They were married for 5 years. No attachments yet…was there a reason? She was a from a very well to do family. He had lost his earlier job and family. They were both staying with her parents. She was his wife… yet her duties were not limited to just that. Her husband was working at a pharmaceutical company or so he said and so she thought. He would leave the house each day at seven in the morning and would come back after everyone had fallen asleep. She would finish her chores, extra too cause she was a burden in her paternal house. At nights she did a different duty. She doubled up as a watchman. Neck turned 180 degree toward the bus stand she stood night after night that maybe this would the night he would come back early…
He was an alcoholic and a chronic consumer of tobacco. The minute the tobacco starts working sending its affect to his blood, that’s when his mornings kick start. Usually it’s screaming at his wife – a reaction from last night’s hangover. He would make her keep clothes for him, make his choiced menu filed breakfast, polish his shoe, and even brush his teeth if possible…she would do them all. Make his breakfast, polish, clean the room, make his bed…her ordeal was the same each day….she always wore a pleasant smile on her face…
I often wondered how that smile on her face never disappeared…she was so cheerful…my sister told me maybe it got stuck and now she’s stuck with it. Its amazing how someone can put up with all that and yet and want to do willingly. He beat her every night…and she never retaliated….how? I have no clue…she had no reasons for outlet…she could not cry everyone would know and she would never let that happen. She could never give up on her husband…she stood there to guard him…protecting…he was a devil and she was his angel…
Then one day something happened and I saw that she was not smiling…when they asked her she kept quiet…but her face said it all. He had beaten her black and blue and she was sore…how could the body then smile?
I just kept silent…observing the harsh realities that took place in front of my eyes day after day…trying to be insensitive otherwise the feminist inside would get the better of me…but the tears stuck in the tear duct, and her attempt to smile without the body agreeing to let her…all let me know that she was probably dead in feelings lunch before she knew, much before she realized and her love for him was only because she did not even know what was happening, how could she even react…she had become comfortably numb…
7 comments:
Arch : Your story reminds me of my servant. Cos I've heard hundreds like these from our maids. How they suffer and put up with such atrocities just for the heck of a chain hanging around their neck. Seriously, even a hang-man's rope is sometimes a peaceful alternative. He got drunk, beat her up and snatched money from her own hard-earned salary, that she got from slogging in three-four houses . While he, claimed working hard, driving auto, but was found all the time in an auto-stand, chit-chatting with the other men. And after she had begotten children, she found that she was a keep, that he already had a wife. Imagine her shock. ALl the while, this guy took money from her to provide for his other family. She cant even place a claim on his money, even if he earned, as his wife threatened her. Still she puts up with him, whenever he comes, for the sake of the children.
hey...
i know...
well thats why i was pondering cause they say they really are in love? but what is it that makes them call it love?
heard that song by Pink Floyd - Comfortably Numb?
its the same feeling I guess!!
as of love... I dont really think thats love.. I know some maid back at home with a similar case... was her helplessesness and societal pressure why she was with the devil.
Cannot be love... everywhere I've read that love is sweet, its pleasuring and it frees oneself.
What does this so-called love do?
oh between I came here from Camphor's blogroll, in case you might be wondering :D
why r u doing long writings
its difficult to read
good job
If U R true Archana, I am Ur Niranjan, pl come and meet me, because I am fond of U
Who is true Archana that we have to confirm from Railway Administration and from CBI department of India.
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