Moms and work : Inseparable much ?

Sooo, hi! :) Been quite long since I wrote and this time I decided to dedicate this to all the mom's ! :D

It was the month of may and Dad had come to India for vacations. And it was this rare day when the promise by Narendra Modi for 24 hours of water supply seemed to break. I mean, us din pani nahi aa raha tha. So we had to go fill the required water from some tank below in the building. So mom carried  one bucket and dad, one. They came home and kept the buckets in their respective places and got back to their routine. In like a day or two mom started getting pain in her back and knees. After 30, the bone density in women reduces ( horlicks ad.). So it was like a minor pain and hence mom ignored it thinking it would get alright. But later it got really painful and she had to consult a doctor. Had to go through X-rays and stuff and the doctor found out there was a swelling in some part of mom's back. "Some" part because I don't know what medical term the doctor used, to tell where the swelling was. It was pretty serious. And she was prescribed for a bed rest of 5 days. Like total bed rest. No work at all and you gotta lie down the whole time. Because if there was too much movement, the swelling could lead to a tear and something more serious. Plus the pain mom got in her knee. That we figured out later, that it was because of the 'Surya-namaskar'(yoga) she did in her Art of Living classes. There was a tear in a tissue at the back of her knee. All in all, mom was just in real pain and needed the much deserved rest!

Hence, me and Dad took up all the responsibilities to take care of mom and home. My sister would help, but not much, she's in 10th you know! Boardssss. She's gotta study. Hmm. And I had my preparatory leave for sem-end exams. It was like a month long leave. So I had enough time to help with the home chores. Not like I didn't have to study, but who studied the whole day!

It started from morning where we got up and made up the beds and the bedsheets perfect without any creases in the bedsheet. Exactly like mom does. Not exactly though, she just makes things perfect. We couldn't. Then the dusting and keeping back the things in places. We were two, dad and me to do everything. Mom does it all alone. After me and my sister go to college and school, respectively. And we have all our books and stuff scattered around the house and the bed and the towels and clothes hanging on door handles. Don't tell me its not the same at your home. Because I know it is. :P So even we tidied up the home in the morning. Then it was time for breakfast. Mom gives us our breakfast right on time. In our hands. Our favourite food. But we kind of made it late to serve it to mom. Because, 1) We didnt know the recipes of what we decided to make and mom had to tell us the ingredients and when to put them in.  2) We were too slow with every work we did. No habit of working with accuracy and speed like mom. But then we finally did make it and serve it to mom, lesser taste plus slow service. Still she said she liked it and ate it. Not like we do, nahi pasand nahi khayenge. Mom's are just too sweet, aren't they ? :)  Then after the breakfast we used to be kind of free. The maid came and did all the cleaning and stuff.  Then later we put in the clothes for washing and after they were done hang them on those ropes for drying. Its not like we did too much work till the noon but after doing a little I used to go lie down for an hour. As if gifting myself some time to lie down after toiling hard, when I didn't actually toil a tiny bit compared to what our moms do.

Then there was noon and time for lunch. We asked mom what all vegetables we had at home and she suggested what would be the easiest for us to make. While what we do is "demand" for the yummiest and the toughest dishes to be made. Had it been in our hands, we'd ask our moms to make something fancy everyday of the week! Anyway, mom asked us to make simple dishes like dal-chawal, easy-subzis and roti. We managed to cook pretty well. Not as good as mom's but yes, eatable and not bad. Mostly I cooked, because mom didn't like Dad to be cooking when he was here for his vacations. I didn't either. So he just "guided" me on putting the least possible oil and salt! :P Plus dad cooks his own food in Saudi Arabia so when he's here mom wants him to just rest and relish the delicacies mom plans and literally makes a list of cooking them for him. It was vice versa this time. We cooked for mom. I prepared the dough and made the rotis. They turned out good some days and horrible looking maps on the other days (they were never un-eatably bad though, I would be a good cook someday! :P). Mom dad ate them anyway. :) Though my sister did tell me when the rotis were not up to the mark. Aaj rotiyan soft nahi bani! I took it as positive criticism. ( NO. I told her, khud banake dikha. :P )

Lunch done. It was evening and time for a little home-cleaning again. Plus ironing of clothes. We don't give them out for getting ironed. I ironed. For me it seemed like heaps of clothes. And my back hurt after I was done. My back hurt after ironing just once. Mom does it everyday. 365 days. Plus-minus a few days. So, ironed. Putting the clothes back to their respective cupboards. Preperation for the dinner. Mom's always in a dilemma what to cook. Because what my sister liked, I hated and what I liked, my sister made a face while eating it. So mom always has to cook whats common favourite to both of us. Keeping her likes aside, always. But Mom ate everything we cooked. Good enough or not. Cooked enough or not. All was good to her. Plus if somedays, if the maid decides to ditch us and not come to work, without telling; you gotta do the sweeping and mopping etc. When I or my sister have to do when the maid doesnt come, we keep ranting and cursing and do the work so that the whole neighbourhood would also know that the maid didn't come and we did the work!! While if we aren't at home and the maid doesn't turn up, everything would be done by mom just perfectly and we woudn't even know that mom had to do all the work.

Mom was fine in a few days and everything was back to routine. She worked, we rested. As if we had worked for ages. Whereas mom has the same amount of huge work everyday. 365 days. Plus-minus NO day. Then a few days back I was just lying and double tapping Instagram pictures on my phone and  mom was working and she was too tired. She kind of yelled at us for not doing a single thing all day and she has to do everything. It was legitimate. We actually don't do anything the whole day. Everybody has a limit and clearly she was too tired and frustrated. But I yelled back, "kind of" yelled back like a snob and said I would do the dishes that day. I never yell at mom or dad. Ask my mom! :P That day I just did, I don't know why. So I got up and did the dishes. There were not too many vessels to be washed. But while doing the dishes after a while my back started to pain so bad like I had to bend and straighten my back from time to time while washing. And I was like, what is happening?! I wash the vessels one freaking time and my back starts to hurt!! And mom who has just been fine one or two months back does the vessels 2-3 times a day. Imagine the amount of pain she goes through. I felt horrible, terrible, unspeakable. I felt extremely sorry for yelling at mom. It just kind of sinked in how much Mom does for us without a complain.

Since that day I've been trying to be a little more helpful to mom in some or the other way. I didn't say sorry to her though. In our home we don't have the thing of saying sorry if you make a mistake. We just do something for each other in a way that would show we're sorry and try making up for it. I like it that way.

Its just after these incidents I really know the value of what and how much Moms do for us. They are awesome! And they should be showered, or maybe waterfall-ed with love and respect and care for being so so amazing. And the exact same or even more amount of affection should be returned right back to Moms. They sacrifice and do everything for us with no complaints, no demands. So generous. So considerate. So selfless.

Love you Mom. <3 :)