Anuradha Sridharan

Disclaimer:  The story, all names, characters, and incidents portrayed in this post are fictitious. No identification with actual persons (living or deceased) is intended or should be inferred.   A mother can fulfill her dreams, support her children in their formative years and spend time with her grandchildren in her later years ONLY IF the father (her husband) grows up to be an adult. In many families, especially in the previous generations, the husband continues to be a man-child, expecting that his wife hands him every little thing that he needs - be it his morning cup of coffee, stapler, electricity bill file, dinner plate, a glass of Horlicks, etc. Initially, out of love, the wife might be happy to play this role, but over time, as her responsibilities increase, the sense of resentment and anger creeps in when she notices an unequal labor divide at home. The husband comes home after work at 5 PM, plonks himself in front of the TV, and orders coffee and snacks. The husban...

A new home, a new garden - this was something Nancy had been looking forward to for many months now. Her parents had purchased a piece of land in the outskirts of the city and their home was nearing completion. Nancy has always been fascinated by plants. In their current rented apartment, she used to admire her mom, Cynthia tending to saplings in mud pots in their balcony. She always used to volunteer to pluck tiny roses from the pots just before Cynthia begins her prayers every evening. "She will major in botany and will become a horticulturist!!" - Cynthia proudly proclaimed to her apartment neighbours about her 5 year old daughter. The day finally arrived when they shifted to the new home. As promised, Nancy's dad Albert ensured they had a nice patch of fresh grass ready in their lawn area before they moved in. Nancy was more excited about the lawn and the grass than their new home. While Albert and Cynthia were busy setting up their home and arranging things, Nancy wa...

My contribution to 3WW Words for this week - clumsy, fire, overlooked A posh car driving down 4th lane, RC Nagar in a misty morning is not something new. Ravi goes to the nearby park for a jog, parking his car right outside the main gate. Though it's hardly a kilometre from his villa, he prefers to drive down to the park and then start his jog. Switching on the heater, his fingers tapping the steering wheel for a Bryan Adams song, he feels the warmth of air swooping past his face. The rustling noise of the broomstick from the sides of the road doesn't reach his eardrums. Or does he purposely overlook the actions of people from the rest of the society? Muthu wonders. He is an employee of the Municipality and his daily duties are to sweep the roads and streets of RC Nagar and the neighbouring areas. His sweeping of the 4th lane and observing Ravi's car taking a turn towards RC Nagar has become an everyday affair happening at the same time in the early mornings. As a sweeper,...

My contribution to Writer's Island - "This season" "Ma, where is my blue bag?", shouted Sheela from her room. "I don't know, search in the cupboard" Rathi answered in a not-so-interested tone from the living room, watching a reality show on TV. Sheela didn't mind her mom's unresponsive attitude. She has been used to such responses since her childhood. She has all the comforts in the world, a 15 year old teenager could ask for. A room of her own, a personal computer, the top-notch school that she goes to and all the books and gadgets every child would dream of. Although born on the New Year's eve, her birthday was never special. It was just another day but with a huge cake party with her parents' friends and colleagues. When Rathi was expecting a baby, she hoped and prayed fervently that her baby would be a boy. But to her utter disappointment, it turned out to be a girl. Who says gender discrimination prevails only in low incom...

My contribution to Cafe Writing - December project (Option four) "Sumi, where's my coffee?", Shyam's first question in the morning as always. "On the dining table", replied Sumathi, his wife. He savours his coffee with another of his can't-live-without habits, reading newspaper ofcourse. Shyam has always been an early riser. Sharp at 5 AM, he is awake and bustling with energy. His next course of action is to walk to the nearby CM Park and jog along with his friends. He likes to observe the different people who visit the park and their mannerisms - some prefer to walk briskly while some others prefer to take a lazy stroll. Being a regular for the past 28 years, many of them recognize him and offer a smile. He quickly gets dressed up after coming back from the park. He heads straight to the Pooja (prayer) room to offer his daily prayers. "Breakfast ready", Sumathi's voice echoed from the kitchen. After a sumptuous breakfast, Shyam leaves for...

My contribution to Cafe Writing - December project (Option one) Does her effulgent smile claim that she has the whole world's happiness? One might ponder. Her glistening eyes and the joyful look on her face might reemphasize that she is the happiest person one has ever met. She is returning home with lots of stories to tell her dad. Her new friends, her class teacher, the black board and the different colour chalk pieces, the school bell, the text books and pencils - she wonders where to start. A new experience for the 3 year old, Shrishti. It's her first day at school. Her dad, Prakash is a postman and wants the best for his daughter. Shrishti is his only source of happiness in his struggle to get ends meet. He has faced many twists and turns in his life but today, the turn he takes towards RC Road prove to be a bad twist in little Shrishti's happiness. The speeding car, with no respite for traffic signal hits his bicycle and he collapses in the middle of the road. His...

My contribution to Sunday Scribblings - #44 Chronicles The door opened. A neat grass path was stretching to a distance well beyond the horizon, luring one to take the plunge. She took a step forward and then turned back to admire the beauty of her home. She repeated this sequence until her lovely wood house became a tiny, little dot. Her steps were smooth and slow while her feet felt the fresh dew drops on the grass. Amazed by the distance she has walked, she stopped for a while, letting her mind to take in all the minute details of the surroundings. The tall trees and the tiny squirrels running around, thick green bushes and the white rabbits peeping to see the new entrant in the woods, the narrow stream of clear water running steadily and the dotted dears quenching their thirst with their tongues dipped in the stream, the colourful flowers and the bees around them to taste the pure honey drops and last, but not the least, a small, beautiful hut at a reachable distance towards her le...

My contribution to Sunday Scribblings #39 - Change A tense Uday was staring at his home computer at 2 AM. He was supposed to complete a lot of work by next morning. For the past six months, his work had always been stressful and hardly he had time for himself or his family. Strenuous work pressures and taking more responsibilities than he could handle had started showing negative effects on his health. Stress, RSI, migraine attacks - he had everything. His wife Reena could no longer bear to see his health getting deteriorated. Thinking that she should do something about this situation, she woke up the next day with a sense of conviction. After seeing her husband off to work, she went to visit her psychiatrist friend Pooja. As enthusiastic as always, Pooja greeted her with a warm smile. After exchanging the usual pleasantries, Reena explained the problem to her. As though she had been listening to such problems day in and day out, Pooja smiled and said "This is such a simple probl...

A huge verandah it was, open to the sky ! Green grass was spread on the floor like a bed. Little Tinu had come home early from school. The headmaster had agreed to let the kinder garden kids leave soon, fearing it might rain heavily. Tinu was pretty excited to see the dark clouds, threatening to pour down. He sat on the grass bed, observing them. He could recognize the different faces the clouds depicted. He could make out a lion's head, a goat's horns and a crow's beak. He didn't mind the fact that his house doors were locked and no one was there at home. He was enjoying the weather, the looming clouds and the cool breeze. He felt the first drop of the rain on his cheek. His joy knew no bounds. He was about to experience the first rain in his four years of life. His mom had never allowed him to play in the rains, fearing he might catch cold. He started counting the droplets - oneeeee, twoooo, threee, four, five....He couldn't catch up with the speed of the rain dro...

"Wake up, Tina. It's already 7. You got to get ready for college", Tina's mom was shouting from the kitchen. A bright Monday morning. But Tina woke up with a dull face. Ever since she joined college, her enthusiasm was completely lost. She was expecting more from college life, not just in terms of fun and frolic but also in terms of knowledge and career growth. But like any other college, her's too was caught up with the same conventional mechanical mode of teaching, attendance, exams etc. Rushing towards the bus stop with her assignment notes, Tina managed to catch the bus. Her best friend, Deepa greeted her with a broad smile. "Looks like you had completed your assignment. I have 4 hours from now to finish copying. I'm gonna start right away. " demanded Deepa, grabbing the microprocessors assignment from Tina's hands. "Assignments mean copying from a book to a piece of paper word by word, I suppose" , commented Tina with a sarcastic s...

Aarti was looking tired, with drooping shoulders and a sweating face, carrying a school bag weighing half her weight. "Mummy...where are you?", screamed Aarti. "I am here, my sweety", arrived the reply from the computer room. "I'm very hungry. Give me something to eat", said Aarti in a low tone. "Give me a minute, dear. I've baked a yummy chocolate cake for you. I'll get it", Reena, her mother replied. Washing the dishes in the kitchen, Vidya was staring at the chocolate cake, longing to have a bite. Having heard the footsteps of Reena, Vidya quickly turned around and continued her task at hand. "Are you still washing dishes? How long do you plan to take? Take this list and buy vegetables", shouted Reena. Trembled with fear,her tender palms lost grip of the porcelain cup she was washing and broke into pieces. Reena went furious but she controlled her temper since she saw Aarti coming towards the kitchen having heard the soun...

Eyes brimmed with tears, Uma said "I'm very proud of you, my child.Your hardwork has paid off". Sundaramma with a smirk said "If you had spent the time in learning cooking and household activities instead of studying for these exams , that would have been more useful for your future".Entered Ravi from sugar mill back home for lunch. "Daddy, I have secured third rank in the state",informed Kavitha in a cheerful tone. "Very good Kavi. Uma, prepare some sweets this evening to celebrate Kavi's success as well as for the guests. From Chinnanur, Shanmugam and his family are coming home to finalize Kavi's marriage with their son. My uncle is also coming along with them. The bridegroom's name is Shivakumar.They call him Shiva. He has a provisions shop. Here is his photo. Look how majestic he is!!",exclaimed Ravi. Taken aback by her father's words, Kavitha looked at Shiva's photograph. A plump man with a big moustache,aged around 3...

The D-day dawned. Kavitha couldn't sleep well throughout the night. Moments of anxiety and excitement disturbed her slumber. It was the day when she is expecting her 10th std results to come out. "Will I be getting a state rank, or a district rank or atleast a school rank? It can't go worse than that. What will happen if I fail in Maths? Definitely, granny will fix up my wedding tomorrow". "Oh! Stop it, don't think of such non-sense. You had just made a mistake in a 2-mark question in Maths. Why the heck would you fail?", thoughts were fighting among themselves in her mind. Hearing the kitchen door being opened by her mother downstairs, she felt relieved from those miserable thoughts and got up from her bed. Now she can go ahead and ramble about all her tensions to her mom. An unusual scene was happening in the kitchen. Uma was praying to God. Kavitha couldn't understand this behaviour of her mother. She had always admired her mother doing her prayer...

"Let me think about it, Ma !!", Ravi said in a thoughtful tone. Kavitha climbed the stairs with a grim look on her face and in deep contemplation, stepped inside her room. Uma returned to her solace, the one and only kitchen and started preparing coffee. Without uttering any word to her husband, she took a tumbler of coffee and an ocean of positive words for her daughter. Uma looked at Kavi's moist eyes and lips from which thousands of words are ready to explode. "Why granny wants to preclude me from achieving my dreams? Why does she always try to obtrude her non-sense beliefs on me? Will she ever come out of her benighted age of superstitions?". Uma listened to Kavi's strong words calmly and waited for the moment to talk. "Kavi, what are your dreams? What do you want to do in life? Are you clear about it? Will you stick with your goals, no matter what the magnitude of obstacles you might face in life?", Uma asked in an unusual, assertive tone. Kav...

"Kavi, Come fast and have your breakfast. It's already 8.15. You are getting late for your bus" shouted Uma on top of her voice. Kavitha in her light green long skirt and a creamy white shirt, came rushing from her room. Today was her Social Science exam. She was glad that her 10th std exams are coming to an end this day. Uma, her mother placed a couple of idlis and sambar in a small plate and gave it to Kavi. "Done with your revision? Read each question carefully and then answer. Don't be in a hurry to finish the paper", Kavi got bored of Uma's usual advices. Sundaramma , with half her concentration on her prayer books was listening keenly to what Uma and Kavi are talking. Aged 70 years, yet she had sharp senses. Having gulped her final sip of coffee, Kavi waved good-bye to Uma and rushed to the bus stand. Her school was about 5 kms from Velappatty, a small town in the southern part of Tamilnadu. Kavitha was born and brought up in this little town. ...

"Ma , I'm home !!!", entered Divya. She looked at the big clock in her living room. It was 6.35. She wondered how her office cab took an hour to travel 10 kms. The sky was orange and the birds were returning home. Divya's mom, Arundhati came out of the kitchen with a hot cup of coffee. She sat besides Divya, giving her a hug. Divya took her first sip of coffee and felt refreshed. She asked "Mom, How do u make such refreshing coffee everyday!!! I feel active after a tiring day of work, thanks to your coffee". Arundhati felt very satisfied with her daughter's response. She smiled at Divya and asked "How was the day today, my dear?". Divya replied "It was such a hectic day, you know ma. I had to attend conference calls for 2 hours. Can you imagine !!!. Then we had this status meeting for another hour. I hardly had time to sit at my desk and do my work. When I actually got back, my friends called me for lunch. Only then I realized, it wa...