The scene is ordinary enough to be familiar. She laid the saree out by nine but did not drape it until after lunch. The whistles from the pressure cooker had fallen silent, the dal left to simmer and the last phulka had puffed on the flame. The kitchen closed like a shift at a factory, except there were no wages for the work demanded . When she finally adjusted her pallu over her shoulder, she told herself it's just an afternoon of cards, tea, and old friends.
She arrived at three. The living room was warm and alive. The laughter was a release after a morning spent in lowered voices negotiating with families, finishing chores, making sure everyone else had been looked after before allowing themselves to leave the house. It was an afternoon gathering as going out after sunset for dinner was not permissible.
Somewhere in the same city, a reel from the gathering was uploaded. Within hours, the women were reduced to the internet stereotype. The comments came "bored housewives," "women with nothing better to do," "peak aunty behaviour." Three hard earned hours of leisure trolled insensitively.
The joke was never about tambola, Atka Matka Jhatka, or cards. It was about who was allowed the luxury of leisure.
Among the comments beneath the reel was one from a 68-year-old woman. She wrote that she had never truly experienced her childhood with friends. Married in her teens, her life became a continuous cycle of responsibilities from caring for in laws, raising children to running a household. Now, in her late sixties, these few afternoons offer a small window to her unlived childhood.
Another woman, in her forties, wrote that she left for a kitty party only after finishing every chore. Despite this her in-laws would still criticise her for going out. Her husband and daughter on the contrary encouraged her to go out. The questions were not raised in her absence .It was the idea that a married woman is bound by duties and such acts of self expression were rebellious .
Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah was an apt enactment to this. Every evening, the men of Gokuldham society would return from work, have dinner, and head to Abdul's soda shop . They would discuss their day and daily struggles. The women were more often shown catching up while buying groceries or between household chores.