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!
This was published way back in 2020 in the brilliant magazine Chrysanthemum Chronicles for Shakespeare Heroine resurrected.
This blog post is part of ‘Blogaberry Dazzle’
hosted by Cindy D’Silva and Noor Anand Chawla
in collaboration with Bohemian Bibliophile.
The way you’ve flipped Lady Macbeth’s guilt into the daily grind of kitchen chores is brilliant and that “Vim Bar” line made me laugh and wince all at once. You captured how the pandemic turned homes into pressure cookers, forcing so many to scrub and carry roles far beyond what one ever signed up for.
Pitching in we all must and at all times. By the way – Who would have thought the Kitchen sink,
would do an ‘akshaya patra*?’ was just gold !!
You had me smiling so wide that my mouth could have fallen off! Lovely take and so good to know it was published. “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!” This is so true! Happens every time we clean something,
This may have been written in 2020, but it still holds true – and I guess it always will. Kudos to your imagination, for giving it this brilliant twist!
Wow, this was so creative and I loved the way you have used Lady Macbeth’s speech.
I loved this satire on Macbeth. To kitchen, to kitchen, reminds me of the rhyme..To market to market :p
My mom, when we were young, never let us wash clothes, saying our hands would get rough with the detergent. At that time, we did the dishes with ash, so our hands were fine with doing dishes.
Okay, this is genius! Taking Lady Macbeth’s iconic “damned spot” and putting it in a kitchen sink? The domesticity of it all, but with that same deep psychological drama – it’s giving high art meets my own Monday morning coffee stain stress. Love it!
Oh My God you just nailed it …. You are just fantastic… what an imagination with the sink to shape it into a wonderful piece. Lady Macbeth…. how you got such a brilliant Idea… I am reading it after dinner and when I look at my sink…. I cant control my smile.
I absolutely love this weave of imagination. Macbeth was one of my favourites
Love this witty satirical take. It made me chuckle and also relate. But at the same time I felt grateful too because at my home during the pandemic, everyone pitched in in every little task.
This was so witty and a clever take on Lady Macbeth. Every bit of it is relatable, and yet the comparison to LM makes it even more delightful.
Absolutely brilliant! I love how you’ve humorously resurrected Lady Macbeth in a pandemic-era kitchen, blending Shakespearean drama with everyday domestic chaos
Lady Macbeth would faint knowing how her lines have transformed to navigate the kitchen sink ordeal! This was crisp and very witty indeed. Vim too found a place for itself in this recreation.
Brilliant recreation, Chandrika. Period. Loved it!
That was brilliant 👏👏👏kudos to your creativity 👌
I am sure Shakespeare would have written a dark comedy on COVID 19 if he would have been around and it would definately had something like this…
Hahaa I think many of us can identify with this sentiment!