The Mother-in-Law Quotes

“You all talk about family values all the time. I am not sure what the family value is when a pair of pants is more important than wishing your family members well,”
― Veena Venugopal, The Mother-in-Law: The Other Woman in Your Marriage

“Certainly, whom you marry on that day determines how you live the rest of your life. So forget about what you’ll wear and how you’ll have your hair done, focus on finding a man who has your back.”
― Veena Venugopal, The Mother-in-Law: The Other Woman in Your Marriage

“In many of the stories, husbands who don’t stand up for their wives often end up destroying their marriages.”
― Veena Venugopal, The Mother-in-Law: The Other Woman in Your Marriage

“All relationships are the result of strategy.”
― Veena Venugopal, The Mother-in-Law: The Other Woman in Your Marriage

“The secret to the longevity of joint families lies in pretending things don’t happen.”
― Veena Venugopal, The Mother-in-Law: The Other Woman in Your Marriage

“Indian mothers do have an obsessive love for their sons. The whole notion of preference for the boy child feeds into this obsession.”
― Veena Venugopal, The Mother-in-Law: The Other Woman in Your Marriage

“Daughters-in-law who expect to live modern, post-liberalized lives are finding themselves stuck with pre-liberalized Mummyjis.”
― Veena Venugopal, The Mother-in-Law: The Other Woman in Your Marriage

“Recently, I watched an episode of The Big Bang Theory. One of the characters, Howard—an astrophysicist—is in space. His new bride, Bernadette, convinces him that it would be best if they lived by themselves when he comes back to earth and not with his loud, annoying mother. Howard agrees. He’s too scared to take ownership of the decision, so he pitches it to his mother like it was his wife’s idea. The mother yells so loud, she barely needs any equipment to be heard in space. Howard dutifully tells her that he will convince Bernadette and they’ll live with her. When Bernadette calls, he doesn’t have the, er, balls, to tell her the truth either. So he tells her all is well with the move. His counterpart, a Russian astronaut, cannot believe his country lost the Cold War to wusses like Howard. When he asks him what he plans to do, Howard has only one option. He’ll stay in space. Earth is where there are problems between his wife and mother. He’s safe in space. He’s not the only one. The world is full of conflicted husbands wishing they could be in space and”
― Veena Venugopal, The Mother-in-Law: The Other Woman in Your Marriage

“Alas, the Indian family has even more complex webs of connection than what diplomats in the external affairs ministry are familiar with.”
― Veena Venugopal, The Mother-in-Law: The Other Woman in Your Marriage

“In India, modernity is like a new outfit, you wear it only when you go out. Once home, you can take it off and go back to living like it is 1813.”
― Veena Venugopal, The Mother-in-Law: The Other Woman in Your Marriage

“In India, modernity is like a new outfit, you wear it only when you go out.”
― Veena Venugopal, The Mother-in-Law: The Other Woman in Your Marriage

“In India, marriage is a mandatory marker of time, not emotions.”
― Veena Venugopal, The Mother-in-Law: The Other Woman in Your Marriage

“Arti, who has now been married for over fifteen years, is not in the group that claimed their husbands’ non-interference was a blessing. She is firmly of the view that his failure to put his foot down is as much a cause of the unpleasantness in her life, as her mother-in-law’s downright nastiness.”
― Veena Venugopal, The Mother-in-Law: The Other Woman in Your Marriage

“It is said of the modern woman that she has to straddle several roles.”
― Veena Venugopal, The Mother-in-Law: The Other Woman in Your Marriage

“This allowance for cruelty within families is universal, but it is especially pronounced in India where the family reigns supreme.”
― Veena Venugopal, The Mother-in-Law: The Other Woman in Your Marriage

“The two big reasons for strife in a marriage are stepchildren and infidelity. A close third is in-laws.”
― Veena Venugopal, The Mother-in-Law: The Other Woman in Your Marriage

“The most puzzling aspect of Mummyji behaviour is her desire for absolute control. There is no room, usually, for negotiation.”
― Veena Venugopal, The Mother-in-Law: The Other Woman in Your Marriage

“I sometimes think about what my mother-in-law said—that I would be like a daughter to her. And I can’t stop laughing,’ she says.”
― Veena Venugopal, The Mother-in-Law: The Other Woman in Your Marriage

“business. In a recent survey conducted by the International Center for Research on Women and Instituto Promundo, 86 per cent of Indian men thought household chores were a woman’s responsibility. Even in developing countries, this is an abnormally high number.”
― Veena Venugopal, The Mother-in-Law: The Other Woman in Your Marriage

“Adjust’ means you are making a big deal out of a small thing. That yes, there might be discomfort but it is only natural.”
― Veena Venugopal, The Mother-in-Law: The Other Woman in Your Marriage

“To give ‘adjust’ its due, it is in fact the secret to the country’s low divorce rate.”
― Veena Venugopal, The Mother-in-Law: The Other Woman in Your Marriage

“These things happen, you have to adjust,’ contains within itself everything that parents want their daughters to know, especially as they get married.”
― Veena Venugopal, The Mother-in-Law: The Other Woman in Your Marriage

“If ‘adjust’ were an Olympic sport, India would be assured of a gold medal.”
― Veena Venugopal, The Mother-in-Law: The Other Woman in Your Marriage

“In May 2013, the Supreme Court had to use its super serious powers to give Mummyjis a special instruction. The crux of its statement was, and I quote, ‘A daughter-in-law is to be treated as a family member, not a housemaid.’ What kind of a non-problem requires advice from the Supreme Court?”
― Veena Venugopal, The Mother-in-Law: The Other Woman in Your Marriage

“There is no fashion police stricter than the Indian mother-in-law.”
― Veena Venugopal, The Mother-in-Law: The Other Woman in Your Marriage

“At the heart of the mother-in-law–daughter-in-law conflict lies control.”
― Veena Venugopal, The Mother-in-Law: The Other Woman in Your Marriage

“Mummyji, however, is stuck at Mughal-e-Azam. She has raised her daughter to be independent and liberal, because that was the cue she got from others around her. She thinks of the freedom she allows her daughter as a short vacation.”
― Veena Venugopal, The Mother-in-Law: The Other Woman in Your Marriage

“a monster mother-in-law is a national affliction.”
― Veena Venugopal, The Mother-in-Law: The Other Woman in Your Marriage