Oh, what was it? Where I was? It was already 1 a.m. by the time she fell asleep. There had been so much work. They had only returned home at 10 p.m. after a long day. They had gone to the mall for the first time in a while, and her husband suggested, "Why bother preparing dinner in the kitchen after going home? Let’s just eat here."
"Oh, you should have told me earlier! If we were going to have dinner here, I wouldn’t have eaten the golgappas!" she replied.
"Come on, how does eating four pani-puris matter? And if it’s really an issue, we can just wait a bit before having dinner," her husband said.
"But what will we do in the meantime? We’ve already done all the important things," she said.
It seemed her husband was in a different mood today. He quickly responded, "Oh, why does it always have to be about important tasks? Sometimes you should just enjoy some unnecessary time-pass too."
"Alright then, tell me what exactly is unnecessary time-pass? Should we ride a swing here like children or have fun with this tiny electronic car?" she said playfully.
"Let’s watch a movie in the multiplex tonight," her husband suggested.
And so, they watched the movie, had dinner, and by the time they reached home, it was already midnight.
Once they were home, her husband changed his clothes, briefly glanced at the morning newspaper, and soon began snoring. But she had a new task waiting for her.
After tidying up the kitchen, she had just picked up the oil bottle to apply it to her hair when Tapan's call came through.
"Mummy, please! Don't forget, and don’t fall asleep… I’m sending it right now, just a minute..."
Tapan was their only son, who had just entered engineering college this year and was living in the hostel. Though he was now seventeen, his old school habits hadn’t changed. Even in school, he would make his mom sit with him while he finished his homework.
Sometimes, "Mummy, please explain this one more time, the teacher didn’t explain it properly…" or, "Mummy, I’ve written it all, just check it once for grammar mistakes, otherwise I’ll have to listen to the teacher’s long, boring lecture about how we are all careless. She’ll say, ‘You kids have computers, mobiles, Google, everything to make your work easier, yet you still mess up when it comes to thinking! Can’t even check spelling? You’ve ruined grammar!’"
Then his mom would laugh while he imitated the teacher perfectly.
Today, he had to submit a project report the next day and was pleading with his mom to check it for him.
He kept saying, "Just a minute… I’m sending it…" and by 11:30 p.m., his mom was still sitting at the table, alert and waiting.
He knew his mom had studied science herself and wouldn’t be lenient. Once she received it, she would return it perfectly checked, even if it took until 2 a.m.
While waiting, she looked over at her husband, who was snoring peacefully, and stifled her yawns.
(To be continued)
