the village well

When I wrote about the psychic families I was not talking about anything new.
These have existed for ages. It could be the communal washing area of the Pakistani women, which collectively beat up a man who used to wife beat.

Traditionally Indian women met at the village well, gossiped, washed clothes, got their children married, handled in-law problems, whatever. It was the peer group, the social security or the psychic family.
 Take a look at the school parking slot, you’ll find the urban village well. The young mothers, starting off with shy smiles, slowly evolving into acquaintances, and then friends.
The half an hour wait, is the mother’s peer group of sharing, supporting and letting steam go. Maybe some  years down the line children would drift away from these friends, but the mothers have the bond still existing.
This psychic family is not the family that you are born into or you marry into, it’s the family that comes to you on its own based on shared experiences.