Chameleon

Rima was a housewife belonged to a middle class family, staying in a metro city, leading a happy life with two cute sons and husband.

Recently, she had shifted to her new flat in an apartment located in a posh locality of the city. After six months of interior work, today they had shifted to this house. She was very happy that she had her own house, after twelve years of marriage. As planned, all the furniture was well organized before her coming to the house, balconies were well decorated with newly bought flower pots, where she can spend her quite evenings. Italian tiled glazed floor had added her pleasure along with her favorite flower printed wall paper and the new curtains of her choice were giving her a pleasant, smoothing and calming moments. She had to just enter and do the milk warming. Her husband had arranged lunch from outside catering, even though she had told him that she could cook. All new in her life starting from new house, new furniture, new clothes, new hairstyle had given her a definition of a modern housewife belonging to a class 'A' society. Sharat had also arranged a maid to do all the household work and a cook to cook three times food. Now the time had come for her to just take rest, spend time with other ladies of the society and to make the lifestyle more sophisticated. He had also registered Rima’s name in car driving class, so that she can learn driving and can go for shopping and clubs with other ladies, whenever she wants.

Today was her fifth evening in this new house. She was remembering her life when she was staying in the rented house, while relaxing in the balcony and having a cup of herbal tea. She was able to realize how life had changed for her within a few days. Just six days before she was staying in a two bedroom rented house of a small old apartment located in a remote area of the city, where ladies of the society were all housewives and remaining in their houses, by making themselves busy in taking care of house and family. Most of the ladies were having their in-laws staying with them. So, they were not getting time to talk with other ladies. She had never seen any lady coming out from their house and talking with others even for ten minutes, let alone having any get-together or kitty parties or having morning and evening walk together or having shopping or going to beauty parlors together. Those ladies had never thought about going to the gym or swimming in a pool. They were very strict about the financial budget of the month, so after all the expenses, hardly they were getting chance to go for movies at the end of the month.

But, here, life is different. Here, ladies are very much careful about their physical figure, so Zumba class, swimming, aerobics, yoga and exercises can never be out of their daily schedule. In the month end, they go to nearby visiting places such as Goa or Ooty or Kodaikanal to relax themselves and to different countries for vacation, twice a year. They change house hold interiors once in three years, new furnitures, they dress up as per the latest style in Bollywood. Yes, they are very independent. No in-laws stay with these ladies, kids stay outside in the boarding schools. Life is so beautiful here.

“Ma'am, Sheela Ma'am is over the intercom phone and wanted to have a talk with you.” –Rima suddenly came out from her thought after hearing this from the maid and rushed towards the living room to receive the call from the nearby neighbor Sheela.

“Yes…yes…I am coming…coming now only…no…no…not all…I am all free….I can join you at any time…its my pleasure….dropping off then…see you within next twenty minutes….”-Rima dropped the phone receiver off while telling this to Sheela and rushed to her bedroom to have a light makeup because here ladies don’t even come out from the main door without having a light makeup.

By seeing her getting ready for something, her elder son told her “Mama, where are you going? Please help me to finish my homework.”

“Learn to do your homework yourself. Anyway, you are going to your tutor. Why don’t you do there? I feel today I have to talk with your Dad so that he will search a boarding school for you. I am getting late, don’t bother me.”-Rima left by saying this her elder son, Ryan.

Ryan was thinking what happened to Mama. Why was she not getting time even to talk with him, who was doing everything for both the brothers, was doing most of his homework and even playing with them in the evening after her hectic household work when they were in their old house?. He got confused and became quiet.

When Rima came back from Sheela’s house, her maid had already served the dinner on the table. She had a nice dinner, but she was not happy. By seeing her upset, Sharat asked her the reason. She started saying that Sheela was having new set of maxi dresses, but she does not. She also wanted have. Sharat told "You are upset only because of this...take this credit card and buy as per your choice...". Rima became happy after getting the credit card. She also took the permission from Sharat to have matching fancy jwellleries for with those maxi dresses. While sleeping, she was thinking how lucky was she, who had all the comforts of her life now and was feeling very proud of her husband who had given her this luxurious life, keeping her head on the chest of her husband and feeling proud of having such a luxurious life as compared to her relatives.

Next day morning, suddenly she got up from her sleep by hearing the noise of her sons. Both were happily jumping after listening from their father that their Dada and Dadi were coming after two days. Suddenly her head started aching by hearing names of her in laws. “How can they come here? They are all village people. What will my friends say by seeing them here? Their behavior, way of living, clothing, way of talking are all of village style. They don’t belong to our society. I can never accept them here. Tell them not to come or arrange a different place for them. I can never see them in my house. They don’t know how to use these expensive furniture, Italian bathroom and all these stuff. Moreover they will not feel comfortable with these expensive stuffs. I will never allow them to enter inside my house.”- Rima was loud this time, her lips were slightly quivering with anger and her chin slightly raised in defense. Sharat had never seen her like this before.

He was thinking where was his mistake, while his way to drop his sons near the school bus.