Ananya would just smile. He had become used to looking ‘strong’, or perhaps it was his compulsion.
That night Ananya returned tired from office. Rahul was sitting on the sofa drinking alcohol. Ananya said softly, “Rahul, my head is hurting today, will you order dinner?”
Rahul threw the glass on the table. “Oh! So today again ‘Strong’ Ananya got tired? You know, my mother never made the excuse of tiredness. And you? Why have you gone to an office, have become a queen.”
He kicked Ananya’s bag and threw it under the sofa. “Go and cook. And yes, that promotion thing of yours, I told my friends that you got it on my recommendation. Don’t tell anyone that you have worked hard yourself, otherwise people will laugh that the daughter-in-law of the Khanna family is going out and struggling.”
Ananya’s face turned red. He saw his hard work and his sleepless nights being auctioned off in an instant. A wave of insult reached his throat, but he swallowed it. Because he had to remain ‘strong’.
The next day there was a small get-together at Khanna House. Some of Rahul’s friends and their families had come. While talking, Rahul called out to Ananya, “Ananya, please come here!”
As Ananya came closer, Rahul laughingly said to his friends, “Look at this, my working wife. Last night when I gave her a small file to read, madam started having a headache. Poor thing! She just carries files in the office, I am the one who puts the real brain behind it. Why Ananya? Will you be able to survive in the office even for a day without me?”
Laughter echoed throughout the room. Ananya’s eyes were downcast. He saw that one of Rahul’s friends was looking at him with a mixture of sympathy and contempt. He felt as if someone had thrown mud on his clothes. She swallowed that sip of insult by smiling in front of everyone.
After the party was over, Ananya said to Rahul, “Rahul, today you insulted me in front of everyone. I didn’t like it.”
Rahul came closer to her, lifted her chin forcefully and whispered, “Insult? It was true. And listen, if you think you are so capable, then resign tomorrow itself. Let’s see where this ‘Strong Ananya’ goes without the surname of Rahul Khanna. You are nothing without me, just a beautiful show-piece that I can break whenever I want.”
He pushed Ananya sharply and walked out of the room. Ananya fell on the floor. His hands were trembling. She wanted to cry, scream, but she bit her lips. She looked at herself in the mirror – her lipstick was smeared, her hair was messy, but in her eyes was the same lifeless determination to be ‘strong’.
Next morning, Ananya was ready again wearing the same expensive saree and spraying perfume. She covered the dark circles under her eyes and the sad look on her face with dark concealer.
As soon as she came out of the house, the neighbor aunty said, “Ananya son, you are so strong! You are always smiling.”
Ananya replied with a fake laugh, “Aunty, difficulties come and go, you just have to know how to handle yourself.”
As soon as he sat in the car, he saw his reflection in the mirror. She was hating herself. She was ‘strong’, but from inside her soul had been torn to pieces. She would compromise every time, suffer insults every time, just because the world had given her the tag of being ‘strong’. And in the process of saving this tag, she was dying a new death every day.
Dear Woman, you don’t need to be strong every time… because sometimes your strength becomes your biggest prison.
