Mayadevi’s interaction with the English
Mayadevi looks a like a frail old woman, probably illiterate and looking for help among foreigners, but she chastises the young English girl sitting next to her on the plane to London for being English, talks rudely the security personnel at the airport without any fear and has her son who had not seen her in years cower like a boy of ten when he doesn’t touch her feet.
Meera's aunts finding happiness in telling about their illness.
Meera is traveling with her aunts, who all are widows. During their travel, they meet a fourth widow who was married to a doctor. They end up talking about their ailments, from harmless things like flu to serious ones like haemorrhage. They either complain of having these ailments or know some relation who has these ailments. They whole conversation moves around the ailments only, and doesn’t steer towards things like their wants, families or youth as they find their way into a friendship. Its as if their whole identities are about their ailments and not anything else.
Gajanan getting a short but spiteful woman as his wife
Gajanan often complains about having a very tall woman as his wife. He is already insecure about his looks and the height of his wife becomes a subject of humiliation for him. After he is shot in an accident, Roopbala leaves him thinking of him as dead, he married another woman, much shorter in length. However, he discovers that the woman is of a bitter personality with none of the warmness that Roopbala had. He ends up with a woman he finds physically attractive but she is not agreeable.
Neelima thinking of school
Neelima gets married while she is just a teenager to avoid going to school. She is weak at studies and hates going there. But, after her marriage, when she has to visit her paternal home, she discovers the rituals she has to undergo as a married woman, which include the freedom to move around as a girl, she had to conceal her face and be graceful. And, in punishment for her child-like behavior she is punished by denying her feast and instead giving her unpalatable food. At this point, for the first time in her life she regrets not going to school as she wouldn’t have faced all this humiliation.
Gita finding independence after following orders
Gita is a person who can’t think on her own. She always complies with what other people tell her, without caring about her own opinion. So, when her husband renounces world and leaves her, she takes a decision to live an independent life by taking up a job. But, her revolt is soon killed and she has to elope to carry out her decision, but is soon dejected due to the enormity and unfamiliarity of the task. At this point, she meets Rani Ma who shouts instructions which she follows that land her in a palace. Se slowly learns to live on her own and make her own decisions. Hence, she finds independence on someone else’s orders.
