Why did She feel Guilty?

It was a strange email. She stared at the sender's id, it was a new one.

"Do the following, on the next Friday, to bring prosperity and happiness to your family.

1. Cook what you love the most, even if your family dislikes the food.

2. Watch your favourite program on TV for atleast 30 minutes, even if the entire family, wants to watch something else.

3. Buy something you love, for yourself, even if you dont need it.

4. Insist that other family members cook your dinner for you and clean the kitchen after dinner.

5. Wear what you like the most, even if your family members dissaprove.

6. Get something for your parents.

7. Have contact with a friend, you had, before you got married. Meeting personally would be more beneficial, but if thats not possible, talk over phone or send an email.

8. Take care of your feet. Ask someone to massage it for you or get it done professionally.

9. Don't let anyone who abuses you, get away with it. Remember on that day, they are abusing the Goddess Lakshmi, who will be within you. And if you put up with even verbal abuse, they will have to face the wrath of Goddess Lakshmi.

10. Forward this email, within a week, to all the married women you know, from a new email id.

Do not discuss this email with your family or friends. It would take away all the benefits of this cosmic order given by Yogi Shri Jyoti Narayan, a devotee of Goddess Lakshmi. And your family would have to face the consequences of your indiscretion.

If you fail to follow the instructions, bad luck would fall on your husband within 5 days. But if you follow it, your family would experience prosperity, within 5 days. And Goddess Lakshmi would reside in your home, forever".

She stared glumly at the email. What would her mother in law think about her? What about her husband and children?

If she went ahead with it, her family would think she was selfish and would disapprove of her. Perhaps she should delete the email and forget about it, she thought. But hadn't her grandmother said it was important for girls to be unselfish. She decided to follow the instructions.

Later that night, after brooding over the email again, just as she was about to fall asleep, a small voice within her wondered, "Why did she feel guilty, over taking care of herself?"

Aargh Diaries - Wives aren't Women

On my way to the pantry, stopped near a female colleague, who had been talking a lot, about how she gives her son everything he wants, blah, blah, blah..

"Why do you want to ruin your son's life by giving him everything he wants instead of everything he needs. Now he is going to think its the duty of every woman in his life to take care of him and agree with him. And what kind of relation would he have with his wife; who wont live upto your standards in his eyes? And if she has a boy, she is probably going to express her resentment by giving your grandson everything he wants and getting the male approval from him, continuing the cycle.."

and hurried away before she could throw a heavy file at me, into the pantry to hear Mr.C say "Well, wives aren't women".

Since motherhood was on my mind, couldn't resist asking "So Mr.C, your mother wasn't a woman or wasn't a wife?"

Logically legitamate but socially, it makes you feel as if, you are working in a freezer, in the Artic, before global warming era.

I dont understand why women have to be idolised in one relationship
and demonised in another relationship
Whats the big deal about women
Why not just treat her as human.

Hmmm, atleast I have achieved equality at work
The men and women hate me, equally.

A kind colleague whispered, "How can you abuse mother, don't you realise its against our culture.."

Aargh!
A married mother isn't a natural guardian or atleast a co-guardian of her child, and a divorced woman had to go to Supreme Court because the RBI would let her open a fixed deposit in her child's name..

And we have women dying every 5 minutes in our Mother Worshipping Nation, due to childbirth and a mother in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh or Pakistan has a better chance of survival than the Indian mother. But losing to them on Maternal Mortality Rate isn't as important as losing our men's cricket team, losing to their cricket team.

Please! We care more for Munnabhai, than the Indian mothers.

Well I dont enjoy working in a freezer, so nodded quietly, with apparent remorse to the colleague's comment.

PS : Thankfully Munnabhai's bail plea has been granted, and the office is busy discussing him, bailing me out of my, "Mother Mess".


Aargh Diaries is a fictional series and Aargh is an Anonymous, Annoyed, Reasonably, Good Human.

Hindus will Hang

Hindus will hang - their heads in shame,

if Criminals justify Crime, in Hinduism's name

Irrespective of religion let justice be the same

If we dont stand up, we are also to be blamed.