My mother-in-law looks at me and smiles, "Is it time to get up?" she asks in a little girl voice. "Yes, it's evening now and it's time for your tea" I reply. She gives me a puzzled look. "Where have you come from? Do I know you?"
I ignore her question. Instead I tell her to have her tea. She looks frail and forgetful. Suddenly there is a terrible stink.She's doing her job in her diapers. I pull her up from bed and she pulls back angrily. "Where are you taking me?" her voice is at once suspicious and defiant.
"Mama, let's go to the toilet."
"Leave me," she pulls away and tears at the diaper. I feel her poo plopping on my bare feet as the diaper comes loose from one end. UUUUGH!!! I finally manage to take her to the toilet amid loud protests and gaalis and make her sit on the commode leaving a trail of poo from her bed to the seat. I'm suffocating from the odour that envelops the closed toilet and the bedroom. First I wash my feet with dettol, soap and more dettol and soap, then I clean up the mess and bathe MIL and change her sheets and put her back to bed then clean my feet again before going for a bath(my second that morning)
Later on I wipe the vomit off her face after she'd overeaten and give her a good scrub, wash her pillow and sheets and tuck her back in bed. I comb her hair and powder her after bathing her. Most of the time she gives in meekly, but sometimes she pinches me and swears at me. Tells me to stop harassing her. Sometimes she thanks me and showers me with her blessings.
I wonder if she remembers me as the person who was the target of the viscious side of her personality? She was a dedicated housewife and over protective mother who ran her house military fashion with a passion bordering on obsessiveness. With my arrival as the daughter-in-law who should not have been there in the scene at all, all her frustrations were directed at me. I was the outsider who intruded into their happy threesome.

Recipe for the perfect Indian daughter-in-law:

A dollop of creamed Fair and beautiful
A cupful of Good family stock
1 tbsp compatible sauce
Large helping of obedience milk
mugful of wealth spread
A dash of brain powder

Instructions: Mix all ingredients together using all your skills and bake in preheated oven (Maximum heat) Baking time according to your taste.