Mom’s low cut blouses

Hema, my mother was going through a tough phase in her life. My father’s new found addiction to alcohol and his frequent unexplained absences from home were the root of her problems.

She was a typical Indian housewife although she looked special. Long hours in the kitchen did not deter her from looking gracious. She had a subdued stylish way of dressing which kind of reflected her character. She was always dressed immaculately in the beautiful Indian garment, the sari. Of late she had started wearing blouses with low necks and short backs, sometimes sleeveless. This was in an Indian summer and I guess she had started doing it for the sake of comfort. She sometimes inadvertently revealed a bit too much cleavage. Men seemed to ogle at her almost everywhere, and she seemed to be blissfully ignorant of it. However I was not complaining. I realized that my parents’ marriage was at cross roads, it just needed a spark to ignite their old fire.

This was the time when my close friend Rohit visited us for a week. Rohit was a bad boy to put it simply. I have known his antics with women of different age. I have always admired the way he managed to conceal his image of being a ‘lady killer’. Having been a close accomplice of him, I was aware of how he managed to sneak glances at women without their knowledge.

But I couldn’t enjoy watching him looking at my own mother who kept exposing a good deal of her cleavage and back. She kept moving around the sitting room unaware of the intensity with which my friend was ogling at her. It was absolute embarrassment for me being a witness to see my mother being watched with sexual intensions. I was relieved when Rohit eventually left but determined to say a word of caution or two to my mother.

I couldn’t gather the courage to call my mother at once and tell her what I felt her about the way she dressed. I feared it would imply that I have been watching her too. I was oscillating like a pendulum till evening before I made up my mind to hit the nail on its head.

“I have something to tell you” I went up to my mother who was pealing vegetables in the kitchen. She stopped at once and looked at me with rapt attention.

“Yes?”

“Hmmm it’s like….about the way you dress”

“Anything wrong?”

“I think you are wearing very short blouses nowadays,” I blurted out

As expected, her face lit up in surprise. After a momentary silence, she gave a friendly smile

“Why?” She queried gently. “Did Rohit say anything about that?” “No,” I quipped. “Why would he complain about that? He kept ogling at you all the time.”

Her eyes widened for a while before she said laughingly, “Oh, I didn’t notice that.”

“That’s him,” I replied with an undertone of irritation in my voice. “His eyes kill silently.”

She started laughing uncontrollably. For a moment I wondered if she has gone crazy.

“I don’t think I said anything funny,” I almost snarled.

“You didn’t,” She said after bringing her laughter to a halt. “I was just wondering whether he found anything of interest”

I remained silent although I knew the answer. My mother kept looking at me as though she expected me to say something.