"Please don't close the shop, I need to pick that one up today itself at all costs", wailed Samaira as her little boy's words echoed in her ears that she must fetch an excellent waterproof watch for dad, to be submitted in school, the next day for Father's Day celebrations. While the shop keeper obliged, she almost mechanically bought one, her mind clogged with the fact that it was already half past 9 in the night and she must reach home as fast as she could and cook so that her boy doesn't doze off without dinner.
Samaira was a very well educated
banker working at a senior position in a banking job and was currently serving a
semi-urban posting 55kms away from her home. Though her job satiated her in
every regard but the commuting took a toll on her. Anyway, she never let it come in
the way of her responsibilities at home.
Back home, she headed straight to
kitchen without even managing a change and in 30 mins they were all on the
dining table. She , her husband , her 7 year old boy and her old inlaws. Her little bunny peanut, Anmol
was the first one to break the silence, "Mom, Why are you so
late?".
"I went to buy the Father's Day
Present sonny, am sure you'll like it!" She tried to smile hiding her
tiredness and trying to break the sullen looks on everyone's face.
"But that present is not for me,
it's for dad. You don't love me mom..You come late everyday. My friends' moms
spend so much time with them." He signed off innocently and retired to his room. No
matter how hard she yearned to please her little munchkin, this was what she heard
from him more often than not.
She cleared the dining table and
approached his room to sing him his favorite lullaby but unfortunately he has
slept by then. She caressed and kissed his forehead, laid his school bag and uniform
for the morn and then made her way to kitchen to make cooking preps for the
next day.
In bed at 1130, she quickly put the
alarm for 5 in the morn to finish cleaning and cooking for all 5 of them before she would
leave for work. She looked at her husband, tried to smile to him, but by this
time her tiredness had taken over her and she didn't realize when she skid
into deep sleep.
As usual she woke to an unending
guilt of being a failed mommy, wifey and daughter in law. Nevertheless not giving up on trying she embarked on
preparing Anmol's Favorite Pav-Bhaaji so that it makes him happy even if that's
for a moment and in that moment he will forgive his mother. She juggled with umpteen other morning jobs in the next hour,
trying to lay everything perfect before everyone else gets up, not having the faintest idea of the
chaos that would follow in the next few minutes.
She was startled by a loud cry of her little boy only to know that his school was to start an hour early today on account of Palkhi, and he
is very late already. The fact that Samaira has forgotten to check his dairy
last night was enough for everyone to get wild on her and reiterate how they
found her to be an irresponsible mother too busy in making money. Neglecting the
scoldings, she readied him in next 5 minutes and dropped him school with the
help of her husband, whom she believed she was guilty of too, of not being able
to give him desired love and care. All the guilt was building on too harsh on her.In her urge to give them the best, she even able to manage the better.
As she readied herself to go to work,
the mirror revealed to her how frail , weak and lusterless she looked and
lusterless her life has turned too. No one would believe that she was the same
pretty , flamboyant and chirpy young girl, who some years ago was the pride of
our college.
Her husband has stood by her
ambitions and initially quality time in the weekends complimented for the their overtly busy week days but now with him, mostly being on overseas assignments
and weekends mostly going in long physiotherapy sessions and doc visits to very
very old in laws, she felt all sucked up. All this has also created a void in his
little Angel's heart who felt deep, that mom doesn't love him anymore. She wanted to shout out
aloud to him that he meant the world to her and there is nothing more precious for her than to hold him in her arms forever but time crunch was a vicious circle she
was so badly entrapped in.
Despite of all this, I knew my friend
Samaira had far more endurance and also the power to turn the things upside
down but a message from her last night perplexed me, which said, " What is
the point in leading a meaningless life in which I can't make anyone
happy!"
I did not reply immediately and tried
to analyse all the aspects. In the next couple of times we met over coffee, we
tried to find simple solutions of making her life a little better initially and
then march towards perennial betterment.
First of all, we decided to make her
give up her urge for perfection to give her family nothing less than the best and hire a 24X7 domestic help and
handover all her chores including cooking to her, choosing only to guide
her.
Then we applied for a job for her at
a number of banks within the city as well as for transfer in the current bank
so as to save on her commuting time.
We made Saturday as Anmol-Mommy Day
where both of them went out and spent 4-5 hrs together, talking ,
sharing , playing and eating together.
Rather than going to the
physiotherapists, we hired home physiotherapists and made many such little
alterations in her lifestyle to save time.
Fortunately, after the initial
inertia at home of the maids ruining the home and can't take care of the home
like the lady of the house etc, things started to look up for Samaira and she
started to regain her confidence. Simple things made her carve her way out of a trap that almost stifled her to death sometime back.
With the time she spent with Anmol,
she explained to him that how mamma loves him the most but also loves her work
and is proud of her boy who understands this so well. She also promised him that they will go for a holiday of a month and stay with dad in whichever part of the world he will be in during his summer vacations.
In due course of time, she did get a
transfer within the city and when she broke the news to her little boy, he ran
to hug and kiss her, " I know you love me so much mom, that you took a
transfer here for me, I love you so so much
"
His words were like honey to
Samaira's ears and she felt as if she is freed of a long impending curse.
Dear Readers, I trust you are finding
the #FoodforThought Series worthy of a cause.Will be absolute pleasure hearing
from you, how you related with the above post?
-Truly Yours
Roma
Have you Read our earlier post in this series:
No comments:
Post a Comment