that her art also needed patience and attention to detail. That the embroidered masterpieces which she made could not be done without exacting  levels of planning, yet Sujata could never bring herself to plan her routine activities. For her, plans were perpetually associated with rules and regulations and she had enough of them in her childhood. Both at home with her Marwari family and at the convent school where she had studied for thirteen years, before finding a semblance of relief in college, Sujata had been subject to rules. How to walk, nimbly and gracefully, without sounding like a stomping bull; how to sit, knees, calves and feet together, no crossing over at ankles or knees; how to talk, in a uniform decibel level, not in coarse whispers or scream like an uncouth ruffian; the list was endless and though Sujata followed each of them, she resented the rules. And when her marriage was fixed with Ram Maheshwari, a further set of rules had been drilled into her, making her dread her life with her in-laws.

It had not helped that she had to face two mothers-in-law, Ram's mother and Mrs Gadodia. Apparently, though both women shared an amicable, if slightly distant relationship, it could not be denied that Sujata's entry disrupted the delicate balance that had been established over the years. The two women had come to their own unspoken truce with strict division of rules and territories and in the initial days of her married life, Sujata was in state of perpetual terror. She was unsure of what to do, for if she followed the instructions of her mother-in-law she ended up crossing boundaries set by Mrs Gadodia. And Mrs Gadodia seemed to be too strict for her to seek her side against her mother-in-law, and she did not even want to take sides.  It took her two weeks of tip toeing around before she gave up and pretended to be ill, effectively hiding in her room till she found out a workable solution. 

When she ventured out of her room, after two days, which was mostly on account of Ram having discovered her deceit and insisted that she learn her way around rather than hide, Sujata had been thrilled when she discovered the resolution, it was a win-win situation. She noted that in her absence, both Ram's mother and Bua had reverted to their old schedules and there was no tension around. That was the key, she decided, she would not volunteer for any job, she could simply tag behind them, hoping to be invisible as they continued with their daily chores. They instructed her, she followed those but she would never ever do a chore which would end up with her being responsible for it. A part of Sujata recognised that it was cowardice on her part that she preferred to hide rather than prove herself to be a responsible person but when she noted that quiet relief on the elder women's faces, she brushed aside all her doubts. So she continued to tag along, enjoying her time practicing her craft, perfecting the art of being a silent and unobtrusive daughter in law.

Peace had reigned in the Maheshwari house since then, and Sujata picked up a perceptiveness that made her an adored mother, who was more friend and confidante to her children and their friends.

And now, as she watched Swara and Sanskaar, she had some pieces fall in place.

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