The dependant.

Whilst I was residing in the suburbs my next door neighbour ,the owner of the house occupied the ground floor , leased out the first floor to a young man who lived there with his widowed mother and widowed sister.

She had been widowed in the first few months of her marriage,several years earlier, and was staying with her only support, her brother. She was fair , good looking ,frail and listless.

Her despondency vanished when she found employment in a nearby garment factory , that had sprouted everywhere in that area in mid 1990's. The servant maids from nearby cheri switched their plastic baskets to carry the leftovers to snazzy handbags and dandy hair clips on finding ready employment in these units.She was a supervisor of one such factory .

I could see the spring in her steps . She started wearing colourful polyester sari's with zari bordered jackets .

Meanwhile the neighbours wife of 20 long years died of cancer,leaving behind teenaged children .Within 4 months ,he married her younger winsome sister and lodged her proudly in his house.The entire neighbourhood looked askance at the urgency of this replacement . But all attended the marriage with sealed lips.The young widow commented wistfully,"See how this man is allowed to remarry , after such a long married life and with grown children without any murmur of protest from the society. Will I be allowed to remarry?I have to swallow my frustrations and fade away."Her heart wrenching words still ring in my ears.

Her brother soon got married to a woman drawing a very decent salary. All three left their homes to work every morning..

Then a child followed .Then only two left the home for work. The brother and his wife.I soon learnt from the sister ,who spoke in anguish and bitterness that it was decided for the general welfare of the family she should quit her job and look after her brother's child. I hardly saw her outside her house. In the rare occasions when I did, she had grown thinner ,had developed a permanent scowl and slouched around in drab saree's.

Soon another child followed . I scarcely saw this frail women there after on the street but I constantly heard her voice that was growing shriller by the day from the next house.They were however soon drowned by even more shriller voices of her wards.


P.S. Amongst my extended family and friends I have come across widowed women with children marrying men ,very few though,who are eligible bachelors and not widowers or divorcees.These women were young, well educated and holding jobs with a decent salary.

Widowers raise eyebrows only if they marry in haste ie within a couple of months of their wife's demise ,without waiting for a cooling period of 2 or 3 years .How ever a widows remarriage ,after lapse of several years of spouses death ,continues to be a juicy topic for gossip and tongues wag to eternity.

Have things changed?