Tale 68

This tale is made up of episodes...
They were an all girl gang in college...
Studied science but pursued interests far beyond academics...
Proposals, break ups, making outs, outings, night outs, crushes, affairs, bunking, late night studying, gossiping, shopping, binge boozing, dieting, shopping, smoking, cursing, bunking, faking proxies, winning, failing, bursting in laughter n wailing in sorrow...
They had done it all together
Out of them 3 were in regular touch even after graduation...
One common thing about all of them was that they were the only child of their parents...
Another thing that they struggled with was their weight and their marriage...
But that did not make their lives any way similar...
Its interesting to see how each life uniquely reveals itself...

Episode 1.

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Sanika stayed in suburbs...
Daughter of a businessman father who always travelled and a dominating over attached mother who took tuitions at home...
She was someone who was made to believe that success in studies meant smooth life...
However she soon realised that it wasn't true...
In spite of taking a paid seat from the management quota for her post grads she scored in mediocrity...
Joined another expensive course in pharma and secured a corporate job...
She worked long hours as she listened to her mom talking about marrying before time runs out...
An arranged marriage it was...
She was a fat girl who settled for a mediocre guy who earned well and looked okay considering her size n value of overweight brides in matrimonial market...
The initial days were okay and she got pregnant soon...
A baby girl it was...
But it so happened that she stayed with the new baby at her parents house for nearly 4 years after her delivery...
Reasons unknown to her friends but they suspected some incompatibility issues within marriage...
In the mean while she rejoined office and slogged at work to make a good living...
Living with her parents made sure she had little or no expense...
She blew off her money in shopping...
The weight not only stayed but piled on more than ever...
Junk eating while investing in various slimming packages continued...
The reason for the piling was far more than over eating...
It was stress...
Of living a lonely life in spite of being married...
About not getting to spend time with her daughter....
About not getting any physical intimacy for months because of this fragmented stay...
They reworked their plan...
Shifted to their new home with her husband...
But her parents joined them since the daughter needed to be looked after...
A few months went by fine...
Just then her husband took up a job in another city...
This meant the whole unit shifts to a new place...
But it was middle of the year and shifting school of the daughter getting a transfer from her office was next to impossible...
So there was another change...
Sanika along with her daughter and parents continued staying at the new house while her husband shifted to the new city for his job...
This shift meant good financial changes for them...
A newly owned flat in the city that the husband worked in along with their collective incomes coming in the house after appraisals and incentives...
He visited them once a month...
So the fragmented life continued...
Finally she decided to give this kind of split living a break...
She resigned from her job and went on to his city to live with him along with their daughter...
The outcome...
Her confidence is lost due to sudden stopping of income...
She cannot cope with the fact that she has to ask for money from him for smallest of things...
She realised it hard that she should have saved up instead of blowing it all up on shopping while she was in service...
She missed uninhibited spending...
She was a shopoholic and this was a stressing point within them...
She curbed the frustration by gobbling off food at odd hours and hogging out for comfort...
Her daughter followed her example and started eating unhealthy since junk was stocked at home...
Her daughter was moderately obese at 6...
She did not know what to do with all the time that she had...
She terribly missed her parents for support...
She hates her in laws and hence can't ask them to come stay with them so that she can get some independence...
She had no real hobbies that she could find happiness in...
She was guilty of investing lakhs of rupees in slimming programs and weight loss packages which all got wasted with zero result...
She never sends her daughter to play in the evenings after school because she fears about mosquitoes and viral infections and dust allergies...
Result - her daughter stays home after school watching hours of cartoons and television...
No extracurriculars for her yet (lame excuse) since she feels that studies are important and the new city doesn't have reliable public transport to make travel from home to classes or activity centres feasible...
Ultimately she is now an obese housewife with an overprotected overweight daughter...
Interpersonal communication or physical intimacy hasn't resumed yet for reasons obvious...
She secretly suspects him having an affair outside as a reason for no action in marriage...
She plans to get fit and just stays in the plan mode for months miserably failing to temptations and cravings....
She hates her image in the mirror and the guilt circle continues...
First episode of an extremely unhappy housewife...

Episode 2.

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Radhika was a daughter of a builder dad and stay at home mum...
Born as a chubby child her baby fat never went off...
She battled with infantile obesity...
Her body grew exponentially with age...
This triggered a series of personal battles related with self acceptance, reassurance of competence and acknowledgement of her inherent qualities...
Incidentally she had her first crush at age 12...
He was 19 and in college...
Luckily he responded...
The affair continued from then on way into her teens...
He was the first and the only man in her life since her adolescence and hence her experience about men was restricted to her father and her boyfriend...
Having a stable relationship inspire of being morbidly obese was the only relief as she went on in college...
For her money was never a tension,
She started driving as soon as she was legally allowed to and hence got confident about bring independent in a way...
By then she DID NOT APPEAR to give a damn as to what people around said or SEEMED to ignore the jokes behind her back...
But deep down, she was tired...
Tired of being judged and taunted and bring mocked off...
She was decent in studies and cleared her post grads smoothly...
She became financially independent earlier than most others in her batch...
Her boyfriend however struggled keeping jobs...
He struggled to earn any set income per month and was laid back in trying to improve any of the condition that he was in...
She married him...took care of the household, made money and pulled on a marriage which stood on just a single pillar...
There was neither consensual intimacy, nor financial stability and definitely No Love...
It was soon that she realised that he was going to be frustrated for life and was a good for nothing loser...
So they divorced...
Her father expired...
Now it was she and her mom...
She decided to change for good...
By then she was a full blown 130 kgs in weight and sort of bugged with everything...
She worked out for a good 4 years and shed almost 45kgs of weight...
At 85 Kgs with a height of 5.9 she appeared attractive and loved every bit of her new avatar...
She got a high with the attention she got...
She seemed new relationships but realised that though she might have dumped off her emotional and physical baggage by then...
Most men who approached her hadn't dealt with their own stuff properly...
Hookups, break offs, one night stands, casual flings, longterm affairs, matrimonial meets, broken engagements,blind dating, phone sex, chat intimacy, video satisfaction, friends with benefits, old pals acting fresh, new mates acting as expected...
Everything under the sun was tried tested and tasted well...
She said **** it... I am going to concentrate on my career and living a good life...
If there is a partner written in my destiny, he will feature eventually...
So she keeps herself busy with work, workouts and friends...
Though she craves the company of a MAN she can call her own, someone she can fall asleep with in peace for the rest of her life...
This is the second episode...

Episode 3.

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Parisa was a daughter of working parents...
She grew up with her maternal grandparents since they stayed in the heart of the city where there were better prospects of development for her as a child...
A smooth childhood filled with a good mix of studies and co curricular activities she was a hardworking young girl...
They shifted together for her 10th exams in the city...
Her father never treated her with respect, they had a trauma filled relationship full of anger and spite...
So while in college she already had a villain in her life...
Her extrovert nature and her flair for making friends was deeply objected by him...
Her extra curricular activities were criticized of being outright down market and were labelled as ways of whiling away time...
His frustration increased as she excelled in academics as well as cultural activities...
She brought home trophies medals as well as scholarships...
A popular name in her batch she had many boyfriends whom he thoroughly disapproved off...
But by then they had no communication going...
She married early... She always knew that she would do so since she wanted to be technically away from her father...
A love marriage at 22 with a boy younger than her made her happy for some days ...
She was self employed and freelanced earning enough to support her pocket money and surplus family needs...
The influence of a difficult and negative experience with man since childhood she committed a mistake of looking for a dad in her husband...
This resulted in tensions mid understandings and mountains of unrealistic expectations which were obviously broken...
With counselling therapy they reconciled and settled in married life after 5 years of stressful matrimony...
They conceived they became parents to a baby boy...
He was diagnosed with cerebral palsy...
The shock and the medical stress that followed made her pile on kilos...
An active woman once became a hyper troubled Fat mother of a disabled baby boy...
Life was in drowns...
She was deeply unhappy...
She fought with the question why me for hours weeks days and months...
She would accompany her baby for physiotherapy come home cook eat and sleep...
That's all she did...
Plus she kept feeling pathetic day in and day out...
Just then her old college friend met her and told her about a course that he had done...
It was about healing through touch...
He said do give it a try ..
And so she went...
She did the levels of the healing technique...
Regularly practiced it on herself...
To her utter surprise it worked for her...
Call it a placebo effect or divine revelation she rose like a Phoenix from dust...
She delegated work, improved her time management , gave time to herself, exercised, meditated, restarted the free lance work shed weight and looked extremely fresh...
Her relationship with her father is now cordial, her sons treatment is going smooth and he is responding well and is developing almost normally...
Her husband loves the new version of her
Her in laws are proud of the way the couple is conducting their life as parents and as partners...
Her contemporaries look upon her as a living example of inspiration...
She hopes to make life as beautiful as she can...
She has ticked off a major milestone in life...
She now has a realised master as her Spiritual Guru who strongly stands behind her in the quest of this lifetime...
Why me??? Question never crosses her mind...
In fact she is glad that its her...
This is the third episode...

Current scenario

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The three friends have stayed in touch with each other through all of this...
One day they decide to catch up over lunch...
They talk it out till way past dinner...
Parisa has managed to get both Sanika and Radhika enrolled in the first level of healing touch therapy...
The trio are happy of opening up a gateway of possibilities for themselves....
They are excited to see how life unfolds from now on....
And they are grateful to be there for each other through a of it...
The series of possible ups continues...

#notsotinytales

- Prajakta Sathe.

Tale 67

They met on a popular social Dating app which is currently a rage on the singles scene...
He, in his mid 30s was a cool guy from Shivaji park who worked for a private firm had a decent pay package and had real hobbies...
He loved to learn new languages and was into fitness...
Calisthenics and endurance were his area of interest in working out...
He had landed up in a copyright job which required him to put in just 6 hours of work...
Which pretty much made him available for plans to hang around with prospective dates...
Just that he was withdrawn of sorts...
He did not have real friends that he would chill out with or talk to or have fun along...
This was what she knew until their first few conversations via the dating app...
She in her early 30s on the other hand was cheerful happy and social female who loved to have people around....
She had recovered from a break off from a relationship from her childhood sweetheart...
She was obsessed about weight loss and everything related to it...
One of her hobbies includes researching on weight loss theories, discovering new diet plans, trying out new types of forms of exercise in the gym and keeping abreast everything in the fitness world by doing courses related to it....
After finishing her course in personal training she was thinking of enrolling herself for sports nutrition certification...
She loved to party and tons of friends
She worked hard on setting up her own entrepreneur venture in HR and also dabbled into finding meaning to life 
Ironically she attended a few spiritual discourses and got a few meditation seminars done on one hand but couldn't help but ponder on the fact that why only a cigarette but not any chant or meditation could give her peace after a stressful day...
So they met a couple of times for a coffee date and got talking...
Their professions were as different as chalk and cheese hence they had many things to discuss and know about each other... 
Fitness was an exciting common topic for them...
She felt it going well but wanted to meet him in a scenario where she would get to know his social interaction...
It was her birthday, she threw a bash at her place and invited him...
It would be a great opportunity to get to know him outside dating parameters... 
It was a full house that day with friends family all getting together to celebrate...
He came... She was expecting some action/progress/sparks...
She was dressed to kill...
But so were her other girlfriends who were there to party...
He made sure he interacted with every single girl that day and mingled with everyone...
It was a face off from the usual reserved self that he portrayed...
On one hand she was pleasantly surprised to the way he appeared in a party setting whereas she was upset that he couldn't catch her inviting romantic gaze that she held on specially for him...
Party was over and the next morning all her girlfriends received a friend request from him...
Her friends reverted this to her...
She completely lost interest in him somehow...
Not because he tried mingling with her girlfriends but essentially because he couldn't catch her look that night....
That fuzzed off her excitement n spark... 
He called her back asked her to meet tried restarting the chase 
But.... It wasn't a solvable equation any more...
She said we'd remain cordial as acquaintances but I can't date you....
He said then we can't be only friends nor can I be friends with u on Social networking sites... 
I would have to unfriend you as well as your girl gang...
She replied with an 'as you wish' emoting shrug...
It was an abrupt astonished end which he thought was uncalled for...
She thought it was best to cut it off in the nib, an alliance that wasn't ready to sprout...
She called off all her anticipations about this man and felt that she did not owe him any explanation...
They aren't in touch with each other any more...
But.... They are a tad bit smarter in their future persuasions on similar dating sites...
They keep seeking...
They may get lucky one day and find someone whom they really click with... 
Some tales aren't at all about love, but they teach us at least about the nuisances of the epitome that it is...
#notsotinytales

Tale 66

He was a from a Sikh family, a General Surgeon, son of an army man 
It was a family of fighter men, his uncle served in Navy
He had pressure to follow the footsteps of his forefathers however he chose to lead a super secured conventional life back in the city...
Affiliated with many multi speciality hospitals in Delhi he was busy with complicated surgeries and keeping abreast with the latest developments in medicine
He met a her, a gynaecologist at a conference abroad...
She was an extremely smart attractive woman with a flair for spoken word...
Her research paper impressed everyone at the seminar...
He went on to get acquainted with her and introduced himself...
She was from Kolkata a brilliant Bong doctor...
They clicked...
Marrying him meant that she had to leave her ancestral maternity hospital back home and start off in a completely new city all over...
It was a tough decision to make... 
Both had equally exciting careers back in their hometown...
But they were almost in love...
They got married nevertheless...
Travelled on alternate fortnight's to be with each other over the weekends... 
Slowly it started getting hectic...
Bugged of a long distance relation they jointly decided to move to Mumbai to start off afresh...
Within a year's time they established their careers well, bought a house and thought of starting a family...
In the mean while she had an emergency case at the municipal hospital for which she was called...
It was a critically I'll baby brought to a police station nearby after being found at a waste bin in the area...
The baby was badly bitten by rodents and was infected...
She treated it successfully with her expertise...
The baby survived...
On investigating it seemed that the single mother of that baby had committed suicide 
The baby girl was supposed to be sent to an orphanage...
Though trained as a doctor to practice clinical non attachment, she felt a deep connect with this child...
She came back home and told her husband of her feelings and expressed the desire to adopt the baby...
Her husband though in the medical field refused to this decision...
There was tension...
She promised him of having a biological child after adoption...
He reluctantly agreed...
The baby girl was brought home post the legal formalities...
She was happy with her new found baby love...
She felt complete...
Just then she conceived...
The husband overjoyed pampered her to the hilt though his attitude towards the adopted baby remained neutral...
A boy was born the families were overjoyed...
While growing up however there was always a partial behaviour between the kids...
Only the mother loved her adopted daughter unconditionally while rest of the family members were biased...
As the kids grew up there was an unusually strong bond between her and the daughter while the biological son was super attached to his father...
As their individual careers in medicine continued, their clashes on personal front increased due to the kids...
They tried sticking on till the kids got independent...
Surprisingly the girl settled in delhi and the boy in Kolkata with their respective spouses and growing professional careers leaving the doctor couples nest empty...
There was attraction attachment bonds connections and now emptiness...
The doctor husband took an early retirement and joined politics while the gynaec wife left her practice to and formed an NGO that supported an orphanage and promoted adoption...
His political party and her NGO are inevitably interconnected...
Life -  a package surprises twists and turns...
Pandora's box or a goody bag?
We always know where one ends up... 
But we never know how???
#notsotinytales
- Prajakta Sathe.