Stop Scaring My Parents.

                                     “Dear Aamir Khan,

                                   Stop scaring parents.

                                             Regards,

                                                Girl.”

(A family of four sit in front of the television at 11 am on a Sunday morning to see a show that is supposed to take the country by storm.)

Father: Come on! Change the channel. It will start any moment.

(A boy changes the channel with great disappointment. The father and the mother watch the television with their eyes wide, they looked like Mike Teavee. The topic that is up for discussion is rape. On hearing this both the parents shift awkwardly.)

Father: Why don’t you go to your room and study?

Mother: Yes beta, don’t you have a test tomorrow.

Son: Mom! I am eighteen and a science student.

Daughter: No, no you should go beta. You need to be protected.

Mother: Enough, we are sick of your jokes.

Father: Can we just watch please!

(The family watches the programme with awkward stares, some “Hahs” and “Hos” from each one of them and the mother sheds a few tears when a cruel case is narrated. An emotional song marks the end of the show. The presses the power button once the show is over and takes a deep breath. There is an awkward silence in the living room. Then the father turns to the daughter.)

Father: Beti, so how that internship search going for you?

Daughter: It’s great dad. I have applied at a few companies and two of them have already replied to my emails saying they liked my C.V.

Father: Where have you applied, in Mumbai only right?

Mother: No! No! I told her to do so but she has applied in companies that are in Pune.

Father: why? I told you keep it restricted to Mumbai only.

Daughter: But dad you said it’s okay if I apply.

Father: Yes but that was before and look what the world has come to.  There are women getting raped in every nook and corner. It is very unsafe. I refuse to let you go. What do you say son?

Son: Yes, you are right dad. She should stay at home.

Daughter: Don’t smile like that! (To the son). Dad this is unfair! You are really not letting me go because of this stupid TV show.

Father: Don’t blame the show. It is a very good show and it has made me more aware today. And now I have changed my mind and you are going nowhere.

(Meanwhile the mother goes to the kitchen and the son quietly goes to his room.)

Daughter: Dad! This show is a more expensive version of soaps. This what the producers want, they want your sympathy and trust. And to gain it they have added a masala of tears and sad background score. Please just let me go!

Father: You are just saying that because you want to go and we are thinking about your safety.

Daughter: But the show also said women should be stronger.

Father: Yeah, but that is unreasonable. And besides you are not strong. So you are not going.

(The father walks away.)

Daughter (in a whisper): Stupid Fucking Show.

Simple Confrontation

"Can you make it fast? Please!" said Rogger as he looked around swiftly.
"Please sir, I have to leave. Quickly"

He pushed the shopkeeper and snatched the jewellery box half wrapped as he rushed towards the cash counter.

In a fraction of a second a woman came to the counter with confusion in her eyes. She walked towards one of the salesmen as if she was going to inquire about something.
"Ruby, darling."

She heard her husband call out and suddenly the confusion in her eyes was replaced with a twinkle. She almost ran towards him and gave him a hug as she took a deep breath.

"Thirteen years, but these never get old." she said as she looked at him.Rogger nodded as a wide smile spread through his face.
"So what are you getting me this Christmas? Is it another one of those pens? Darling really just because I write occasionally that doesn't mean you have to get me a pen every year."
"Ruby, it is useful. Isn't it?"
"Well, it was in the beginning but then technology came into play and we all type now."
"Oh! Okay then I shall get you something else."
"Yeah, we will see about that."

She concluded the conversation as they both made their way into to the parking lot.
"So what did you get for the kids?" asked Rogger once they got into the car.
"A big stuff toy for Emily and a one of those best seller video games for Ben."
"I hope he likes it. Remember what happened last time."
“You mean when you got him a Barbie video game, how could you? Really!"
"It was so not my fault. I told the shopkeeper to give me one from the best seller section and...
"You forgot to say for girls or boys" Ruby completed his sentence. 
"Anyways he will like this one."
"How are you so sure?"
"Well, you know, I have my ways."
He looked at her and saw her beaming. He loved to see that happen, after a long day he would come home hoping she would stand there and smile at him as he entered and he was never disappointed.
The car ride home was filled with a comfortable silence.

They turned the key quietly making sure that the noise would not wake the children. Then they quietly placed their presents under the Christmas tree and went upstairs. They opened a white door with a sign that said KEEP OUT.
"Well, that's new!" Ruby whispered.
"Till this morning it was DONOT DISTURB."
On the bed lay their son, lost in a dream. They both looked at him with a sense of pleasure that was hard to explain.Then they moved to the room on the other side, and there was a little girl sleeping with a short smile on her face.This was like a ritual. They always went to Ben and Emily's rooms before they went to bed. 

"I was that good, huh?" Rogger said seeing the smile on Ruby’s face after they finished making love.
"No! Don't flatter yourself! I was that good."
"Let’s just agree to disagree."

 Next morning the house was filled with excitement. It was Christmas and everyone loved this day. Both Ben and Emily were up early and started running behind Ruby hoping that they will get their gift early because of their puppy dog eyes. They tried this every year and failed. It was their family tradition to gather around the Christmas tree after breakfast and open their gifts together. 

They greedily finished their pancakes and sat around the tree in the living room. There were four gifts with names written on them. Both the children grab their gifts at the same time and open them in with one short, swift tear. When they saw their gifts their eyes lit up and Ben started jumping around with excitement as Rogger pushed Ruby’s present towards her. She opened the gift with great care, she liked preserving the wrapping paper, as she opened the last fold a planner fell in her lap. The one she always uses but this one was a limited edition.

Even though it was a fancier present then she has ever got on Christmas, her face fell when she saw the dairy.
“I’ll be back.” She said in a chocked voice as she got up and ran towards the bathroom. She walked swiftly towards the door and shut it with a quick but cautious movement. In moments she found herself standing in front of a mirror with wet eyes. Her darkest fears had become her reality. She stood there staring at her reflection and wondering what to do.

“Mum we have to go to school!” was heard from the other side a hard wood door after a double knock against.
“Yes, of course darling, I will be out in a minute.” She said as she took a deep breath and got out of the toilet with her chin up and unusually erect shoulders.
“Is everything alright?” Rodger asked as she made her way back into the living room.
“Oh, yes. We should leave”

And so they did. Rest of the evening was filled with small talk and awkward laughter between parents, the children were quite nervous as they had to perform.During the show the auditorium was filled with smiling proud parents, some of them had tears in their eyes but Ruby didn’t quite fit in. She was looking at the performances and clapping for the children but she was not paying attention. It was as though she was trying to find a missing piece from a puzzle.
As soon as the show was over she walked towards Rogger with an expressionless face but painful eyes.
“Hey”, she said in low voice with a hint of quiver. 
“Tell me what would you do if you were in my position?”
“And what position is that?”
“Imagine that your husband bought a gold necklace and at Christmas gave to somebody else.”
“Oh Ruby! I am…”
“Would you wait around to find out if it’s just a necklace or sex and a necklace or if worst of all it’s a necklace and love? Would you stay knowing life will always be a little bit worse or would you confront?”
“I am sorry, love! I am a classic fool.”
“Well, you have made the life I lead foolish too!” she said walking away.

THE END?

"Darling!" he called as he filled the room with a sweet smell, like the one a woman's lip balm gives out.
And she knew that today was the day he was going to tell her.
He was going to prick her bubble and everything else is going to turn into flames.

The Pair Of Perfect Guests.

“What do you think you are doing?”

Why don’t you look good?

Why do you look so fat?

Why can’t you do what we say?

I don’t understand, why do you have to shout?

Get out of my room.”

This is what Jane thought of when she thought of her mother. The woman she spent almost half her life with, she never felt loved or wanted. She felt like whatever she did it would never enough. Never!

And today she was going to come to her apartment, the one she bought two years ago. Her mother spent the first month with her, in the name of helping her to move. All she did through those thirty days is criticize every piece of furniture Jane bought for her apartment. When asked to keep her opinions to herself, she would say in a defensive voice, “I am just telling the truth and I am not going to apologise for that.” And she never did for anything she said. All those words that left her heart as if it were going to burst into a million pieces. And now she was coming for dinner. Jane looked around the house, her one bedroom apartment was fairly neat. But all the furniture was old, the yellow colour of the sofa was faded. The plain curtains she had bought from the thrift store looked dusty. The centre piece that her best friend gifted her was hidden under a pile of her magazines. She needed to get out of this situation and fast. She had lost the habit of listening to criticism. Everyone who came to her house always said that it’s not pretty but its home. And all she heard was “its home”.

Jane craved for her mother’s approval for the first ten years of her life and then she gave up. But it always bothered her.

What is the perfect excuse? She kept thinking to herself. Hey maybe I will tell her one of my close friends died, she thought. Oh no! But she wouldn’t buy that and even if she did she would want to come along. Meanwhile she started off with cleaning the apartment for her OCD stricken mother. She started off with the dishes certain to find a perfect excuse. Then she went on to clean the tiles of the toilet still clueless about the excuse. Then she scrubbed the floor disheartened and now certain she had to live through the evening. Then when she was vacuum cleaning the entire apartment an idea popped into her head like fire cracker. She could invite someone, “I can invite someone” she said loudly with a large smile spreading across her face. “I know the perfect person who can take my mother. And he is Kevin.”

At eight Jane was ready to welcome her mother, she was more excited than nervous. She thought it was war and today she was not willing to lose. The doorbell interrupted her string of thoughts, she almost ran to open the door. It was her mother, she stood there with that plastic smile on, the one people manage to put in front of the camera. “Hi darling” she said with a ringing voice. Then she looked around the room and Jane knew she had scanned the living room. Now she knew exactly where what was wrong and Jane waited for it begin.

Just then the doorbell rang again, Jane almost hurt herself while getting to the door. She opened the door, there he was or she was, as he preferred to call himself. Kevin was in the middle of a sex change operation, he was not a complete woman yet but he chose dressed like one. He came in and looked at her mother and a smile spread on his clean shaven face and flashed his perfectly curled eyelashes, while he said, “hi!”

 The look on Jane’s mother’s face told Jane that it was going to be an interesting evening and she had the perfect bottle of wine for it. 

The importance of meaningless details!!!

He opened the door and walked in, to his shock the room was covered with yellow paint! Yellow the color he hated the most. He could'nt stand it, he almost had a phobia. He felt the blood pressure rise and then he heard a thud followed by excruciating pain in his knuckles. It took him a few seconds to realise that he had hurt himself when he punched the wall. Soon after that he could not feel his hand. He heard someone calling his name, it was his wife. He saw her coming through the corridor, a fragile, fair woman with a high pitched voice. She came running towards him and took his hand in her hand. He wanted to punch her, he was almost certain that this was her doing. She was the one who turned his apartment into this... this hell hole. He wanted her head on her platter. "What happened?" he asked trying very hard to keep his voice down but he clearly failed because the reponse he got was, "why are you shouting at me?" He could not bear the anger anymore he want to scream or pull out her hair or his own, he kept thinking how could she?? how could she do this when I specifically told her that I hated this colour? How could she not have used her brain? Then he repeated himself but in much louder voice that sounded almost like a scream, "what happened? Answer my question!!" On hearing this she threw the ointment that she had in her hand and ran towards her room with tears rolling down her cheeks. At this point he found himself alone in the living room, he felt the as if the yellow paint was haunting him, he kept looking for a distraction, something that would take his mind off this color then his eyes fell upon a cricket bat that was standing against the wall. He picked it up and he felt a whole new kind of energy running through his insides and with great speed he marched into thier room and after that he lost control of himself.
After about thirty minutes he woke up, his head was hurting, he looked around him every thing seemed red. He told himself that it was a bad dream and with great effort he stood up, it took him a couple of minutes to register what he saw. There she was, his wife in a pool of her own blood and suddenly like a flash of light everthing came back to him. He had killed her with his cricket bat. He had just murdered his wife. He fell like a pile of flesh and stared at her lifeless but terrified face not knowing what to do.
Then suddenly the phone rang, it got transffered to the answering machine. It was his mother, she said " Hi dear, I hope you liked he way I re-decorated your appartment. Yellow is the new blue. Anyway call me once you get this."

Silence.

She went and sat on the nearest stool. It was white, everthing around her was white, it was like a dream, so surreal, so pure. But she didn't notice it, she looked around her, there was huge crowd talking to each other and to her but some how she could not hear them. She could not even make out what they were saying. The bright lights hurt her eyes; people wearing blue made her want to turn her face but she was unable to move. Her body resfused to listen to her mind, she tried to remember what was wrong but for some reason it seemed liked she had blocked her memories. She sat there waiting for it to hit her, trying hard fro something to trigger some kind of emotion. Just then a familiar sort of face came and sat in front of her. he looked at her with eager eyes waiting for her to move or say something or may be cry but she only stared back at him with empty eyes, she was trying to recollect who he was and where had she seen him. He remembered meeting her the day before they had left for their trip and he was thinking of how happy she was that her exams were over and she could waste her time. He had known her since she was five but had never ever seen her like this. It was always like he could hear her thoughts, they always understood each other perfectly. It was telepatic but now he scared. He wanted to say something but he didn't know what to say. She kept looking at him, he put his hand on her knee but she didn't even twitch. It seemed as though her body was in shock and her mind was confused. Like it didn't know why it was supposed to grieve. Just then a lady hugged her and shook her, leaving her tiny body moving to and fro. She said something to her all she managed to take in was "sorry about your father".
Just then it just hit her! Her cheecks felt damp, he then came and sat next to her and held her hand. She felt the silence break in her mind and now could hear people crying around her but she still felt empty.

"When you get married......."

Indians are very familiar to this conversation starter. We have been told since we were very little that a certain amount of things we need to know and we some one we need to be in order to be someone desirable. All the mothers start telling their daughters at every turn of life what would help them bag a good husband. Its like they are they  have taken this job of making a product that sells. Women have to look in certain way , walk in a certain way, talk in a certain way. Girls start hearing this phrase from the moment they are fifteen, its liked these rules have been hammered into their brains. And the rules never change. If you try to argue you are made to believe that you are going to die alone or end up with a not very pleasant person. One my sisters is about o get married and all the women in the family have opened their books of wisdom and given her a list of  Do's and Don'ts. Its funny because most have them had have to be sit-at-home mothers and house wife which is nothing remotely close to what she wants to be. At least I hope so!
It's only the girls but also the boys that get pulled into this social nonsense. But they are told hoe he must listen to his better half. he is taught phrases like 'THE WIFE IS ALWAYS RIGHT". And the girls portrayed as self absorbed, haughty and selfish individuals. If one sees closely these rules just don't make sense. It makes both the men and the women look bad. All of are taught how to make the other person and not how live happily together.
I know most of us don't take it seriously but for the people who do we really need better guidelines or better no guidelines at all. How about, Do what you want! Nobody cares!