“Morning mother- like. Was passing this way. Just dropped in to say ‘hello’. How are you mother- in- law?”
“Good”
“It is always a pleasure to meet a lady with a pleasant face like you. It is always a pleasure to talk to a lady with sweet voice like you”
“Thank you”
“Can I have a cup of coffee please? It is always a pleasure to drink even a cup of water from your sweet hands”
“I will give water first. Then, you have to do a small help. Our cowherd Govindan is absent today. Milk the cow, leave a liter here and supply the rest to my three customers. By the time, you are back, I will prepare coffee and wait for you”
“You want me to milk your cow and door deliver the liquid to your customers? Has any mother -in- law, ever asked her daughter’s husband to milk the cow and door deliver ?”
“SP, we know each other for how many years? Fifty long years. Don’t play any tricks with me. I have already made coffee for you. Drink quietly, go home and don’t ask my daughter for coffee again. What will be the punishment if you do that?”
“Milk the cow and door -deliver the milk”
“No, taking it out for grazing”
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“Your daughter is becoming too romantic, MIL. and I don’t like it”
“What happened? I was told that you love romanticism”
“When I talked to a friend, she pulled my shirt back”
“You were talking to a male or female friend?”
‘A female”
“Then, her act was to prevent you from talking nonsense. There was no romance in it”
“Once she pinched my bum too”
“That would have been to prevent you uttering absolutely nonsensical words. No romance in that too”
“And once she pulled my ears and knocked my head ”
“That was to prevent a head on collision with your female friend and consequent explosion. No romance in that too”
“Then what is romance, the oldest lady in our family?”
“Romance at your age is simply enjoying the company of each other, husband and wife, no outsider, no pinching the bum or knocking the head, you at your work, she at her work. You don’t, anyway, doesn’t like romance and there is no meaning in telling what romance is, to you”
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