MOTHER… A short story by VEERINDER PATWARI LOOKING after children and taking care of them is a continuous process and a mother is universally the best caretaker. But eight year old KALPANA has been deprived of this privilege right from her birth because of her mother SHAKTI s total involvement in her profession . VASUNDHRA, the ailing lady with wisdom and confidence on the basis of her fruitful experiences reinforced by her mixed logical, emotional and psychological attitude, was tuned to her grand daughter. And thus used to help SHIVA & Shakti, both architects, to enjoy their foreign assignment which provided them professional satisfaction, glorified with financial prosperity and allied facilities. BUT within few days after her shocking death, the couple had realized that the old lady was more a help than a liability. Their planning of living a very comfortable life on Shivas salary and saving Shaktis salary was like a sinking boat. They had to abandon this plan before getting drowned. Availability of manual help was the only hope despite too many ifs and buts . Fortunately Mary bailed them out of deep waters. MARY, a young English speaking , trained cook cum house keeper has been working with them for the last six months. She is a very good house keeper too. She is a lady of few words and conveys her feeling with funny actions and warm and affectionate smiles. Her positive attitude has unknowingly filled the vacuum created by Vasundhara’s demise. She leaves the house after her daily chores. Shakti does not like to be critical without getting involved in the house hold affairs . As such trust Marys sincerity & honesty. THE family is tuned to a routine which follows are programmed structure with robotic actions of each one of them. On all the five working days , Shiva drops Kalpana at the bus stop and waits till she boards her school bus. He leaves the house immediately after that, because he has to make a 100km air dash to construction site. MARY reports for duty regularly and punctually at 8 am. She relieves Shakti and keeps doing all domestic works besides taking special care of Kalpana . Mary receives her when Kalpana’s school bus drops her back. Mary keeps her company from serving lunch till she sleeps. Mary does everything strictly according to the instructions given by Shakti. THE prosperous couple enjoy weekends with their daughter in outings and enjoying continental food. On other days they meet on the dining table . Shiva and Shakti remain busy with their lap tops catching up individual interests or curiosity while Kalpana remains connected to her own self. Though living a computerized life yet fully satisfied. SHIVA occasionally breaks the ice with his sense of humor and narrates his childhood incidents when he lived with his grandparents, uncles, aunts , many cousins. He often mentions that quite often missed special dishes due to long queues of his cousins . He would mention ,with emotional surges, that his caring grandmother would always offer her own share to him as he was the youngest He would go on to explain that every member in his family tried to make a sacrifice for sharing joy with all. WHEN Shiva was in college and had some knowledge about ants he used to call his grandmother The wise Queen of ants.. Because she too used to store , preserve and keep on replenishing all consumable daily domestic necessities at appropriate time in spite of economical hurdles. In order to avoid panic she never allowed anybody to even peep in her Banne Kuth (store). She used to give an impression that Goddess Anapoorna controlling store is kind to her. MARY often reminds Shiva of her grandmother. She too keeps on replenishing consumable eatables without making demands. Shiva often wonders if the lady with Indian thinking could be his grandmother’s rebirth ? Particularly while observing her amazing relationship with Kalpana ! She feels as comfortable with Mary as when Vasundhara looked after her ! Sometimes Shiva feels that environment provided by International schooling is helping her. They trust her because she is not an intruder but an appointee for a purpose ! HAS Kalpana matured in the company of her grandmother or has changed her outlook with influence of International schooling ? BUT Shaktis heart vibrates guilty feelings of a self-centred mother for the neglected child ! Thus she remembers her initial schooling days when her mother would drop her in class room and would keep on waiting for her return. No ! No,she was not a pampered child ! But she was mothers baby !! Such feeling drag her to on the fence every morning ! But every time second opinion helps her in reconciliation and getting convinced that her job can provide a scope for Kalpana’s bright future as such he has been following a routine for strengthening emotional link with her daughter. Every morning she prepares a special sweet dish. Captions it WITH LOVE, ONLY FOR YOU !And then hands it over to Mary with the specific instructions to convey that Mummy has made it only for Kalpana ! SHE prepared a cheese cake today and was waiting for Mary ! But for the first time during last six months she has received a phone call from Mary. HER son has contagious eye infection and she suspects she too might have contracted the infection. So she offered a substitute till she gets well. SHAKTI as a mother appreciated a mother’s concern about her child. So she refused a substitute and instantly decided to take a break from her office and thus enjoy the warmth of intimate relationship of mother & daughter. AND the day has brought excitement. She has received Kalpana when she returned from school. She had amazing talks with her friends/ co passengers in school bus, helped Kalpana in getting freshened up. Served lunch & then offered the cake. To Shakti’s surprise Kalpana took a little of it & then slept. BUT when she woke up after two hours but refused to take the cake . Instead she insisted that parents should take it as usual happening ! Shakti’s instant concern & follow up investigation have revealed a stunting truth . Kalpana has been gives just little of custards ,milk products or cakes , purposely leaving the residuals for sharing with her parents. ! SHAKTI has never seen the residual of the dishes he used to make. And then when Shiva too expressed similar feeling ,emotionally hurt mother’s minds focused on Mary ! As such convinced that she been doing the crime in disguise. SHIVA is fully aware of the drought prone conditions of the country which provides fortune to foreigners So understands the psyche of Mary. As such she is not interested in criminalizing an act done under emotional pressure. But the angry mothers heart is bleeding & as such not accepting so called thick skinned fathers lenient approach . She has called her on the contact phone number & is waiting for her call with volatile intentions. SHIVA ,who had gone to throw the waste food packet in the bin has watched a stunting scene. He was not surprised to watch a lady diving like a kite to lift the waste food packet he had thrown in the bin. But he was surprised to know that she was not amazed to find sufficient non vegetarian waste food in the packet. She cried hysterically for not finding any soft milk food residual from the packet thrown by the Indian family. Before he would laugh on the desire of a starving lady, the watch man who was the interpreter gave him a very severe shock. The lady has been finding residual milk preparation on five days of the week. She cannot give adequate breast feeding to her infant in her lap. She takes the soft dishes and then puts the chewed stuff in infants mouth exactly the way birds feed their offspring’s. SHAKTI is still in line with Mary and wants Shiva to lodge a F.I .R against Mary but when Shiva narrates the scene he had watched she feels as if getting drowned in sinking boat without a boatman SHE, as an instigated angry mother has been firing, condemning and threatening Mary. And the employer is not in a mood to accept her vague arguments and concocted stories. MARY is repeating her one line reply to too many allegations and wants permission to go home to attend to her ailing son . SHE is still on line and repeating what she has been saying humbly earlier, now in a chocked voice ….. “Madam, I have been following your instructions & throwing the waste food in waste bin ! SHAKTI wants to resume her self-interrupted talk with Mary , but feels she is dumb but not deaf !! ****************** CONCLUDED VEERINDER PATWARI COMMENTS Sunita Kaul, Rajnï Chouðhary, Harday Nath Patwari and 17 others like this. Ravinder Nath Bhat Why it is so that your stories look true ? 8 March at 00:39 • Unlike • 1 Veerinder Patwari Because I keep on observing real incidents & narrate without hyping the content. I believe in involving readers the way parallel cinema involves viewers. 8 March at 00:52 • Like • 2 Bansilal Kuchroo It is very touching but modern parents are like that but I thank my stars my family is being looked after by the real MOTHERS , it is sad but true we robe our children of their joy of sharing our love as parents very nice story .... thanks 8 March at 05:16 • Unlike • 1 Sanjay Peshin The subject itself is quite emotional and the story is amazing...Wonderful story..! 8 March at 08:46 • Unlike • 1 Omkar Koul It is indeed a moving story very close to what we find around us in real life! 8 March at 12:58 • Unlike • 2 Ravinder Nath Bhat Omkar Koul I had an alert of your comment but here is no comment of yours found. Has anybody deleted it before my sight. Repeat as it is can be helpful. Today on Sunday I was able to see the comment now. Thank you. 9 March at 16:59 • Edited • Like Malik Ajaz Wondrful story itz! 8 March at 22:33 • Unlike • 1 Zahid Mukhtar aAP KI YE KAHANI PADH KER MUJAY qUDRETULLAH sHEHAAB KAY AFSANAY ya khuda KA WOH Menzer yaad aaya tha jis main panahgazeen hokay khulay aasmaan ka neechay apnay bachay ko serdi say bachanay kay lei apnay saari kapday pahnany wali MAA ki uryaan laash dosray din loogoon ki tawuja ka merkez banti hay..........I salute you sir for your writeups always 9 March at 10:58 • Unlike • 3 Smile Bilal Great Story 9 March at 13:55 • Unlike • 1 Rubina Tabassum Mera chaman gulegulzar tha yaa rab,kiski nazar lag gai,keh de yaa rab.woh yaadon ke aahat aaj bhi dil ko dastak deti hai,maa mei to chain ke neend mei hoon,tuu bata tera kya haal hai ab.bhai ek atoot risha hai,maa aur bache ka. Yesterday at 12:32 • Unlike • 2 Autar Mota superb story . Real life identifiable characters and situations that the writer has created .Touched me somewhere inside . And then the writer has purposefully used names like Shiva , shakti and Mary so wisely . Yesterday at 13:19 • Unlike • 2 Rahul Dhar love it!!!! a mirror to the modernity Yesterday at 14:46 • Unlike • 2 Anu Lalli This is one awesome story, I am sharing this post on my wall. 18 hours ago • Unlike • 1 Veerinder Patwari THANK U. 17 hours ago • Like • 1 Anu Lalli You are welcome Sir and thanks for sharing your Short Stories. 17 hours ago • Unlike • 1 Jaya Parimu Simple narration of a story took complete charge of me. It read like true story being told without psychoanalysis or interpretations. You have an uncanny ability to understand the various nuances of life n pen them down in a simple style which leaves the reader thinking about the fast changing style of institutions of society. 17 hours ago • Unlike • 1 Veerinder Patwari Thanks for UR encouraging comments Jaya Parimu je .I keep on observing incidents & narrate with a hope to involve readers in the same way as parallel cinema involves viewers. 16 hours ago • Edited • Like • 1 Like • • Promote • Share Ajay Pandita, Sahil Qureshi, Asheesh K. Ganju and 10 others like this. Anita Patwari This is a wonderful story, enjoyed reading it, proud of you daddy:-) 11 March at 16:36 • Unlike • 1 Veerinder Patwari Thank U Putri ! 11 March at 16:44 • Like Kusum Tikoo Being a working woman i know the pain ..... 11 March at 18:02 • Unlike • 1 Roop K Bhat A realy true and story of present times,God bless u Verindar ji 11 March at 20:11 • Unlike • 1 Veerinder Patwari Roop K Bhat je, EAK kahani ko agar aayena banaya jaye ! Aur muashiray ko apne aks dekhne ka moqa diya jaye ! Aayena agar dundhla na ho ....Tuo sachi tasweer hi nazar aa jayegi ! Aap ne meri koshish ko saraha hai , iskeliye dil ki ameeq gahrayun se shukriya. 11 March at 23:08 • Like Mushtaq Bala It was treat to read the short story. Yesterday at 00:09 • Unlike • 1 Pushkar Nath Raina Interesting. Liked the story very much. Yesterday at 11:08 • Unlike • 1 Rajendra Patwari Nice subject expressed in a simple manner 22 hours ago • Unlike • 1 Qayoom Manhas A beautiful piece of Literature. U have exalted Indian culture & traditions in a nice simple style- typical of U. I pray to God to bless u with good health & long life to represent our thoughts in d years to come. Congratulations for a unique style of writing 20 hours ago • Unlike • 1 Romaish Pandita bahut dilchasap--dil ko choo gayee--MAA 19 hours ago • Unlike • 1 Asma Azmi Mother is the bank where we deposit all our hurts and worries. 24 minutes ago • Unlike • 1 Your story Mother touches the inner chord. What impressed me most is the name of characters Kalpana, Vasundhara, Shakti so on a so forth, has its own deep meaning..
Posted on: Sat, 15 Mar 2014 16:07:12 +0000
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