A DAYLIGHT MURDER...!

The funny truth unearthed in the end. 

- Sunanda Sankaran

As it was a Sunday afternoon, we were leisurely having our lunch, when a shrill shriek of a woman was heard from the neighbour's house.

"Oh dear! No doubt, this is the voice of their new bride, Vanitha. Even yesterday, I heard the same shrill voice from their house...! God knows how the tyrannical M-in-law tries to harass the young D-in-law, when the son is away in the office!" My wife speculated.

"Oh, no no! It may not be so!"

"What no? You don't know her. That old lady looks like a witch...! During her son's wedding, she had quarreled over with the bride's parents for more dowries and threatened them with dire consequence, I heard. She is the second cousin of the sisin-law of my friend, Geetha. She warned me about the lady...... These people have come to stay here since two months. Have you ever seen the girl mingling with anyone? No! It seems the M-in-law would not let her. That girl Vanitha looks quite timorous. Rarely is she seen at the backyard. Never at the frontyard..."

"Well, but today is Sunday. Being holiday, the son must be at home. How dare his mother harass the young wife in front of him?"

"Why not? Suppose the son is a mom's boy, tied to his mother's apron strings? There are so many sons in our country, who would not cross the line drawn by their moms! They themselves would thrash their hapless wives at a signal from their mothers!"

"Leave it. Why bother about others?" I tried to put a stop to the argument.