"Did you hear...?"
"They broke up..."
"...she left..."
"They're getting divorced!"
I felt the stares before I heard the whispers. You'd think having had this for a few months wherever I went would have prepared me better - but it always caught me. I hadn't told anyone about leaving my husband, nor had I filed for divorce, but somehow word had spread and now everyone was talking about it. Whether I liked it or not.
They weren't even trying to be subtle. Every time there was an event, the pointed stares and whispers followed me like an annoying shadow, one that I couldn't shake off no matter how hard I tried to avert my eyes or change topics. It was like I had sprouted horns or an extra head, but I knew what those old aunties were really trying to say: "Lock your sons up, she's single again, and worse still, she's divorced!"
Hah, I thought wryly. They wish! As far as I was concerned, I was done with men for a long time. I wanted to focus on my career and making something of myself, not jump straight into another relationship, that too while I was still technically married. But I don't think they quite understood that. To them, I was back on the market and on the prowl, on the hunt for another husband, as if that was my only identity, as if that was the only way I could justify my existence.
Little did they know.
"They broke up..."
"...she left..."
"They're getting divorced!"
I felt the stares before I heard the whispers. You'd think having had this for a few months wherever I went would have prepared me better - but it always caught me. I hadn't told anyone about leaving my husband, nor had I filed for divorce, but somehow word had spread and now everyone was talking about it. Whether I liked it or not.
They weren't even trying to be subtle. Every time there was an event, the pointed stares and whispers followed me like an annoying shadow, one that I couldn't shake off no matter how hard I tried to avert my eyes or change topics. It was like I had sprouted horns or an extra head, but I knew what those old aunties were really trying to say: "Lock your sons up, she's single again, and worse still, she's divorced!"
Hah, I thought wryly. They wish! As far as I was concerned, I was done with men for a long time. I wanted to focus on my career and making something of myself, not jump straight into another relationship, that too while I was still technically married. But I don't think they quite understood that. To them, I was back on the market and on the prowl, on the hunt for another husband, as if that was my only identity, as if that was the only way I could justify my existence.
Little did they know.
This is so true, how everyone thinks. Its always the girls fault, do they ever think that angel so a son is a devil inside, they need to look at their son as he really is.
ReplyDeleteSo true! That, and the fact that they view you as a threat until you get engaged/married again...!
DeleteStupid narrow minded people.
ReplyDeleteDon't mind them. If they're sons had sense.. they'd think for themselves than what was thought for them by their parents.
Always remember those that point one finger at you have 4 pointing back at them!
Very well said Aditi!!
Delete