The Family Project

Ren meets the kids

If Ren could get the ground to open up and swallow her whole, it would be terrific. 

Her ears are bleeding, her eyes are droopy, her ass feels numb, and she is close to sliding off from the stool and falling flat on the cold floor. 

"Renita, are you listening to me?" 

She looks up at her mother, who stands only a few feet away from her, hands on her hip in that perfect I'm close to whooping your ass pose. 

"Yes." Ren grumbles, and makes a face at the veggies that her mother bought along with her to store in the fridge. Luna Kashyap, ever the health freak, may have failed at raising two extraordinary daughters as she hoped to but she isn't going to give up on trying to enforce the healthy diet on everyone. Ever since she learned how to use social media, she got a bit too obsessed with the influencer lifestyle. She doesn't even have a big fan-following but the woman sure as heck loves herself a bit of attention. To be honest, Ren thinks her healthy smoothies and all-veggie recipes suck but the comments on her posts say otherwise so, of course, their opinions mean more than her daughter's. 

Her dad is another tool who likes thinks he's some sort of cooking extraordinaire. Moreover, he's always set on representing their Assamese culture, so, every week, there is always some new experiment he tries to engage with, never failing to call up Ren to flaunt his hardwork. He doesn't like staying away from his country. And their parents never told them about what really happened in the past. Ren never bothered to pry either.

Needless to say, Ren and Priya never met their grandparents.

Once Ren moved out, the first thing she thanked god was for freeing her from being the sole taste-checker of every experimental dish because Priya and their mother followed strict diets. She won't lie, some of them were good, but some of them tasted so bad that she had to reRenn locked up in the toilet for hours, not caring from which end she had to empty the rubbish from her body. 

God, when she said she wanted to feel younger, this isn't how she imagined it to be. 

"I'm not sure why Priya thinks it is a nice idea to have you around the kids alone," her mother says in a way that makes Ren sound more like a serial killer, "because you clearly know nothing about motherhood. I mean, look at you. You brought nothing but junk for eating. Are you sure these frozen meat packets haven't expired?" She waves the said packet, staring at it in pure derision.

Ren resists rolling her eyes. She gets off from the stool, heads over to the other end of the kitchen counter where her mother stands, still complaining: 

"Do you know how to cook? Or is it just the microwave you turn to? None of these are healthy-"

"Gee, Mom, believe it or not, some parents do feed their children unhealthy snacks." She snatches the packet from her mother and puts it in the freezer of their new...home. Temporary home. Did she think of it as theirs? Gosh, her pseudo-independent self is screaming. 

"To raise kids with bad immune systems. That's horrible parenting." 

Ren really couldn't help but snigger at that. "Oh, and this is good parenting?" She gestures at herself proudly, beaming at her mother (whose glare could kill) as if she were a masterpiece. 

Just then, god bless, the doorbell rang.

"Ah, that must be the other perfect example of good parenting." She quips, laughing wickedly after her mother smacks her arm in frustration, before marching towards the door to answer. 

"At least your sister got married and has a decent job!"

"Are we really going to talk about her marriage? Really?" Ren asks, mockingly, finding it absolutely hilarious unlike her mother who seems close to popping a nerve.