As I sit here on my higher-than-I-wanted bed, staring out of my bedroom window at the quiet rain & even quieter trees, there are many thoughts in my head, all at the same time, It's like a zoo in here. No, jungle. No, zoo. Somewhere in between. The haphazardness of a jungle yet the civilized organization of the zoo. I am staring at the clean washed road, Willow Drive, in front of me. This Willow Drive has been my address for two years now. It is so familiar, yet so unfamiliar. It is so close, yet so distant. So known, yet so mysterious. Willow Drive, strangely today, is reminding me of Maa.
Now, my mind has wandered back to the time I was in college.2001. Yes, 10 years back. A long, long time ago that was. After spending the entire day in college, blabbering till my jaws hurt. I used to walk back in lazy, small steps to the one place always welcoming - Home. The bus stop was about 15 minutes away & on most days I preferred to walk, over taking a rickshaw. Pretty straight road, just a couple of lefts & rights. The last right was on a road very much like Willow Drive & on the very end of this road was my house. About when I was two-thirds done walking down that road, I could catch a glimpse of Maa sitting on the swing in the balcony, staring at the road. When her eyes met mine, I had always noticed them light up, then a smile illuminate her face & finally she would get up and take those 10 steps forward to come stand by the railing. I wasn't much of a body language expert then. I would like to blame it on being 'young'. But now I'm older & I like to believe 'wiser'. :) I think those gestures meant longing, showed how much I was missed the entire day, what a big deal it was that I had been away for 10 hours. And now she wanted to be as close to me as possible & not waste a single moment.
On most of these days, I either had a private tuition to give & hence a student waiting in the study room; Or a very important call to make to yet again those college friends I had spent the entire day with; Or to call some boyfriend very conveniently disguised under a girl's name like 'Amita' for 'Amit' or 'Smita' for 'Smitesh', Or on some unavoidable days do assignments & study. Two minutes or may be three is what I had for mom. For the person, who had just spent from sunrise to sunset, waiting for me to come back & talk to her a little, that is all I had. Compassion, I had even then; Understanding, may be not so much.
Today, I am 8000 miles away from home & there is very little I can do to make up for this. The reason I am blogging about this is because I'm hoping at least one person reading this & fortunate enough to still be able to make a difference, will do it, and do it now! Today, when you get back home from school/college/office or wherever, even if there are a thousand chores lined up, hold on. They can wait. Just walk into that kitchen where she is busy brewing tea or making coffee for her exhausted child; grab her, and show her you realize how much someone has missed you all day.
