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She really didn't want to go to the dinner today. Now at this age, she has to dress up and do this routine. She is now in her late 60's.Old and tired after a life spent caring for others. But unfortunately the rest that she seeks eludes her.

She hails from a remote Indian village. A village which has got nothing significant to boast about other than the fact that she was born there. She was a typical village girl, when she got married to her well educated husband. She changed and adapted a bit for her husband. But even now, she is still a villager at heart. Most of her life she was yet another indian housewife, whose entire world was her family & relatives.

But that has all changed now. Now her husband has become an important person and she has to face problems that are outside her house. Her husband’s knowledge, hard work and luck have made him rise up in life. She is very happy about that. But with that raise comes lot of inconvenience for her, which she is not happy about. Like today’s party which is thrown by a powerful foreigner for her husband.

Nowadays everyone expects her to accompany her high profile husband. She is supposed to go with him to all the parties and dinners thrown to her husband. Even though her status has changed in the society, she is still a woman from the village and she detests dressing up and going to parties and meeting the rich and famous people.For her all those people seemed very diplomatic and so distant from her.Because of her background she was not that comfortable mingling with them.

Current affairs, politics, film, arts, money, music,lifestyle etc where not her subjects of liking. So there wasn't much for her to talk with them. She does not drink or not found of the western dishes. so the parties where not of much interests to her taste buds either. Her interests was her house, her village, her relatives,her family and her god. But topics related to her knowledge never pops up in those meetings. But she bears with all of these for her husband.

In those parties, she feels lonely amongst the crowd, she stands there like an oasis in a desert.Many a times lost in her thought,lost in a different time period of her life.A time period when her husband used to work in a local college. Those where her golden days, the days when her husband used to have lot of free time. But gone are those days when her husband was a nobody. Gone are those days when she used to wait for her husband to return from work every evening. The days when her husband had time to play with their daughters, had time to relish her cooking,had time to take her and their daughters to picnics and cinemas. Those days of family fun is over for her now.

Today is an important day. At the dinner the foreigner and her husband are going to discuss some major deals. She reluctantly dresses up and goes with her husband.

The foreigner's house was big and palatial. It was painted in all white and surrounded by a beautiful garden. The meeting started, the two men were busy talking some serious things. She on the other hand was not talking much. she had to give company to that foreigner's wife.

The foreigner’s wife was a well dressed, she was little younger than her. She had lots of makeup and was very confident. She on the other hand was at her usual self with minimal makeup and withdrawn. They both had trouble communicating and needed a translator. The foreigner’s wife started asking the usual aristocratic questions like, how was her trip to their place? and complements like her ethnic dress was beautiful etc. She had to answer those questions and answer them with a similar aristocracy. She had to be very careful when she talks. She cannot talk her usual village way of openly commenting and making fun of others. she has to be diplomatic and think twice before she talks, so that it wont put her husband to shame.

At times she felt like an animal put into a cage with another animal with which it was not comfortable. There were times when she didn't know what to speak, there where brief moments of silence which was usually broken by the foreign lady with very generic questions. She answered those questions in one or two words and there was silence again. The foreign lady seemed to be more uncomfortable with the silence than her.

She wanted to ask so many questions. why does everyone expect wife's to accompany their husband to these diplomatic dinners and meetings?. what if the wife is not interested in attending?. why do people take that as a disrespect?. The men have an agenda, but the women don't have any. what are two culturally very different women supposed to talk?. There only job seems to be to stand beside their husbands and smile for photographs. The whole thing seemed pointless to her. But as usual she was bearing it all for her husband.

At last came her favourite part of the meeting.The time to go home.She was very glad when the meeting between the men ended.After the usual goodbyes they parted.Before they where about to leave the white house. They had to sign the visitor's guide. She signed her name and her husband signed his as Manmohan.


* Disclaimer
This is entirely my imagination. A piece of news/pic triggered a question. The question made me create a character around the person i saw in the photograph and the result was this story.