bickering – A quarrel about petty points. Argue over petty things.
tittering – Being or sounding of nervous or suppressed laughter. Laugh nervously.
The Desai household had two brothers, Hari the elder and Shri the younger. Hari was the sober kind who adhered to all his parental commands. So when his parents suggested that he get married to a ‘very-nice-girl from the same caste’, Hari obliged them with all his heart and got hitched to Prerna. She was decent looking and appeared to be shy and innocent. Shri was the more rebellious sibling and most of the time did what he pleased. Having been into a cross-caste relationship for a reasonable amount of time, he was forced to marry early in order to avoid communal scrutiny. Just following his brother, he tied the knot with Jennifer. All four of the newly-weds lived happily under the same roof.
“How was your honeymoon brother?” asked Shri playfully to his elder brother. Shri and Jennifer had the most amazing holiday together. Their social media pages were full of pictures and lines portraying the success of their intimate voyage. Hari on the other hand had a seemingly dull honeymoon; on account of the alien-ness of his new wife they were forced to keep the coital acts to a minimum, much opposed to the usual notion of a honeymoon. Hari replied nervously, “It was ok I guess. We did a lot of sightseeing and a lot of talking. Prerna is very timid and is taking time to open up.”
The household was a mellifluous carnival of Shri’s and Jennifer’s liaison. Their lovable bickering filled the hallways. Their whispered tittering filled the bedroom. They showered each other with surprises of various magnitudes; the very-frequent being ice-cream and the rare being gold jewelry.
Decking up and attending superfluous social engagements formed an integral part of their lives; the pleasure in showing each other off was immense. All this while, Prerna and Hari continued their reticent existence, still behaving like strangers stuck together on a long journey. Prerna sometimes missed her parental house and cried. Hari felt clueless at making her stop but gave his best shot at it anyway. “You can always go and stay with them for a few days if you want”, said Hari compassionately, “I wouldn’t mind at all”.
“How can I? I would not feel right leaving my husband alone”, Prerna said sobbing. ‘You better go if you want to. You are no good staying here anyways’, thought Hari sadly but refrained from uttering it. Owning to their ‘arranged’ state of matrimony there was no real affection between them, on account of that they could not connect on an emotional level. Their exchanges were limited to congenial trivia.
Both the Desai couples were blessed with gorgeous baby boys. “I am going to raise my little boy like a nice catholic. Going to Sunday mass, singing Christmas carols, he is going to be adorable”, said Jennifer excitedly. She remembered her ceremonious childhood days and wished to instill the same in her son, with a strong determination. “Is this a joke? You want my son and heir to read the Bible when he should be chanting the verses of Bhagwat Gita? Look at Hari, he is doing such a great job with his child, raising him with such great virtues. I do not approve of this darling, end of discussion!” Hari said, rather overelaboratinly. But this didn’t sit well Jennifer, why shouldn’t she be allowed to raise her son as she willed. Why a husband’s religion was always preferred over the wife’s, and with this she dived into a furious argument. This soon spun into a perpetual disagreement between the two as a result of which their son was going to become bi-cultured for the rest of his life.
“I can’t believe that we did it. I never thought our awkward love would produce such a beautiful outcome”, said Hari, as he caressed a strand of hair over Prerna’s ear, while the toddler whimpered in the background. “This is the most amazing thing that has ever happened to me”, Prerna said with a blush on her cheek, “I don’t know what it is, I don’t know how to say it.”
“Don’t be shy, you can say anything to me, you know that”
“I think I am in love with you!” Hari cut her off with a passionate kiss and they made real affectionate love for the first time in their married life.
Theirs was not a love driven by worldly possession. Gifting each other anything or dressing up exquisitely or being flamboyant for the other’s sake was never a part of their love regime. Theirs was a simple kind of love, one that is driven by a simple touch on the cheek or a kiss on the forehead or clasping of hands while in bed. Maybe it was the toddler who bought the sudden change in their hearts. The adolescent had indeed bought them together. They raised him up with love and care and didn’t impose any sort of religious obligation on him.
Jennifer was successful in spreading the religion dilemma of their son into other contours of their life. Whenever things came to their son, there were always two aspects, ‘What Jennifer wanted for him’ and ‘What Shri wanted for him’. She had managed to begin a sort of tug-of-war for their child. Poor kid was always torn between his parental preferences. Jennifer’s unruliness also amplified several times and started causing a lot of unrest between the happy couple.
This went on for years and years. The circle of life kept on churning and churning. Time continued to teach Hari and Prerna to become more entangled with each other. Soon they became the best of friends and also the closest of lovers. Their love for each other had become foremost, coming before everyone and everything, yes, even before their son. The same Time blighted Jennifer’s and Shri’s love with wrecking consequences. Jennifer’s headstrongness accentuated and crept in all of her behavior. This rocked their foundations of love so much so that Jennifer had to resort to her parent’s house from time to time.
Their child continued to develop a bi-cultured identity. Not liking either one religion wholeheartedly but enduring both, just for his parent’s sake. For Shri the happiness of the kid was of prime importance but for Jennifer raising her egoistic pennant leapt ahead of every other thing.
The only thing Shri took from the Christian religion was the drinking and took to the bottle way too often.
All the Desais were wrinkled now; not beyond recognition, just a little bit on the surface. Their children grown up now and part of the bigger outer world.
“How the things change. Who could have anticipated that we would end up like this?” said both, Hari and Shri in their respective bedrooms, to their respective wives. Hari and Prerna were sitting in each other’s embrace when he said this. Both looked at each other lovingly and thought about their day of marriage. They were so scared and nervous about the other person, dwelling on that uncertainty made them even happier.
In the other room Shri clenched his head and wondered what went wrong. “You went wrong dear”, burst Jennifer into a spontaneous argument, “you were so perfect before marriage and then you changed. You never used to argue but you have argued with me every single day” she stiffed and looked the other way, engrossed in her activities. Shri sat up thinking for a while, pondering over his life choices. He slept with uneasiness and in his mind thinking about some alternate reality in which Jennifer would have been a different and a more lovable person.
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Research in India shows Happiness in love Marriage start high with happiness, and decreases over time. While happiness in arranged marriages start low in
happiness and increases over time. see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJryWO1Dvvk ( 10 th minute )
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This is part of the series on Descriptive Adjectives and words for Creative Writing
To learn the ” meaning ” of an adjective or word from the story. Stories are known as fiction because they have fictitious characters.
An acerbic criticism of some imaginary
( gulling, gamey, clamant, exigent, blabbing, gabbling, palavering, crotchety, inveigling, cantankerous, blarneying, wheedling, chousing ) women.
Strange is this world …. Even the most harridan woman expects her husband to be uxorious.
Reading all the stories will teach you most useful, practical, adjectives for women. The verbs explain what women do in the stories.
Make sure you see
and
https://skmclasses.wordpress.com/accolades-and-appreciations-received-from-students-and-parents/
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acerbic – Sour or bitter in taste. Harsh or corrosive in tone. “an acerbic tone piercing otherwise flowery prose”.
gulling – Make a fool or dupe of. Gull – Fool or hoax. codding. twitting – Harass with persistent criticism or carping.
carping – Persistent petty and unjustified criticism. Raise trivial objections.
caviling. chicaning. chousing – Defeat someone through trickery or deceit. jockeying, shafting
gamey – Suggestive of sexual impropriety. racy.
clamant – Conspicuously and offensively loud; given to vehement outcry. Demanding attention. “clamant needs”. clamorous.
strident – Being sharply insistent on being heard. “strident demands”. Unpleasantly loud and harsh. sibilant. spirant. fricative. continuant.
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exigent – Demanding attention. “regarded literary questions as exigent and momentous”. Requiring precise accuracy.
“became more exigent over his pronunciation”.
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blabbing – blabbering – Divulge confidential information or secrets. Speak (about unimportant matters) rapidly and incessantly. gabbling.
maundering. prating. clacking. gibbering. palavering. peaching. piffling, Piffle, prattling.
tattling – Prone to communicate confidential information. Speak (about unimportant matters) rapidly and incessantly.
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inveigling – Influence or urge by gentle urging, caressing, or flattering. blarneying.
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wheedling – The act of urging by means of teasing or flattery.
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harridan – A scolding (even vicious) old woman. nagger.
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vicious – (of persons or their actions) able or disposed to inflict pain or suffering. “vicious kicks”. Having the nature of vice.
Bringing or deserving severe rebuke or censure. Marked by deep ill will; deliberately harmful. “vicious gossip”.
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uxorious – Foolishly fond of or submissive to your wife.
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huffy – Quick to take offence. Roused to anger. “stayed huffy a good while”.
hollering – A very loud utterance (like the sound of an animal). Utter a sudden loud cry.
beefing – Complain. grousing. squawking. Utter a harsh abrupt scream. skreighing. screaking. whining. yawping. yammering. wrawling. yowling.
scheming – Concealing crafty designs for advancing your own interest. “a scheming wife”; “a scheming gold digger”.
Scheme – Form intrigues (for) in an underhand manner.
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A truthful summary of huffy women is given at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIpmML49hMU
The best site to prepare for GRE, SAT, GMAT, TOEFL, IB, English skmclasses. Learn tough, rare words by reading short stories.
All short stories free for you.
Top 10 rare words, Top 10 adjectives for women, Top 10 rare words are tiny compared to
Top 100 rare words, Top 100 adjectives for women, Top 100 rare words;
or say Top 1000 rare words, Top 1000 adjectives for women, Top 1000 rare words. You get all of these here.
You also have top useful words, most obscure words …. etc.
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