The Strange Neighbor

It’s almost one year from now, when we planned to shift to a new house in a very decent locality. All of us were very excited about the house (as it was very spacious and beautiful) and the neighborhood (we were hardly disappointed).

 

Anyways, we did all the packing and moved to our new territory. In spite of being exhausted we settled down within a week.

 

From then, I have been noticing one lady with extreme behaviours, who lives just opposite to our house (our strange neighbour of course). She kept staring at us (especially me, don’t know why) from top to bottom just like some cheapster with no whistle. It makes me feel embarrassed and initially forced me to think that there could be some flaw with my clothes. Besides this, I always pretended to be normal and greeted her well but she would always give me a very cold gesture. But, as time passed, I understood that she is like this only. Well, this kept on going for few months and I convinced myself that only God knows about what’s wrong with her mind.

 

Few months later, she started small conversations with me and I responded very warmly. She would say, ‘Oh! Your son is so weak. Don’t you feed him? Leave him with me, I will make him chubby’ as if either we don’t have food at our home or she is his mother. But, I always responded with a smile at her silly comments.

 

My elder son is learning dance and we decided to let him learn at home so that he can get individual attention. When she got to know this, she started insisting, ‘Send your kid to my kid’s dance class. His learning there will be much better.’ I seriously fail to understand why few people interfere so much.

 

And to my utter amazement, after one month, she was the one who came with her kids to our house saying, ‘I want my kids to learn dance from your son’s teacher.’ I heard a small voice in my heart which was nothing but a mischievous smile!!

 

That was the day, when she started visiting our home like some shopping mall, wandering here and there, inspecting each and every room, kitchen and even bathroom. Also, noticing and touching every item without my permission and asking vague questions looking at any expensive item like AC, microwave etc., ‘Who bought it, YOU? What’s the price?’

 

Oh God! Why are some people so irritating? Who else can give this to us? Why such question whether we can afford this or not.

I am glad that she never asks me, ‘Are these kids yours or somebody has gifted them?’

 

Now I have realised that whenever she had some work or wish to take a quick nap, she send her kids (not just kids, super naughty kids) to our place saying, ‘Aunty must be feeling bored, go play with her and kids’. She is cunning enough to know that since I have two kids and lots of work to do, how can I get time to feel the boredom.

 

During summer vacations, one day, she told her daughter that, ‘We have wasted our money for sending you to computer class. You would have learned it from Aunty for free and she will be able to revise her studies’. Oh! What a great idea!!

 

She is the local news reporter who keeps a track of my husband’s office timings, his lunch menu, may be his shirt’s color too.

 

My husband always suggests me that I should give her a tough time for her strange behavior but I couldn’t gather much courage. Well, she is definitely not going to change hence I don’t want to spend my time and energy on people like her.

 

Finally, many thanks to God that we have finally decided to move to a new house before next summer. Then we will not be someone’s target for daily news updates but someone else may be.

 

But, what if, we get someone like her waiting there for us with those staring eyes and strange behavior. God please save us from these types of ‘Strange Neighbors’.

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