I’m usually stranded in an awkward situation during lunch breaks at the workplace. I’m probably the only unmarried girl among all the women who gather at the dining table in the afternoons. So as we nibble into our lunches, I often get to hear stories about where one’s husband likes to go on a holiday, while what one’s baby does other than pooping and burping, where one bought her jewellery and other similar things. Though I can’t relate to these topics as yet, its fun to see these women CONTRADICT themselves the whole time!!

Lady1: “You know, my neighbour, who’s a stay-at-home mom comes and lectures me about never ‘being there’ when she herself has no clue what her son is upto!”

Lady2: “Don’t you just hate that? They don’t have anything better to do, so they watch you enviously as you go to work, all primped up in your smart formals. Obviously, they’ll make you the target of their post-breakfast gossip!”

Lady3: “Yeah, I know! I don’t understand how they can waste their pitiful lives watching saas-bahu sagas, day in and day out.”

Lady4: “I know, just because they stay at home, they think all the world’s theirs to gossip about!”

Lady2 and Lady3 (in chorus): *tsk tsk* “absolutely!”

As I wound up after lunch, I realized these smart women, who consider themselves a tad higher than than their chapathi-rolling counterparts who stay at home, ultimately fit the same slot. They were angry about those jobless women gossipping about them, while all along, for that one hour, that’s EXACTLY what they did as well!! I guess, Benjamin Franklin definitely got it right, when he said, To find out a girl’s faults, praise her to her girlfriends.