Life On A Canvas - A Short Story

Daniel is a sweet boy of four. His father Samuel is an artist. Samuel married Maria six years back. A year after his marriage he had a big fight Maria to an extent that they were on the verge of divorce. The reason was baseless. Maria wanted Samuel to help her in household chores. Samuel was taught right from his childhood that it is the wife who has to do everything. And everything means everything. She has to buy vegetables, cook them, serve them, clear the utensils, clean them, place them back and then get to the next task.

 

Photo via Visualhunt

Maria had been brought up in an atmosphere entirely opposite to it. Her father was always there to help her mother. He never hesitated to do anything. He never differentiated in fact, between the household chores to be done by a man and to be done by a woman. She had lived in a wonderful atmosphere. But here the story was entirely different. Something drastically opposite to what she had seen since her childhood. She could never accept it. How could she wipe off every word written on her mind and rewrite everything that too entirely opposite to what was written earlier? How could she clear every impression that was there in her heart and replace it with something that she could not accept? That is why the day Samuel told her he would not be able to lend her a helping hand with domestic chores; she decided to go back to her parents. She knew it was not a simple decision but then she could not spend her whole life with Samuel like this.

 

Photo credit: Saarblitz via Visual hunt / CC BY-NC-SA

Samuel was heartbroken. What he was saying to Maria was what he was taught throughout. But he loved Maria like anything. He could not think of separation. He called his mentor Dr Raghu. Dr Raghu used to come to buy Samuel’s paintings. He was a public speaker and lifestyle imaging consultant. Dr Raghu just asked him a simple question that opened his eyes and transformed his divisive thinking to uniting thinking. Dr Raghu asked Samuel if he is a stakeholder in his home, his wife, his life and his family. When Samuel nodded in affirmation Dr Raghu asked how he can live so ignorantly and partially with a claim of being an equal stakeholder. How can stakes be claimed without responsibility and ownership? That was the moment when Samuel realized what Maria was asking was mere to contribute in their life.

 

Photo credit: Éole via Visual hunt / CC BY-NC-SA

And then they started living happily. After a year, Daniel arrived to double their happiness. The journey of life goes on… Luckily Daniel will never learn what his father was taught during childhood. He will learn what his father learnt after a year of his marriage. 

“I am joining the Ariel #ShareTheLoad campaign at BlogAdda and blogging about the prejudice related to household chores being passed on to the next generation.”