AUTHOR'S POV

Meenakshi as usual woke up early in the morning with the pain between her legs. She struggled to get out of the bed due to the pain and after a bit of struggle,she got out of the bed and after getting ready for the day, she walked out of their bedroom and started doing the household chores.

Later her mother in-law and grandmother inlaw started their day with the morning prayer in the Pooja room. Her sister in-law ,Sudha was at her parent's home for the post wedding rituals of her brother. Her father in law went out for a morning walk.

After preparing the breakfast, Meenakshi went to wake up her children and husband. At the breakfast table Meenakshi was serving the food to everyone and later everyone went to their own destinations and Meenakshi was having her breakfast all alone . This made her reminisce about her father. After her mother's death she would always stick to her father and the latter would always spoil her and feed her with his own hands. This memory made tears well up in her eyes and she left the breakfast half eaten.

After her half eaten breakfast and cleaning the dining area Meenakshi started doing the dishes.Then she went to the washing area and started washing the clothes of every member in the house. Then went to clean the remaining rooms as she was not able to clean all the rooms in the morning. After doing the remaining chores, she went to the room where both her mother in-law and grandmother inlaw were watching a serial on the television.

After the serial was over, the three ladies went to the dining area as it was lunchtime and her father in-law would come home for lunch. Meenakshi gave him cool water from a mud pot and then he got ready to eat and the two women joined him to have their lunch whereas Meenakshi was serving them their lunch.

After lunch, he went to his room to relax a bit. Then Meenakshi had her lunch all alone but as she was too tired and hungry she ate well unlike in the morning. By the time she cleaned the dining area and the dishes, her father in-law was ready to go back to work. She refilled a water bottle and gave it to him

After he left, she locked all the doors and then her mother in-law and grandmother inlaw called her to instruct about the snacks to be made in the evening and also to inform her about Sudha's arrival.

MEENAKSHI’S POV

My mother in-law and grandmother inlaw instructed me to prepare samosas for the evening and also to inform me about my sister in-law, Sudha's arrival.

Sudha's family is from a neighboring village. Sudha's father and my father in-law are childhood friends so they got both their children married to strengthen their bond. I was amazed seeing so many gifts sent to her on different occasions from the day she was married. She always visited her parents on festivals and stayed there for at least a week. She went to her parent's home one month back for her brother's wedding and she stayed back there for the post wedding rituals and now she will be back in two more days.

As Sudha and Surya had a friendly bond from their childhood, their marital life is also filled with lots of love. Everyone in the family adores Sudha. My mother in-law and grandmother in-law are also very close to Sudha's family. So my mother in-law and grandmother in-law treated her as their own child from her childhood as they don't have any female child in the family and so they don't let her work at all. They say that she doesn't have a habit of doing the household chores and also because she was newly married.

After talking to my mother in-law and grandmother in-law, I went into the kitchen to prepare samosas to eat as my children would come back from their school. After making samosas, I went to my room to freshen up then went to the kitchen to boil the milk.

As I was working in the kitchen, my three children hugged me from the back and I turned the stove off and kissed their forehead, asked them about their day and after that my children went to their room to freshen up. After a while my brother-in-law came home too. After refreshing they all sat together and I served them tea, biscuits and samosas. Then I went after my children who were throwing tantrums to drink milk. After a lot of tricks, they drank milk and ate the snacks.

My father inlaw was a farmer and even though everyone insists him not to work anymore, he is adamant on working. My husband was a math teacher in a government high school in our village and my children study in the same school. My brother-in-law also worked as a math teacher in a government high school in a neighboring village. They both started taking tuitions for the students interested in government jobs.

As the students started coming for tuition, my husband called my children to sit with them and study. Then I went to kitchen and reheated the remaining tea and had it. Later I started preparing the dinner.

After the tuition students left, everyone sat down to have their dinner and I served them dinner and then my children went to spend some time with their grandparents and both my brother-in-law and husband were discussing politics. Then I had my dinner and then after cleaning and doing dishes I went to my children to spend some time with them but they were very curiously listening to a story which my grandmother in-law was narrating and then they insisted on sleeping with her. Then I filled water bottles and placed one bottle in each room and as everyone went to their own rooms to sleep, I locked all the doors and switched off all the lights and then went to my room.