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My father-in-law always told me, 'You should embarrass them with your goodness.' But can shameless people ever feel ashamed?
My father-in-law always told me, ‘You should embarrass them with your goodness.’ But can shameless people ever feel ashamed?
This post was originally published on the Women’s Web Hindi channel and was translated into English by Mrigya Rai
I was married in a family where no one had any connection to studies. My jeth and jethani (elder brother-in-law and his wife) were jealous of me since I was educated and worked.
They kept insisting that I stop working, which caused a lot of rifts in our relationship. Noticing the tense atmosphere at our house, my in-laws separated us. My jeth-jethani started living upstairs with their two children and my husband and I started living downstairs with my in-laws.
It wasn’t that I never tried to establish a relationship with them but their ego was so large that everything went in vain. At my father-in-law’s request, I had to bow down before my jeth-jethani, multiple times. He always told me, ‘You should embarrass them with your goodness.’ But can shameless people ever feel ashamed?
One day, out of nowhere, my health deteriorated. It turned out that there was a stone in my gallbladder and could only be treated through an operation. I had to have surgery in a hurry. And on the second day of the surgery, I was discharged and we came home.
Even after I came back home, my jeth-jethani, didn’t bother asking about my condition. Seeing my walk with a limp due to the pain, I saw a glint of pleasure in my jethani’s eyes. She couldn’t hide her smile. I felt bad but my mother-in-law and husband consoled me.
Very soon, my jethani too started feeling unwell and had a stomach-ache. After the investigations, we found out that she too had stones. She had a lot of pain which was unbearable and wouldn’t stop no matter what. We checked with the doctor once again who prescribed medication and she was brought down to rest in the same room as me.
Now, with both my jethani and I on bed-rest, all the workload fell on our mother-in-law. When I saw that she was unable to do all the work, I mustered up some strength and got up to help her. Anyway, the doctor had told me that I could walk around a little.
So I got up and made tea and breakfast for my jeth-jethani and their two children. When I saw their faces and their behaviour, I realised that some people never feel shame, no matter what. They had absolutely no feeling of discomfort or remorse on their faces.
There was no shame that they seemed to feel at my mother-in-law and me working.
After recovering, my jethani went back to her place, never looking back or even acknowledging what my mother-in-law did for her.
Have you ever encountered such a relative? Did you also keep quiet as I did? Or did you speak up? Do let me know in the comments.
Picture credits: Still from Marathi TV series Agga Bai Sasubai
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