Todays story is about a farmhouse and the in-laws’ home. It is Meena’s story. Meena had two sons, and both were married. But it was impossible for a mother-in-law and daughters-in-law to live under one roof without conflict. So, Meena had thought ahead and bought the flat right next to hers and given it to one of her daughters-in-law. Now, whenever Meena felt like staying with which daughter-in-law, she would stay with her at that time. This way, neither daughter-in-law felt burdened by their in-laws, and in this way, Meena could also keep an eye on both her daughters-in-law.

It was 8 am, and this girl was still sleeping. “Hey, Rishita, get up already! Mom will come soon, then you’ll come to your senses.” “Mom won’t come. She is at Diya’s house. I already talked to Diya. She will send Mom here only after serving her breakfast. I have a good two hours left to sleep. You have to go to office, right? Then eat yesterday’s leftovers and go. Good night!”

And just before breakfast, Mom came in between… “She won’t let it happen like that, right? Diya and I had already planned. The day before yesterday, she had to go for dinner with Sandeep, right? So I fed Mom and brought her to stay with me. So Diya and Sandeep could go out comfortably, and no one even found out. If I’m doing this for her, she should at least care about my sleep, right?” “Wow, you both have thought of a great plan! Good thing. If Mom and Dad found out, they would feel bad. It’s better that you both do as you wish, and they also get peace.”

At 10 am, Rishita gets up, gets ready, and gets straight to preparing lunch. Just then, the doorbell rings. At the door are Shobhit and Meena. “You haven’t made breakfast yet, Bahu?” “What, Papa Ji, are you joking? It’s 11 am. Will breakfast not be made? I made breakfast, packed the tiffin, and sent him off to office by 9. I even washed the dishes, swept and mopped. See, I’m preparing lunch now. If Mom eats lunch by 1 pm, she can eat again comfortably by 4 pm, right? The doctor said that the more small breaks Mom eats in, the better it is for her sugar.”

Hearing this, Meena felt good. “I did a very good thing by separating both daughters-in-law. Rishu’s father, initially I felt like I was breaking my home, but no. Since both live next to each other, both have their own lives, and the love between them remains. And I also get a chance to eat at both places.” “Mom, there are no green chilies. I’ll get them from next door.” “Yes.”

And on the pretext of getting green chilies, Rishita goes to Diya and tells her, “I’ve prepared the entire lunch. I’ll feed Mom and Dad, and then you call them to your place so that I can go to the kitty party in the evening. Otherwise, if Mom sees my second kitty party, she’ll keep taunting me about it, and I won’t like it. Hey, I’m also human. If I say something wrong in reply, things could go bad.” “Don’t worry, Bhabhi. I’ll handle everything. By the way, I don’t have green chilies either. I just got chilies from Mehta Aunty. You go and get them from there too.”

And in this way, sometimes yours, sometimes mine, these two sisters-in-law were living very comfortably, and neither of them found their in-laws bothersome. But they say that until there’s a twist in ordinary life, life isn’t fun. And such a twist was about to come in these daughters-in-law’s lives as well.

One evening, Meena gets a call from her childhood friend Sushma. “Hey Sushma, after so many days, where did you get my number from? You had shifted to Mumbai, right? I heard you live behind Shah Rukh Khan’s bungalow.” “Absolutely right, Meena. But I have a flat there, I don’t exactly live in the flat. I live in my own farmhouse. Anyway, I have a lot to tell. I’m coming to Kanpur tomorrow morning by flight. I’ll tell you everything only after coming to your house. Shall I come?” “Hey, is that even a question? Come, come, absolutely come.”

And the next morning, Sushma arrives at her childhood friend’s house with her bags. “Diya, go and call your sister-in-law.” “Yes, yes, Mom, I’ll call her right away. Please come in, Aunty.” And both daughters-in-law start attending to Sushma. “Hey, sit down too, Rishita. Why are you running around so much?” “My kitchen is in this flat, Aunty, so I have to run around. And I don’t want to miss the chance to host you. It’s after so many days that a friend of Mom’s has come, so I should also take some knowledge from this friend.”

“Leave this flat business, beta, and shift to bungalows. Buy a plot. I don’t understand living in these two small matchbox-like houses.” “Plot, Aunty?” “Yes, beta, it’s very beneficial. First, your name gets included among the rich. Secondly, the problem you both have of running around managing things will also be solved.” “But we have no problem here, Aunty.” “A frog sitting in a well finds the well very comfortable, beta. But there’s a world outside too. You both have been kept in this small matchbox only so that you both don’t see the world. Otherwise, think, why would I leave the flat behind Shah Rukh Khan’s house and go to live in a farmhouse?”

And with her words, Sushma brainwashes Meena’s daughter-in-law so much that even after Sushma leaves, the obsession of buying a bigger house doesn’t leave their minds.

At dinner time… “What’s the benefit of such food where the family isn’t together? Where, Bhabhi, here we are… and our mother-in-law oscillating between these two families… this is no way to live. For the past one year, everything has been like this only. Many wrong laws were going on for years, they changed, right? So this will also have to change. The condition that Diya was in, isn’t Rishita’s also the same?”

“No, Rishu, I don’t know that you are buying a plot. I just don’t want to live in this matchbox.” “Hey, Babu, it’s not like that. I don’t know who put this bug in your ears. Distant drums sound pleasing, but what is the reality? That will be understood later. Anyway, a plot doesn’t come for one or two rupees. A good hefty amount is needed. So forget all this.”

But Diya and Rishita were not ones to understand. Now, fights started happening every day in both houses over this issue, because of which Sandeep and Rishu become very troubled. Seeing their condition, their boss calls them to the cabin. “What’s the matter? You both seem very lost these days.” “Sir, my wife wants to shift to a farmhouse and is asking me to buy a plot for that. How will it happen? I keep thinking about managing everything. Taking such a big loan will definitely cause stress, right, Sir?”

“The farmhouse craze was with my wife too before. But now my farmhouse has been vacant for the last six months. If you both want, you can shift there. Take a trial. Everything will become clear from that itself.” And Rishu and Sandeep’s tension ends. Both bring barfi and gulab jamun and reach home. “Have something sweet, Rishita. Plot? We’ve got an entire farmhouse! We’ve taken this farmhouse on rent from Sir. Let’s live and see. If it suits us, we’ll buy our own plot and get a farmhouse built. That’s the plan, right, brother?” “Wow! Mom, now we will all live together under one roof at our farmhouse. Now we’ll put these two flats on rent, and with the money that comes, you can pay the rent to the boss, and the money saved will be saved. How auspicious, isn’t it, our farmhouse? It hasn’t even arrived yet, and she has already created an income from it. Now quickly pack the stuff, we have to shift. I’m going to the market this evening. Mom, you come too. Now if we come to the farmhouse, we won’t wear such old clothes, right? We should have new-new clothes. We should have velvet slippers on our feet. And who will use this broom? From the market, we’ll also get a vacuum cleaner.”

“You both, there is no need to spend so much unnecessarily. Pack your stuff and prepare to shift.” And Meena’s entire family leaves the flat and shifts to the farmhouse.

“Oh my God! This is a farmhouse? This looks like a complete palace! So big! This is even bigger than our society!” “No, Rishu’s father, is it that big?” “Yes, Meena Ji, if you add the garden area, it is big.”

“See, Sandeep, if I hadn’t forced you, would we have ever come to such a big house? Where is that small flat of ours and where is this big farmhouse? On top of that, no noise, no polluted air, no sounds of neighbors fighting, no building children ringing the bell and running away again and again, no tension of paying maintenance again and again, no fear of lift stopping due to generator not working. Anyway, all these problems only come to lower middle-class people. Diya, and now we are starting to come among rich people. We have our own farmhouse, our own. Now come, let’s go to the kitchen. We have to prepare food.”

“After your marriage, for the first time we both sisters-in-law will cook in the same kitchen.” Rishita and Diya go to the kitchen, but there are no vegetables in the kitchen. “Oh, I didn’t even think that we haven’t set up the kitchen at all. I had brought spices, but vegetables will have to be brought fresh, right? So let’s both go, Bhabhi. On this pretext, we’ll also take a little walk and meet the neighbors too.”

But in the farmhouse area, where was there going to be a vegetable market, and where would any neighbor be found? As soon as Diya and Rishita step out, the silence spread all around feels strange to them. “When coming from the flat, there was so much excitement in my mind that I didn’t even notice that there is no market around here at all.”

“How long have we been walking, Bhabhi? So far, not a single vegetable vendor has been seen.” “Forget vegetable vendor, it seems that within a radius of one or two kilometers, only our farmhouse is here. Now where will we get vegetables from? We don’t even have a single neighbor here where we can go to ask for salt or chili. There is going to be a problem. Let’s order food from outside today.” “But Bhabhi, the car hasn’t even arrived here yet.” “We’ll order online. Come on. Don’t tell anyone about this, otherwise everyone will unnecessarily start objecting to our choice.”

Reaching home, Diya says, “See the airs of the vegetable vendor, Mom. No vegetable vendor was giving vegetables below MRP. Now we will buy vegetables, then there will be oil expenses, cylinder expenses. I thought it’s better if we order food online only. Anyway, we have to settle the house too, and if we get tired cooking, how will the rest of the work happen?” “Okay, then I’ll order food online.”

And Sandeep opens the app to order food, but as soon as he enters his location, the delivery boy says, “I am so sorry, Sir. Your farmhouse is quite far from the city, so to reach there, you will have to pay 200 extra convenience charges.” “First, you people are not giving any offer on the food, on top of that why should we pay 200 extra?” “Brother, our company does not take orders that far, Sir. And if it does, extra charges apply for that. Sorry.” And the delivery boy disconnects the call.

“And here in the farmhouse, whoever has extra money, let them pay 200.” “Don’t say that for 200 rupees. I’ll give it, okay? Now if we change our lifestyle, a little expense will happen, right?” After a while, home delivery food reaches their house. After eating food and resting for a while, Shobhit says, “The bigger the house, the more difficulty there will be in managing it. First, we will have to keep a servant for the household work.” “Yes, then you go and find and bring one. Call the laborers or the old building people. Someone will send a laborer.” “Okay, till then you people start cleaning the farmhouse. It’s been closed for many days, so how dirty it is.”

Shobhit calls more than 20 workers, but no one was ready to come so far. “Are you telling me, Sir, that there are only farmhouses there?” “Hey, how big can one farmhouse be? I know that very well. Alone, work won’t be done by me. I will have to bring another laborer with me. My attendance will be 1000, and his 800-900, plus travel expenses. If you understand, it’s fine. Otherwise, I have a lot of work.” Hearing this, Shobhit’s mind goes haywire. “No laborer wants to come to work at the farmhouse? 1800? Someone is demanding as labor charges? What is he saying? It will take him two days to clean the house. He will come at 10 am and leave by 4 pm, and will also bring another laborer with him. Who keeps 4000? Call and bring him. We are putting our flat on rent anyway, right, Papa? I’ll give the money right now. It’s 1800, right? You call the laborer.”

And Shobhit calls the laborer. The farmhouse gets cleaned up and settled too. But how and until when will the everyday problems be solved? “Everyone is eating outside food. I think we should divide all the work, because there are going to be a lot of problems here. There isn’t even a vegetable market nearby. Vegetables can only be brought once a week.” “Two days of cleaning the farmhouse, what happened? The drinking water also finished. There isn’t even a neighbor here from whom we can borrow. Our flat was better than this.” “That’s the point, Mom. We have to go to office daily. How far is our office from here? We will spend more than half the money on petrol only.”

“Hey, it’s okay. We have no problem. One of you two brothers bring vegetables once a week. We two sisters-in-law will manage. And if in between there is a need for vegetables, then on the pretext of a walk, Mom will go to the market.” “No, no, brother, I won’t go to the market. You both wanted the farmhouse, right? So you do it. What walk and what fun?”

And such a big farmhouse where the kitchen was at one end, and the dining table at the other end… “Bahu, the roti is four days old. You have to eat this stale vegetable that is rotting along with roti, right? Baba, no, now I won’t go carrying roti to the dining table. Walking so far, my heels have started aching. Bhabhi, you go.” “Hey, is that a thing, Diya? I am also making rotis in the heat, right? You go and serve.”

Sometimes someone asks Diya for roti, sometimes someone asks Rishita… As soon as Diya reaches the dining table with rotis for the 12th time, she faints and falls right there. Everyone takes her to the room and sprinkles water on her face. “You wanted fun in the farmhouse, right? Got it? She fainted because in such a big house we don’t have any maid, right? We also have to settle the house. The kitchen is so big, cleaning it, washing utensils, doing household work, tiredness will happen, right? If there is one maid, this tension will end. So find a maid and call her.”

The next morning, Rishu and Diya come out of their room packing their stuff. “What happened, Diya? What did you do?” “I called the maid on call. No maid is ready to come so far. Sitting at home all day, we have also gotten bored. There aren’t even neighbors here. No one for gossip. How will the mind be engaged? I am going to my flat, brother.”

And within a week, the farmhouse obsession leaves both daughters-in-law’s minds. “Hello, Sir, your formula worked. Bingo!”