Sunday Story: In Each Other's Shoes

Shubhangi was over cloud nine that evening. She'd been singing along to every single song playing in her car on her drive back home. She was visibly exuberating so much energy and excitement to the extent of being contagious—nobody could avoid being touched by it or miss noticing it at the very least.

Shubhangi was less than a kilometre from her home when she realised that it was not a night to return home empty-handed. So, she took a U-turn from the nearest bend and drove all the way to the only outlet of her and her husband’s favourite Asian food franchise, which they visited every time they had a major reason to celebrate—and tonight was one such night.

Back home,  Shubhangi’s husband, Amar, was busy preparing her favourite dinner. Shubhangi had been pretty stressed in the morning and the night before, so he decided to welcome her that evening with her comfort food—piping hot rajma chawal accompanied by chilled vegetable raita and paneer bhurji. There was still some time left for Shubhangi to return from the office, so he decided to get done with some of the household chores that remained for the day.

Like clockwork, the doorbell rang the moment Amar finished the last of the chores. He opened the door with the intention of warmly welcoming Shubhangi and helping her forget whatever had been troubling her since last night. Instead, he found that he did not need to do it anymore since she was no more stressed—rather she had not been this cheerful in a very, very long time. It took him a moment to notice the parcel in her hand, but the moment he did, he knew that whatever it was, it was something big.

Shubhangi then finally broke the news—she had just been promoted to the position of the operations head of the South Asia region of the MNC she was working at! Shubhangi hadn’t even finished when Amar lifted her up, just like he had when Shubhangi agreed to marry him five years ago, his face split into a grin mirroring hers. The moment was of pure bliss. Their struggles, hard work, and sacrifices had finally started to pay off.

One could not say how many minutes had passed before Amar finally let Shubhangi back on the ground. Then, he headed back to the kitchen with the food parcel Shubhangi had brought with her and served it on the table, along with the dinner he had already prepared, while Shubhangi freshened up and changed before joining him for dinner. 

The entire dining table was covered with food—not even a single point was bare. It seemed as if they were hosting a group of ten people or so for dinner. The two finally sat down to enjoy the food laid before them. After some time into dinner, Shubhangi narrated the entire sequence of events that led to her appointment as the operations head and what it meant for her and the company. But there was a catch, which Shubhangi was a bit hesitant to talk about—in order to accept the promotion, she had to move to Bangalore from Delhi. 

Amar’s response was one she had not immediately expected, but deep-down eventually hoped for. He told her that he did not see anything difficult or problematic with shifting to Bangalore. Shubhangi had earned the promotion with her hard work and dedication and deserved every bit of it. As for taking care of the moving and settling in a new city, he was there to take care of it all. It was at that moment that Shubhangi realised how blessed she had been to have found her husband, her life partner in Amar. She indeed was the luckiest woman in the world that night. 

Liked this story? Here's another that smashes patriarchy, one issue at a time—Two Halves Make a Home