In 2020, The Chrysanthemum  Chronicles ran a contest on the theme Shakespeare Heroine Resurrected.

I chose Lady Macbeth ( Act 5- scene 1) because she is one of the most memorable of Shakespeare’s heroines. I particularly liked the dialogue when she says, “Here’s the smell of the blood still. All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. Oh, Oh, Oh!”

The call was at the peak of the pandemic when women all over seemed to be permanently at the kitchen sink; I decided to attempt a humourous way to recreate the monologue. I am sharing it now for holidays does come with full kitchen sinks.

Out, cursed stain! out, I say!–One…two days to now  ..two hundred days!

The Vim Bar* doesn’t do much to the,

turmeric stained sauce pan.

Why am I the only one to scrub?

Reducing my hand to sand paper.

 

’Tis your time to do’t.–

The kitchen sink is always full and

to hell with you  all….

Who wants to be either fed or pampered?

What we need is a helping hand in the absence of a maid;

Whose services this pandemic has brought to an end!

Who would have thought the Kitchen sink,

would do an ‘akshaya patra*?’

Always having dishes in them even before you pat

your back to have cleared them this once!

 

Here’s the smell of vim still: all the moisturizing lotion

will not take away the stain of dishwasher from

The lines of the hand that hasn’t had a manicure for months!

Oh, oh, oh!

 

 

The girl in me had a life: where is she now?–

What, will I never be away from the kitchen?–No more

my family, no more…I have had enough slaving over the stove or

hanging over the sink.

As of now, you all are pitching in!

 

Lend your hand; look not so

pale.

I tell you yet again, our life as we know them is buried; it

cannot come out till the vaccine is found.

To kitchen, to kitchen! there’s clamour for food again:

come, come, come, come, give me your hand. What’s

needs to be done has to be done.–To kitchen, to kitchen, to Kitchen!