The Rainbow - A Shruthi-Shirley Collab - Ch-15 on P-23 - Page 12

yes Jaya actually many men dont enable their wives to handle situation if need arises. It is not that housewives are not intelligent, but they are made dumb and then when issue comes pounce on them as if it is only their fault.

@ Shruthi, it is so true that men always want their wives to be in the confines of 4 walls and not even go out to even buy coriander leaf & curry leaves but expect them to do wonders when they face some emergency. I have seen men not allowing their wives or daughters to go out and buy a packet of milk or vegetables. they will buy even their sanitary requirements and keep harping don't go out alone. Tell me what you want and I will get it. Some times with extra love and some times blaming the society as people outside are not good or not to be trusted. even to temple the lady will have to go with her husband or if she has any old lady friends, she can go with them alone. Then one fine day they realize how dependent is his wife and how independent is his colleague or his friend's wife. Then all the virtues he has been seeing in his wife will become her failures and he will feel cheated for having such wife.

Its Ok, if you don't want your wife to travel alone to different cities but allow her to atleast be independent to find her way back home if left alone in some market place all alone or if she has to go some where on emergency situation like the one Malini faced now. I know Malini is also to be blamed for her situation but I feel Keshav is more responsible for her condition. We can make out that in the way he meddled with Radhika's work and felt bad when she refused t. May be even Malini would have faced similar situation in her early married life and completely molded herself to the expectations of her husband. There are men who feel a lady has to step out only if it is inevitable or if there is financial crunch and need her to earn, otherwise, she is better off being at home and cook for him and his family, maintain his house and be presentable when he returns home, which will make him forget his tiredness.

Chapter 10- AB- blood group

Malini and Keshav ran to Dr Parakh.

" Doctor how is she" asked Keshav

" See Mr Mehra. Diya has internal bleeding and we need to have immediate surgery. Her blood group is AB- and we need atleast 7-8 bottles of AB- at the earliest"

" Doctor don't the hospital have AB- blood" cried Malini

" Listen Mrs Mehra AB- is a rare group. We have only minimal stock of the group here. If we don't get it in the next 1 hr nothing can be said about your daughter" told Parakh

" Dr make arrangements for surgery. Blood will come. Keshav you go with doctor and sign whatever paper that needs to be signed. I know how to make arrangement for blood" told Radhika

" Radhika.." Keshav tried to

" I said go Keshav. Don't waste time"

As Keshav walked with the doctor, Radhika called her assistant Madhu's number. She knew Madhu and Dileep were active voluntary blood donors and had connect with such agencies.

" Madhu stop whatever you are doing right now" she told Madhu the situation " Tell Dileep also to support you. Next 1 hr is critical " told Radhika over the phone

" Don't worry madam. I am just putting details in my Whatsapp group. Will include Dileep also" told Madhu

Before Malini could tell anything to Radhika she called another number " Charu we have a hearing tomorrow on which Dileep is working. Please take that work him and prioritize that. I need Dileep for something very urgent"

" Sure Madam. Dileep had come to me. I will check the files " told Charu

Radhika sighed. One thing about her was she always briefed her 2 assistants together. All cases the briefings both of them had to attend. It helped in emergencies like this when work had to be swapped.

She looked the watch 5pm. Abhi would be having night shift today. But by the way things were going she didn't feel she could be back home on time to warm up the dinner. So she will have to give instructions to Abhi

Abhi took the phone. Radhika explained the situation to him and told him the dinner is there. He just have to take and heat it in oven. Abhi said no issues and he asked whether Mr Mehra's family needed any help. Radhika told they are new here and if he could ask Prathiba Bua to come over to support the mother that would be helpful . Abhi said he will personally go and tell Prathiba Bua .

Radhika smiled. There was one thing about Abhi. If she had told case and delay he might have mumbled, but when the issue is the child Abhi doesn't have any problem to do things of his own. After all it was family issue and his wife supporting family things was something Abhi prided on

Radhika moved towards Malini who was sitting forlorn " Malini don't worry. I have arranged for blood you will soon get. My Prathiba bua will come here and be with you as Keshav will have to move around with doctors."

Malini held her hands " Cant you be here"

" Malini I very much want to. But a client also needs me. That's why I have made arrangements to support you" told Radhika

Malini looked at Radhika. How does she manage all this. This was not the feminist she expected

wow this is out an out fantastic.. how she handled the situation.. and the way she changed Malini's perception of working women.. Hats off to u Shruthi for writing this.. waise is this an inspiration from ur life or has anything of this sort happened to anyone u know??this perception change? and I love the way Radhika is so non judgemental about Malini..

Touching part Shruthi. I knew for sure that the requirement of blood will come and being newer to the city, Keshav can't handle the same soon and Radhika had to take the reign in her hand. I know Abi will be a dear in situation like this. Men like Abhi are neither sadist nor bad men but they are possessive of their wives and expect them to be their right hand on their every work or need. We should not be surprised if he stays back at hospital to support Keshav if the need arises while Radhika had to rush back to her office and then to home to look after her kids. They will grumble when their wife gives priority to her work or kid than him but when she has to help someone on emergency, they will lend their hand graciously. At this juncture Abhi might even ask Radhika to lend some extra time to them by taking Keshav's help and even if that day could be his birthday.

And Malini I really feel bad for her, the way she so expectantly asked Radhika whether she can stay with them. At this moment all she knows is that if Radhika is around, nothing can happen to her daughter and for that she can even plead Radhika. And yes, it is not that she had any bad image of Radhika but whatever she presumed was based on the description her husband gave her when he talked about Radhika. So at this moment,all I can feel about Malini is that she is an innocent lady who believes everything her husband told is the complete truth and she will not even bother to re process it for any scope of fault.

@Ria on one phone your Papa or hubby, another phone your manager, at the same time some Project manager or peer pinging you in the messenger with some query, a email asking data urgently is not something new to me.

Originally posted by: shruthiravi

@Ria on one phone your Papa or hubby, another phone your manager, at the same time some Project manager or peer pinging you in the messenger with some query, a email asking data urgently is not something new to me.

So to write Radhika handling the situation was just a leaf out of managing things at your personal front.😆😆. Perception change when I got married many had asked me " Oh you know to wear saree" and then " You know Ramayan and Mahabharatha, then you know the group prayer by heart"😃as if an IT professional was not supposed to know all this. Another perception breaking was that an independant young lady need not have a love marriage, she can also abide by what her parents want and marry a man whom her parents choose

@jaya yes men always like when you are helping someone in emergency especially if it involves a child. Yes Malini havent seen much of the outside world. It is the image not just her husband shows her, but also what she reads and views in the TV, film etc etc..

Shruthi, it doesn't end with saree or prayers or arranged marriage. people will poke their nose in things like can you cook? Will a working girl stay with in laws, will she respect in laws, will she love her SIL & BILs, will she allow her husband to spend time with his family etc.
In case, people had talked so much bad about working girls with my MIL & FIL before our marriage like "you have chosen a working girl, she will not live in your joint family of 10 people + add ons during festival and functions. A working girl will not even know to cook and she will not talk to the family members. Morning she will get up late and get ready to office and leave and evening after returning home, she will retire to her room and will not even bother to check whether you are Ok or not. Even your son will not stay as your son and he will become her husband and may not even talk to you on regular basis. With in 6 months of marriage, they will move out of your family etc.
my MIL was so worried and FIL had sent my hubby to talk to me if I really want to stay independently, and if so, he will get one of the rented house vacant for us to stay and he will arrange to buy all the necessary items to start a new family despite my MIL's protest. He had just told his wife & son that it is better to be bonded staying separately than hate each other by staying in the same house. But he had confidence in my parents perverish. When my hubby (then fianc) came home with worry written all over his face and revealed the news that his father is making arrangements for us to stay separate, I felt as if the earth under my feet gave away as my only wish from the marriage was to get married to a joint family so that I don't miss my family as I had born and brought up in a joint family.

After marriage I proved that a working girl can also stay in a joint family and love and respect the whole family and also can cook and take care of every one in the family. Now I am the role model in the relatives and they give my example while choosing a girl for alliance and also to he newly wed girl into the family or to the girl to be married to be like me. Off course now we have many more such girls in the close nit relatives and we do cherish the love we get from the whole community. Now people are no longer worried to get a working girl as bahu to their family nor think twice before allowing their daughters to take up a career.

@jaya I gave some examples. List is endless. That's why I always say if you have to change the system, you have to work within the system. Many girls in my community got education, had better say even in arranged marriage, still a father or mother calls me up and ask " Beta my daughter is coming to TVM. She will not have any problem right. Or can you please arrange a good hostel for her. " It is kind of a trust that I wont put their daughter on a wrong path.

@ Shruthi, 😊 Shruthi the feminist, off course I can make out that to certain extent from your writing but I don't completely call you feminist rather I would call you a confidant lady who knows where & when to act to get her way out. May be true that you had top fight against society being within it to reach where you are today. A feminist feels that she is right and whatever she does can never go wrong or to be questioned and she will never consider to put herself in some one else's shoes and think why some one said something and accept it if the other person is right in justifying his views. Just because you fight for your right or support female doesn't mean you are a feminist. He are more considerate than being feminist. f you fight, you fight for an actual cause and not by imposing some cause to get what you feel right.

All I can make out in you is realistic person and not a Feminist.

@Jaya it was after coming to the forum and when I started writing I understood the difference between my feminism and the real feminism 😆, where I got bashed for defending a male lead, where a woman falling in love is termed weak, where if you support a woman it is great, but if you support a man, is that man more important than the lady 😆😆.