BHOPAL: The age-old patriarchal notion that women should not only know how to cook but cooking and serving food is their responsibility has brought a two-and-a-half-year-old marriage on the brink of collapse.
The husband, 35, who works as an accountant in a bank, has filed for divorce in the Family Court, Bhopal, on the ground that his wife doesn’t know how to cook and also that she is ‘slow’ in doing household chores, Sindhu Dholpure, a counsellor at the Family Court has told Free Press.
Both the husband and the wife are Malayalees. While the husband has been living in the city for long, the wife was in Kerala, working as a teacher in a college, when their marriage was solemnised. After marriage, she quit her job and shifted to Bhopal. The two families had come into contact with each other through a mediator.
According to Dholpure, more than the husband, it is his mother who has objections to the wife not knowing how to cook. Things were fine between them for a year or so. After that their differences came to the fore and both are now in the court.
Dholpure says that the wife is not willing to end the marriage and to dissuade her hubby she has demanded an alimony of Rs one crore in return for agreeing for divorce. The husband wants to settle the issue for Rs 20 lakh.
Dholpure says that seeking divorce on petty issues is becoming increasingly common, mainly because couples have too many expectations from each other. “They are not ready to give time for things to settle down,” she adds.