It was morning time and she was busy as a bee. As she tied her long and silky hair into a knot which from time to time inclined to open up and spread and flaunt its smooth beauty, she grumbled silently, “I have to do a lot of work in the morning until I am drained of all my energies. The breakfast should be ready on time and laid properly on the table as well as the lunch boxes along with the water bottles should be put inside the bags of my husband and of my son who do not know how to work for themselves. My husband is spoilt by my mother-in-law because she thinks that it is demeaning for a man to do household work. My husband hesitates to offer me any help even when I am overstrained with work because he says that his working at home will offend his mother. But I know that is an excuse of him just to idle away his time comfortably at home because now when his mother is not here, he is basking in the sun. Taking the warm sunrays, he is reading the newspaper without having any iota of sympathy for me who is almost in a freezing point working continuously in this cold morning.” As she was wallowing in her thoughts, the doorbell rang suddenly. For a moment, she thought her maid to be at the door but after she consulted the clock she could understand that it was the time for the sweeper. In an exasperated mood, she murmured, “Now, it is the sweeper, I have to take the garbage out. There is no second person at home to do that small work for me”. To reduce her work, she thought at first to take the bin outside but she changed her mind later. She muttered, “No, he will touch it and I will have to wash the bin again and my work will be doubled instead of being cut down, so I will better take out the plastic bag from inside of it and hand it to him. But again that problem, after I touch that polythene bag, which contains all the stinking household waste, I will have to wash my hands up to the elbows with soap water. These repeated washings of my hands due to the drudgery as well as to save the self from corona virus have dried out my hands.” She spread her hands and watched them for a while with all her sympathies welling out of her eyes for her parched hands. But as she had no time for self sympathy she diverted her focus from her hands to garbage disposal and hurried out with the transparent polythene bag containing all the yellow and blue coloured rotten materials.
She sat for a while by the dining table as she finished her quota of work in that wintry morning. She had finished her cooking and piled up all the used utensils in the kitchen for the maid to wash them. As she sat, she thought, “It has become one week of my mother-in-law’s leaving the house. While leaving, she said that she would return after three months. She is there with them because she thinks that they also need her. She thinks that she will take care of their house when both of them, her youngest son and his wife, will be at office. Now, when she is not here, the whole house seems to have withdrawn into silence. Every other morning, she would rise early, move all around and make hue and cry monitoring the business of the house. She would inspect my cooking, savour the food before it was served to her son and her grandson to see whether it was cooked properly or not. But now, when she is not here, I can at least do my work peacefully with no one at my back to supervise my work”. She was playing with her thoughts happily but was pulled out of it suddenly by a call from her husband who could not find his spectacles that he kept somewhere after reading the newspaper.
It was a big house where she found her loneliness was accentuated. Both of her son and her daughter-in-law were doing good jobs earning a lot. It was their own house that they purchased in that metropolis. They also kept three efficient servants to manage the household affairs. They got everything by the mercy of God but one of their wishes was not fulfilled. They were issueless and they stopped hoping for a child after nourishing that hope unrewardingly for twelve years of their married life. The old lady as she sat idle on the immaculate and downy bed in a well organized room thought, “Here time runs very fast but it is for others as they are struggling hard to survive. But for me time marches very slowly because I have to sit and pass my time. Starting from morning tea to dinner and all other meals in between the two, I get on time. The servants are good and take good care of me. Both my son and my daughter-in-law remain out for the whole day. They return home late from the office and after asking me about the way my day was spent they leave for their room to take rest. But I cannot blame them for that because when they come back home, they are totally exhausted and are not in a position to have tittle-tattle with me”. As the old lady thought about her state in her youngest son’s house, she missed her home badly where she lived with her eldest son, her daughter-in-law and her grandson. There she lived in a small town where guests never failed to visit her house and spend their time with her every evening. She thought of her house and visualized her room as lying empty there with no one to frequent it in her absence. She remembered how she constructed her house with much care for everyone to live there comfortably. She also recollected how she hoarded money curtailing some of her necessities to construct the house. In that house, she lived with her husband for forty years where he breathed his last. She thought that she belonged to that house as she could shout and yell at anyone there. She could also reprimand her daughter-in-law for her mistakes and keep eyes on the servants to see whether they were working properly or not or were stealing things there. There, everybody needed her because she took care of the house after her son left for his office and her daughter-in-law for her shop where she remained from 10 am in the morning till sunset. But in her youngest son’s house she could neither say nor do anything, she felt herself like a guest there. She could not even complain if she did not like any of the things there. She thought her eldest son and his wife might also missed her, they might faced problem in leaving the house all alone while going out as no one was there to take care of it. Stirring all those thoughts, she then resolved to return to them though it was her plan to go back there after three months.
He became ready and was about to leave picking up his bag from the chair that his wife made ready for his office but suddenly he heard his cell phone ringing and hence he stopped. He brought out the phone from his pocket and received the call. It was his mother who spoke to him from the other side. He became elated to hear her voice and he could be heard responding to her with the words, “Mother! How are you? Hope you are enjoying your stay there. Do they take you out to see the city? You are there for the first time. How do you find the place? Do you like the place?” Both the son and the mother kept on conversing for a while and then he concluded the call saying, “Do not worry about us. Take your time there. Stay there for some time, you will have a change and that is good for your health. Here we have kept a full time servant and when we are not at home she takes care of the house and she is also very honest and hence can be relied on. So do not worry, just enjoy your stay there. When you will come back after three months, we will move to the new house, which will be completed by that time. We will then give your old house on rent and that will be another source of income for you in addition to the family pension that you receive. So after three months when you will come back, you will be proud to see your son’s own house and to be with us there”. His wife overheard his words from first to last. Stress went on mounting in her as she heard him talking but she demonstrated a sign of relief finally giving out a deep breath after hearing his last words.
The old lady disconnecting her phone sat dismayed for a while and thought, “I am mistaken, they do not need me anymore. Now, they are on their own and I do not have to take care of them. Now, I have just to live with them in their houses as one of their responsibilities to be taken care of. Perhaps, this is the colour of every old age”.
………..Dr. Fathema Begum
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