The Curious Case of Reels

 Every day brings forth new surprises and I think I have seen it all with my grey hairs but then something new happens that makes me believe in the balance of life and how advanced we have become . There is a certain hubris that I have that I know it all ( I know and can hear see the smirks on you all ) but I honestly think that we are advancing and the rest of the classes aren’t ! But this happened with us last week in our sleepy village that is on the cusp of rapid construction and development . We have an old aunty who colors her hair jet black and is of some nondescript age , for the better part of last year we thought she was a Hindu and come Eid and we realised that Gudiya with her trademark bindi was a Muslim . Life kept on moving along and seasons changed and this year as  bad luck would have it , all the help decided to leave at the same time , one was in love and had had to go back to Ayodhya to get married . His story is for another day , the cook and his wife had to go away for a marriage that they just couldn’t miss. The entire household was staff less , minus any work force and all the ladies were lamenting that how would we survive?!

And Guddi Aunty , had to go back to Gorakhpur in the midst of all her rozas and fasting because of an important court case . So , when we asked what was the emergency as only she was leaving and  Toofani ( her husband ) wasn’t going ? So in all her mighty loud voice that is louder than her timid body she told us of her daughter in law  who was dancing and putting Bhangra and making videos and uploading on Facebook and making money 

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The entire community was up against her and they frowned upon her not following the norms of polite society. She was so upset that the bahu was dancing and posting content and influencing other girls and her entire community was in an uproar . So her son had filed for a divorce and married another lady , had two boys and had flown to Oman to work and in the meanwhile because the judge was ruling on a Saturday she had to go and pay the final divorce amount of 1 lakh.

Isn’t this all interesting and more exciting than any serial airing on Zee network or any Pakistani play? So she went to Gorakhpur , paid the money to the ex bahu who had become so modern and was baring her legs in a short pant , drove a motorcycle and had cut her hair . On top of it she had the audacity to be nice to Guddi Aunty and had offered her chai and samosas!

It so seems to be an episode out of Mamla Legal Hai , the number one legal show on netflix! This is how the society exists and we are truly moving forward. It’s such a mix of simple yet complex human beings, we embrace technology as if its our second arm but hesitate to break the traditions and impose all restrictions on women because in India , honor lies only with women . If her own son was making money with reels would there have been a divorce? Till the verdict is out , progress was made by the judge where he gave a substantial amount to the child to be used when she is of legal age.