I love house work!!!...and swine flu, and gutters, and lizard-infested bathrooms....

Covering my head with a sheet, I think, "Not today"..."Aaaaaargh"I just don't want to get up and face another day. Then the mental images of my aging and ailing mother-in-law, toiling away on her own come to my mind. "Alright, alright, I'm getting up already!", I bark at no one in particular.

Guilt- that is the one word that gets women out of bed everyday. Don't you for one moment think that we love non-stop work, or that we are all angels waiting to serve our Gods- the men in our lives and their assorted family members. No way!
There are a few reasons why most women(yours truly included), get up from bed to face yet another day of thankless work, another day of dreadful monotony-

a. They do not want a dispute

The last time I asked my hubby to help out he acted as if I had asked him to volunteer to work for the Al Qaeda! It was as if I had said the "unsayable". I had asked him to do the worst. And, of course, if I was being unreasonable and asking him to stoop so low, he HAD to fight for his right, right? And thus would begin the most illogical, dramatic and fearsome argument you could ever imagine. "Argument" is euphemistically putting it. Another mild word for what ensues would be "nuclear explosion". So if you want a little peace-of-mind, you just resign yourself to feeding him. At least he can't shout with his mouth full!

b. They do not mind working a bit for the greater reward- time to work more!

Might sound like something stupid, but if you really know women, you should understand that women can be complex, even confused but NEVER stupid. (What about the dumb blondes, you ask- well they are the CLEVEREST of the lot, sirree-they managed to fool you, didn't they?) If a woman wants to be left alone , free to do the work she wants, she sometimes has to compromise. They do the work others want done first. Because they know that all attempts at reason will be countered with arguments of "Oh-you-are-so-selfish..."Of course the person saying this becomes selfless, just by pointing at you and labeling you selfish first! Another pet dialogue for argument is not involve oneself in the argument, just compare the woman to another woman: "My-mom-never-spoke -to my-dad-like-that..."

c. Marriage works like a barter system

They have to make compromises or else there is no way that they can expect anything, and by that I mean ANYTHING from their husbands. A wife might just ask her husband to turn down the volume of his top-of-the-line, scare-the-pants off-your-neighbors music system, just to see him turn the volume a notch up! She might try seducing him with a negligee or try discussing the really important things like her career or her loneliness- the fact that the last human being she laughed with was the Dilbert comic strip and how she cannot stand the loneliness any more. And all she will manage to get in return would be a blank stare. Or some other pearls of wisdom like "You do not care about my needs, why should I care about yours?"

d. They fancy themselves to be some kind of Florence Nightingale-meets- Mother Teresa- meets-Sati Savitri kind of a person

Now I, by no stretch of imagination, fall into this category. But there are those who feel that until they have proved their worth as the martyr supreme, their life has not been lived well. They sweat away day and night just to be recognized with the "Most selfless mother of the year" trophy. Well, of course, such an ambition is not motivated by selfishness- no way!

e. They feel guilty about seeing others toil for them

You feel strongly about dignity of women and all that but there is also this considerate streak in you which can't see others working away day-in and day-out. So every time your mothers, sisters, sisters-in-law, mothers-in-law etc have to put in extra effort just so that you could prove a point to the men in your life, you end up feeling guilty. The men? They couldn't care less. What does it matter who is doing the work for them, they are getting the work done by someone, right? So, you wonder why you are fighting this purposeless battle where others suffer and give up in guilt.

Apart from these there are the "It has always been so type". Who feel that they have no right to change anything in the society. It was like this always- they are also the sort who justify casteism, racism.... Then there are yet others who work because there is work to be done. The men refuse to work, and somebody has to get the work done. They don't want to think further than that.

There you have it. THE TRUTH. Now while you ponder over it, let me go see what I can cook that requires least effort!