The Rainbow - A Shruthi-Shirley Collab - Ch-15 on P-23 - Page 11

Originally posted by: shruthiravi

@jaya he tried to meddle into her work without her requesting that too not the right way. And yes you are right, we ladies keep mum many times. But if Radhika didnt speak Keshav will do it the next time and the reputation she had built with her hard work can go down the drain. In this case also a man might escape but in the professional sphere woman is crucified more saying lack of competence

I agree to you completely on not sharing your personal equations with male colleagues. I know many people who appear chivalrous in IT industry but are hard core MCPs than the man selling fruits in the street

Many housewives favourite hobby is mocking working woman and try to point out fault in her without realizing the damage they are doing to themselves and their family

@Ria it is not that Keshav wants a working wife. Many men are hypocrites. Though they want a super cook at home they will prefer if she can do all the tasks inside and outside but still remain dependenton them, while they just do what they feel like.

Their words and actions dont match. 😃

Hello everyone. Shirley is not well. She will post the update tomorrow

Chapter 9: The Emergency

The next day at the office, Keshav was in a subdued mood as Malini still did not talk to her properly and in office, Radhika was rebuffing his attempts at light conversations. Women!! He thought irritably, can anyone even understand them? One so irritatingly dependent and the other so fiercely independent that she made him feel inadequate sometimes!

With an effort, he pushed both the women to the back of his mind as problems to be taken care of later, and tried to concentrate on his work. He was barely through his first file, when his mobile rang. Caller ID showed it was Malini. Now what the heck she wanted? He wasn't in any mood to hear another of her rants. That was one of her issues. She would keep ranting about a thing long past its expiry date.

He cut the call and opened his second file only to get one more call immediately. He picked, "Look Malini, I'm a bit busy right now... " he stopped when he heard a sob..

"Kesh.. av, (Another sob) Diya.. Diya.. (a completely broken sob)"

Keshav literally flung out of his chair in panic, "Diya? What happened to her.. Malini.. Malini, tell me"

All he heard was sobs. He started to walk out of his cabin and told Suchitra, "I'm leaving, emergency!" then tried to speak into the phone again, "please calm down.. (strongly and somewhat angrily) now is not the time to panic.. just tell me what happened"

Radhika who had just come out of the cabin gauged the situation and without thinking why, followed Keshav to the elevators. Malini had apparently just finished telling him what had happened, and he was trying to coax her, "Malini take a cab right away and take her to the nearest hospital"

"I cant.. okay? You come this moment.. I don't know where to call a cab or what's the nearest hospital."

"Malini.. " keshav too panicked by now. Just hen Radhika asked him, "whats your home address Keshav?"

By now he was too befuddled to even process her words, he looked at her blankly, while she said into her phone, "please hold on" and pushed her phone to Keshav. "I called the ambulance. Just give them your address".

Keshav was numb as he did so. She carefully listened to him as he gave the address. He stayed on SG Highway itself. That meant, Shalby Hospital would be the nearest and it was a good hospital as well. As soon he as done giving them the address, she tok back her phone and spoke into it "Please take her to Shalby. I will talk to Dr. Parekh." She hung up and made the call to Dr. Parekh, while Keshav informed Malini of the expected ambulance and to go with it and they ould meet at the hospital.

By then, they were already in the parking lot.Radhika jumped into his car and he immediately started it. As she gave him the directions, she could see his hands were almost trembling and he was totally drenched in sweat.

Within a very few minutes they reached. Radhika offered to park hi car in the parking lot while he waited at the entrance for the ambulance. He accepted and rushed out of the car to the entrance.

Within 3 minutes, Radhika arrived at the entrance to see that the ambulance had just arrived. Little Diya, blood barely stooping from her head, in spite of the ambulance staff's best efforts, was swiftly shifted to a stretcher and carried inside. Malini however, was totally hysterical and was blabbering. She fell into his arms and looked like she would faint. People rushed to her to give her water bottle and keshav had to urge her to drink some water.

Keshav didn't know whether to follow Diya or to stay with Malini. Radhika took charge again. She swiftly followed Diya, after signaling to Keshav to trust her.

By the time Keshav and Malini reached the emergency ward, Radhika had already spoken to the doctor and Diya was already been treated. Radhika went to the coffee machine and brought two coffees for the couple while they waited. Kesha took one for Malini and declined for himself. Radhika started sipping the other one while she moved away from the couple to make a few important calls, esp. to the office.

Malini now somewhat calm began telling Keshav everything. She and Diya were playing in the corridor just outside their apartment, when a neighbor came out of her house and the two ladies struck up a conversation. Caught up in the chit chat, Malini forgot to keep track of Diya for a minute or two, and the little girl went tumbling down the stairs. She rolled from the top to the bottom of the stairs in a matter of milliseconds! Her skull seemed cracked and a lot of blood was already lost by the time Malii had called Keshav.

Hearing all this, Keshav could barely control his anger. How could a mother be so negligent?

Just then the door opened and a grim looking Dr. Parakh came out.

Yes this is where a working lady who has knowledge outside the 4 walls of the home scores well. To handle an emergency

Originally posted by: shruthiravi

Yes this is where a working lady who has knowledge outside the 4 walls of the home scores well. To handle an emergency

Oh god... This was totally unexpected.. and that was swift action from Radhika..

Hope ur better now Shirley...

An eye opening update Shirley. I hope you are completely well now.

Yes I completely agree with Shruthi on the time sense and handling the situation in hand with more composed way and have ready knowledge of your surrounding be it a hospital or a shopping mall or a temple or taxi service provider as she needs them handy in case of emergency while she is away from home, so that she make arrangements immediately even if she is out of station at that moment.

While a home maker or a house wife may not even have stored her neighbors phone numbers for emergency as they feel why to bother about phone number or postal address when they can meet on daily basis. But at least in this instance, I don't blame Malini alone here as it is equal responsibility of Keshav to have kept all the emergency contact details handy for Malini in case of emergency as she is new to this city. Added to that I can't still process his annoyance with Malini for her nature as he was enjoying that dependent nature of his wife till yesterday and just because a lady in his office didn't accept his helping hand, he felt annoyed with both the ladies for one completely depending on his for everything and the other for completely rejecting his help.

Instead of grumbling on his wife, it was his responsibility to take her out and showed her the surroundings of their house, especially the nearest bus stop, auto stand, taxi stand, doctor's clinic, vegetable shop and grocery shop, so that she can handle situations on her own on emergency situations.

Yes it is true that she had neglected the child while chatting wither neighbor but what will a lady do all the day if she has to be confined to her house? Sorry I am not defending Malini here but if the husband keep nursing his broken ego from office even after reaching home and doesn't open up to his family, the wife will try to compensate that (especially ladies like malini who are talkative and want to talk everything on this universe, the way she branded Radhika as feminist) with her friends by gossiping. For all probable reasons, she would have been busy discussing Radhika with her when her daughter fell down.

So the moral is clear whether it is a man or a woman, please leave your office burden at office and enter the house as part of the family and leave your family tension back at home the moment you step out of the threshold for your work. never mix both which will hamper both your personal and professional life in no time.

Good that radhika clearly explain her stand to keshav. Looks like malini is so dependent on keshav. sometimes it will irk men. and the view about thinking bad of working women has to be change. and also there is also view on home makers that they are wasting time , sitting idle not ready to work. we shouldnt judge commonly like that. Not all like that. Men always want woman to do all the work by herself yet they have to be dependant on them.