Let us talk about a sensitive and life-altering relationship between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law! My goodness, don’t the terminologies instil seriousness?

Mother-in-Law

I wanted to find out more about the word, so I started with a rudimentary question:

Why is it called mother-in-law?
Evidently, the role of a mother-in-law is the same as that of a biological mother. We all assume it is related to law and not by blood. The etymology goes back to the 14th century when in-law referred to the Canon Law(a church’s set of rules and regulations), which defines the degrees of relationship within which marriage is prohibited.

Quite intense, right?
I still had some faith in the 21st century, so I thought there must be other cute, lovable alternate names for mother-in-law; I was failed.

You must be wondering why am I ranting about this. Well, the story starts when I got married on 24th January 2022! Hoot! Hoot!
Yes, I live with my husband Nikhil, and my mother-in-law Ms Asha Ji. Nikhil and I took time to know each other well; meanwhile realising that we wanted to have an intimate, close-knit, happy family. Hence, acknowledging the importance of the relationship between Asha Ji and me.

Now, when you live with a person every hour of the day, under the same roof, one is ought to work on building a relationship dynamic. It begins inorganically, with the hope of being organic someday. Thus, fulfilling the one true dream of living happily ever after…

Trust me, I was being a whole new person, trying to make Asha Ji smile, finding ways for her to accept and like me. And I think she must be going through a similar feeling. It’s fair to say we are figuring out the building blocks of our relationship.
While other relationships have a meet-cute, a spark, or a roadmap to finding love, we were not able able to hit the right cord until one day! God bless that day!

April Fool’s Day

I was still at a stage where I was thinking at least 10 times before I said anything in my new house(my in-laws’ place). Frankly, I still do the same, who am I kidding?
So, just like any other day, Nikhil left for the office. I had an agenda to celebrate April Fool’s Day, the target being Mr Nikhil. All the online videos, links or reels were not plausible enough. It is not easy to fool someone on THE DAY, as people usually expect it. I practised my lines a few times and asked Asha Ji to help me. She laughed, my heart skipped a beat, and she agreed. I symbolically patted my back on a good job.

Now, we had to come up with ideas of how to fool Sir. We thought of some of the following:
– Power cut in the house
– One of us was hurt
– Cooking deceptive food like chocolate balls having cherry tomato inside
– Or the one we almost thought of going through with, i.e. where Asha Ji agrees to start eating non-veg, we cook fake fish(out of wheat). But, you see the idea required a lot of unnecessary hassle.

After all the creative ideas, we sought to execute a simpler one. Here is what happened:

Nikhil reached home finding no one in the house, Asha Ji’s phone was in the house, and mine switched off. Nikhil stayed put for a while, assuming we must be in the neighbourhood. After some time, the man started making calls and asking around.

On the other hand, my mother-in-law and I were on the terrace awaiting his presence so that we could scare him. Unknown of the fact that his blood was already running cold. Since we spent some time waiting, Asha Ji suggested we go downstairs. I was determined I needed another plan as I wasn’t ready for it all to go down the drain.

I switched on my phone. I called Nikhil in haste(sounding scared) and said, “Terrace, please come upstairs quickly!” I could hear him pant and run the moment I said the first word…
Asha Ji and I were all prepared. She stood near the door to scare Nikhil while I recorded on the phone. Asha Ji was excited and pumped up about the action plan, one could see the sparkle in her eyes.

Attaching the link here to give you a taste of the scene.

Meet-Cute

And just like that, her laughter made my heart sing melodious songs like Strawberry Swing, Happy, My Dil Goes Mmmm, etc. Conclusively, a stupid day and a silly prank made us a team.

Sometimes simple things in life come through the simplest means.

Since that day, I have seen a difference in how Asha Ji and I communicate with each other. We are more comfortable and frank, and the best part is we laugh more often.

That is my little story of how the terminology of mother-in-law became defunct, as we chose to tread a path where we define our relationship based on a feeling. Asha Ji and I found our meet-cute, and it shall stay with me as one of the happiest moments.