It was 7 in the morning and she was still sleeping. Her mother-in-law placed a hand on her shoulder.
“Do you know where I kept the medicines? I can’t seem to find them.”, she asked.
“Remember where you keep things, maa. I can’t do everything in this house!”, she shrugged and turned the other way.
She woke up at 8. The maid had not arrived yet. She called her number.
“Where are you?”, she asked sternly.
“Madam, she got drenched yesterday while bringing the kids from school. She is down with fever and won’t be able to come today.”, the maid’s husband answered her call.
“Nice excuse, bitch! Not picking up my call doesn’t prove she’s sick.”, she muttered and hung up the call.
The cook was cutting tomatoes when the knife slipped and she cut her finger quite deep.
“Why can’t you be careful? Can’t you do anything without some kind of incident? Now you won’t come tomorrow with this excuse?”, she scared the cook with a raised voice.
She was at the store while waiting for her cab to work. She asked the lady in the shop for mint chewing gums. The lady at the store was not aware of where they were and asked her to wait a minute.
“You think I have time to wait for all this? If you don’t know, why do you sit in the shop? Why is your husband not here?”, she remarked and left to catch her cab.
There was another woman in the shared cab, who had the glass down on her side.
“Turn on the AC.”, she told the driver.
“I can’t turn on the AC with an open window, madam.”, the driver replied.
“Close the window.”, she demanded of her co-passenger.
“I’m sorry. I’m asthmatic. I feel suffocated with all windows closed. I hope you understand.”, the woman pleaded.
“No, I don’t understand. I have paid for an AC ride and want AC. Why don’t you sick people travel in a private cab?”, she scoffed at the woman.
At work, she complained about a few of her colleagues to a male colleague.
“Those three bitches get preferential treatment because they’re unmarried. They’ll wear deep-cut salwar and short shirts and expose their bodies all the time.”, she remarked.
“If you feel that helps, do the same. You’ll also get special treatment.”, the male colleague responded.
“If I had the option, I would have made these sluts lose their jobs by now.”, she frowned at the lady colleagues and sat down at her desk.
“My mother-in-law is such a pain. She can’t even remember her medicines or glasses. How stupid can a person be? No wonder my husband also keeps forgetting things. Must have got that quality from his loving mother.”, she complained to another colleague while making distorted faces.
She returned home and her 3-year-old daughter came running to her with a drawing.
“Mumma!”, her daughter smiled and pointed at the drawing.
“Wow! Mumma is ugly it seems and papa is nice. Daughters love dads. A son would have loved me more.”, she commented and sat on the couch with her eyes closed.
Her daughter, unappreciated and confused, went to show her drawing to her grandma.
Her phone beeped. It was her elder sister.
“Hello! I hope you are not busy. I just wanted to inform you that my son got the top grade in his exams. I will call you later.”, read the text.
“Lucky bitch! Showing off her son’s talent. Why does she boast so much? As if she was the one who taught and trained her son in everything. God knows what this daughter of mine will turn out to be. She’s as dumb as her dad and grandma.”, she thought to herself and deleted the message from her sister.
At night, before going to sleep, she checked her social media accounts. She had been tagged in some black and white posts by women. A few had nominated her to do the same. She selected an image from her phone and edited it to black and white.
As she posted the image, she thanked the ones who had nominated her. Her post read –
“Sharing myself in black and white. I care about every woman and we stand for each other in solidarity.”