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?"
Loved your post. And I still cannot beleive that I felt a lill guilt. While reading i was thinking..oh how I wish I can do that and now I am thinking why can't I do that. Is it me ? or my upbringing or the way society has feed into my mind how to do behave. I am not sure anymore.
ReplyDelete- Vrinda
Hiiiii,
ReplyDeleteGood Morning :)
Please visit my blog, a surprise awaiting 4 u!!!
Love,Live,Laughter
Lust4Life
vrinda, well even though i know i am equal, i would feel embarassed about doing it.
ReplyDeletethoughts are easier to change than feelings perhaps:)
lust4life, will check immly:) love and hugs:)
I almost never feel guilty about asking my hubby to help out or taking a break myself. But this maybe because we both are alone now. It all might change drastically when we'll live with my in-laws or have our kids!
ReplyDeletedeeps same situation here, but its different with the inlaws..
ReplyDeleteyo,
ReplyDeletethis is a reply to yr reply to my comment... well okay, here i start :-
one, i think th problem is a lot of us actually do know th real problems.. or atleast have more than a faint idea of wat they are. problem is that we cant really leave our responsibilities and do something about it. or we plain us dont care.
thats why i was talking about the freedom fighters.
and i think you have to say that if it werent for them who led the rally, India would never get freedom.
people fight and sacrifice. but how many of us will take the lead. that takes courage. but unfortunately, that is what is needed if we are to make a real change.
we can go on knowing about th problems of Indias poor. we can go on giving money, or praying. but unless some of us actually step out and sacrifice our happiness nothing is going to change. i know that by that logic i should be doing something rather than typing this. but well, Im not sure... this is just the blood boiling inside.
the reason i actually started thinking of this is the Indian pollitical situation.
as long as we have BPL poor, illiterate citizens, we will have polliticians fooling us (by fooling them, a majority) and we wont have a democracy in the real sense.
what is needed is a mass irradication of poverty.
I refuse to believ that India can never be better than what it is right now. I hope that I will be able to see a new India in my lifetime (though unworthy I am of it, unless I step out and do my part)
and as long as that doesnt happen, none of the big dreams like nuclear energy or vision 2020 will make any real difference to our way of living
why feel guilty about a simple mass fwd mail?
ReplyDeleteMy take: SHIFT+DELETE
....peace!
ab i agree with you.
ReplyDeletemy point is, even if we cant do everything, that has to be done, let that not stop us from doing something atleast..lets start with one child, one village..
anand, if life were so simple:)
ab a journey of 1000 miles starts with a single step:)
ReplyDelete