A fine balance

Christine borrowed "A fine balance" from Beth's library and has been reading it.

Christine: "I have to tell you, working in India in the 1970s was really awful!"

Tom: "Like how so?"

Christine: "Like, you would be doing hard labor under the worst conditions for essentially nothing... You'd work all day and in return you'd get, like, a twig. And if you showed up a little bit late, your boss would chop off your feet^1 and stuff them down your throat."

Tom: "Mmn...sounds like marriage"

Christine says I'm funniest when I'm being mean to her. I'm not quite sure what to do about that. Tom

^1 edited for modesty