Chapter 2: Plant response to elevated CO2 - DRUM - University of ...

daughters‐in‐law had very little choices available in the clothes they wore, the
movies they saw and the songs they heard. So to some extent consciously or
unconsciously the two daughters‐in‐law harbored ill will towards Mrs. Shah’s
children too.
She was intelligent and sensitive enough to recognize this. But that wasn’t
the only reason why she gave excuses to her brothers for not attending the family
get‐togethers. When she looked beyond that, it was a lot of fun. The boisterous
talk, monopoly games and esto, with grandchildren running about home, the
constant teasing and bantering, made her feel again like a carefree happy girl,
but only for a brief moment of time, beyond that she was always aware of her
frailty here, surrounded by her fit and healthy siblings, more than anywhere else.
It was hard to understand why she had been singled out. When the talk shifted
to her brother’s swimming routine, or her sister’s dance classes, she would
invariably be turning her toes inwards and smiling just a bit too wide, praising
her brother a little too loudly. She comforted herself that she was the doctor, the
highest qualified out of them all, that she shouldn’t compare, that life had
unfolded in a different way for each one of them. Even then, like a map that is
folded incorrectly, on the wrong creases, she tries to find the right folds, the most
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