Nice post, SV.👏
To me, Gayatri is one step ahead of the woman of her times...she has been taught to become the salt in her sasuraal. but she knows very well how to be the mirchi in her husband's diet when the situation demands...😉or the sugar in his coffee if that is what he needs.
I feel Gayatri opens up her real self to only one person- her husband. That is because she has carried him in her heart as an idol...and even if that idol is not what it appeared to her at first, she can vouch that he is her one and only soulmate.
In the light of that, I find Gayatri's behaviour acceptable. She is a romantic- one of the traits women of those days couldn't afford, as her mother clearly told her.