Send Resentment Packing!

Open your arms to happiness.

- Priya Ramesh Swaminathan

Harsha, please do as I say. No arguments please!” Sixteen-year-old Harsha was furious. ‘Why does my mother always command me to do things, just as per her wishes?’ she thought. Then she grinned inwardly as she thought, “I’ll not do what she says. I’ll do only what I want!”

Harsha resented the fact that her mother always wanted to have her way. She felt that she was always right as she was her mother. She never asked for Harsha’s opinions on any issue and always put her down in front of her friends and relatives. Harsha felt as if she was worthless. Her opinions or point of view never mattered. Was it because she was so young, or because of her mother’s feeling of superiority? Surely everything that she did couldn’t be wrong!

The feeling of resentment was compounded by the fact that her father also always sided with her mother. “Harsha, do as your mummy says!” “Harsha, listen to your mummy.” “Harsha, be a good girl and take mummy’s advice.”

The constant refrain to toe her mummy’s line, often got on Harsha’s nerves to such an extent that, one day, she ran away from her house.