Short Story: Minny by Manju Bal Krishna Panda

Manju Bal Krishna’s short story Minny is based on real-life characters; written from the woman’s perspective about the crumbling relationship with her husband, Jeet, the mistrust, the lack of love, and everything in-between.

Middle-class families are honestly quite middle-class. Mine was too and I hated it. We had enough but I wanted more, more of good clothes, jewellery, a loaded bank account, the good life in short but without lifting a finger. I dreamt of winning a jackpot or just getting lucky. How was I going to get rich? I didn’t know yet. On finishing college, I began taking up part-time jobs but frustration and disinterest set in quickly.

I wanted a job near home with a fat salary and a smaller number of working hours but the employers kept asking for better skills and education. They’re so unfair with freshers so I changed job after job on a whim. Mother said that I was being overambitious and silly. What’s wrong with being ambitious? And I am smart, smarter than almost everyone I know, not silly as my mother says.

One fine day father announced the clipping of my wings. He said that I should clear the way for my younger sisters. The eligible boy and his family arrived, the meeting and formalities over, I was ‘okayed’. That’s how Jeet came into my life. He belonged to a well-to-do family of four. His elder sister was already married.