Raj chuckled, having finally figured out why I wanted the same dish as his mother’s. “You’re brilliant, babe!”
Arvind’s wife, Aunt Neela, leaned forward, her bangles clinking. “So… wait. We all thought we were eating your food… and we criticized it…”
Arvind turned red. “We were set up!”
“No,” said Dev with a grunt. “We were exposed.”
Neela looked at Priya, eyes narrowing. “You’ve been turning us against her this whole time?!”
Suddenly, everyone was turning against her, chastising her, and basically making her feel bad!
Priya just kept brushing them off, telling them to, “Just shut your mouths, you don’t know anything!”
No one touched her dish after that!
Arvind was the first to dish up my actual dish, and the praise was the validation I’d wanted ever since I started dating Raj!
Even the children noticed that there was nothing wrong with my dish.
Well, some actually favored mine over my MIL’s. The youngest cousin, little Rani, chimed in, “But I like this one better. Can I have more?”
Raj passed her a piece of bhature from my bowl.
Priya stared at her hands, then slowly lifted her fork and took another bite from her own dish, the one she hadn’t realized was hers.
Everyone watched as she chewed. Then swallowed. She didn’t say a word. But she reached over and scooped seconds from my bowl!
Raj grinned at me across the table. “Told you they’d love it!”
His mother hated that.
But I never imagined the day would come when she would say nothing instead of something awful. That was more powerful than a thousand compliments!
We stayed late that evening. It was the first time I truly enjoyed being with the family. We sang some very spirited karaoke, some members laughing at my bad pronunciation of the lyrics.
But most of all, that was the last time Priya mocked my food.
This work is inspired by real events and people, but it has been fictionalized for creative purposes. Names, characters, and details have been changed to protect privacy and enhance the narrative. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental and not intended by the author.
The author and publisher make no claims to the accuracy of events or the portrayal of characters and are not liable for any misinterpretation. This story is provided “as is,” and any opinions expressed are those of the characters and do not reflect the views of the author or publisher.
