Daughters-In-Law Just Wait And Think

A little empathy can prevent huge troubles from arising.

- Tapapriya

A mother-in-law! A terror, a virtual dictator, an awesome figure, the ultimate symbol of authority, someone with no moral scruples, a tigress ready to pounce on the innocent, helpless new entrant to the family! How degrading, and what a way to describe an elderly woman of our country. Why is the mother of a son, humiliated and stigmatised in this way?

Since childhood, we hear from the elderly ladies of our family about how in-laws treat and create a negative image of mother-in-law.

Still in most of the media, this image is reinforced and the Indian mother-in law is shown as a battle-axe of a woman who wants to vent all her frustrations on her daughter-in-law.

In her heart of hearts, every woman knows that this is not the truth, but a foreigner who is interested in our culture and who reads such stuff, will get a grossly wrong impression of our country and our people.

Every mother-in-law is at first an adorable little girl, loved and pampered by her parents. Later on, she passes through the stages of being a loving sister, a beloved wife, a doting mother and finally a motherin-law.

And it is here, at the fag-end of her life, she is humiliated, disgraced and branded as a harridan; whereas in reality she should be praised and applauded as she has weathered many storms and endured many hardships for the sake of her family.

There are millions of families in India and still in many families in rural areas or in town there are mothersin-law and daughters-in-law staying together. Minor fights and quarrels over trifles are normal everywhere because individuals are bound to have different opinions on matters.

Quarrels and differences of opinion arise even between mother and daughter, father and son, brother and sister etc. But to only emphasise the differences between a mother-in-law and a daughterin-law and to depict the former as a devil is very demeaning to womanhood.