A story about a working, outgoing woman, who’s life turned upside down after marriage.
Life Before Marriage
Table of Contents
I was always rushing—like a true Mumbaikar—skipping breakfast, taking the local train at peak time, jumping the line at the taxi stand, pressing the elevator button repeatedly, and jostling the crowd. At work, it was super hectic always—completing assignment targets, attending conferences, client meets, and strategic planning sessions. After work, it was a mad rush to reach home, clean up, cook, swap stories with family, read and surf the Web. I believe I tossed in my sleep too. This was how the days went by, sprinkled with some holidays, time-out with friends, movies, spa retreats, and such. A normal, middle-class life of an average working girl. Much of what happened next is linked to the essence of Mumbai, its liberated, open-minded, bindaas attitude, and the hard-working, purpose-driven way of life.
Marriage Happened
An arranged marriage with a city educated, North Indian guy who is caring, loving, open-minded, and a complete gentleman. Nothing could have been better, except for new rules. The first of many was no more going to office. Cool. I started working from home.
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Then came cooking for the large family. Well, it was difficult, but I soon mastered the art. Gradually, I gained new skills. Because learning new things is always so much fun, right?
A Year Later
The realisation dawned late that those skills were not just for learning, but for rebuilding the life I knew so well. A year later, nothing was the same as old. I was doing all the household chores with no help, contributing financially to the house, giving feasts, getting pregnant, relying totally on the Internet to cope with pregnancy, and sitting up until early morning to finish as many work assignments as possible, among others. It was taxing and frustrating. I was used to working hard and multitasking came naturally. But it was depressing. This wasn’t what I had envisioned as my future.
The future was supposed to be all happening, fun, travelling the world, getting pampered, wearing great clothes, and making great deals at work. How did my life turn upside down?
How could I let my life become a tangled mess of expectations, duties, and ethics? Then I snapped. I wanted desperately to get rid of a whole load of responsibilities and the pressure. I wanted to end the marriage!
I wrote a long mail to my husband, listing all my complaints and explaining how I could not continue. The mail was in the drafts and I had puffy eyes from crying all day. And he called. I hastily wiped the tears and composed my voice to remove all traces of tremor. If he knew I was crying, he would come over immediately to my Mom’s.
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“When are you coming back? This time I am just not letting you go to your Mom’s. The home is not the same without you. Ok.”
“Guess what. I finally got paid yesterday. Check your What’s App. I will call you later. Bye.”
He had sent me an image. An image of a ring encasing a tiny diamond with the caption, ‘The stone shall grow bigger with each year of our togetherness. That means a big shiny mountain at the end of our lives’.
It was not the promise of a diamond mountain that made me delete my mail draft. It was the promise and belief in the future. I realiئed there was so much lacking in our lives, but what I had was priceless. I had love.
I realised then that he never complains. I respected him so much more. I don’t know whether I love him or for that matter what love exactly is. But I knew that I would be lost without him.
Every marriage has so many elements to make it fail. We fight some and some hit us hard. Life never promised to be easy, but if it could give you one reason to smile every day, it’s worth it all.
How Living In A Joint Family After Marriage Worked Out For Me
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So beautifully described the journey in words !!!
Glad to see that you saw the tough side of marraige for the Men in your life as you saw yours.
may god bless you both to stay together forever and ever.
Stay blessed!!
Yes. You realized it at proper time. Great. But unfortunately, many gets carried over. Life will not be like what is described in Mills and Boons novels. Life always throws challenges like maths teacher. You resolve one challenge another challenge will be thrown. Human mentality is always to see the problem through one’s angle. But if one put into your partner’s shoes, things will be very much clear. Marriage to sustain and happy is not in one spouse hands. Both need to complement each other. Spouses are like team members but not competitors standing on opposite sides. Trust me when love exist between partners, open communication, complementing each other and working together brings Joy that can’t be matched to anything. Good you have realized this and May God bless you people.