A Visit to Make

I have been lax in visiting my mother for the past few months. We do not really live that far apart, she is only about 30 Km’s away by the road. But she lives in the countryside, a terrible one at that, though we, her children, were all born there. There is supposed to be all facilities in the place but none would be available when we were around. There would be no power, no gas, no cable and no other amenities when anybody is there. But there is this rumor that these exist in the place, though nobody has seen then in action for some considerable time now, at least we haven’t when we are visiting.

We dislike it there now, may be as we grew up our needs grew too! Both my younger sisters would come and depart mostly on the same day excusing themselves with the schooling of their children. My younger brother is abroad and would come only for a day when he was around. My mother also thinks of them as a nuisance because of the children. The children would make her run around so much that she would be sick for some days after they leave.

Not that the place has changed very much from our younger days. But my mother, she seems happy at that house with her old TV set and her tele serials. I think I caught the movie/TV fever from her (It has subsided now). My father used to look down on such things with infinite contempt. But my mother and her family are the greatest movie/TV buffs I have ever seen. They would be always glued to the TV set as if drinking every image through their eyes of the screen. The TV is totally the magic box for them

To them too it is difficult to subsist without power. This would put anybody off, especially as it is insufferable to live in the countryside both in the monsoons and in the summer( the only two major seasons we have, we have six moths of rain and the rest of heat) without power. It would be killingly hot in the summer inside the tiled house and in the rains the old house would be so dark that it would require some guts to move inside the house. When we were little we were afraid to go to the second floor even, and that too at noon on the brightest of summer days as the shades inside used to frighten us. Well it is a little vain on our part to put off the visit to our mother because of these minor inconveniences, since we have been once familiar with the conditions ourselves.

She likes it when I and my dear one visit her, because there would be no fuss when we are around. I would have nothing else to do but sleep, my companions of yester years being all settled in life and very, very busy. Even though they would invite me once in a while to their homes that’s just out of politeness and we would be both uncomfortable if we pursued it further.

So I would sleep and my mom and my dearest would either talk about everything they think of or watch TV or cook. There is some sort of chef cum servant always around and they would not have much to do with cooking. They get on well together, in fact when I had to stay with my mother for some moths they were mostly on amicable terms, very rare in mother in law- daughter in law relationships, my mother with her old world ways providing the occasional irritants.

She is a tough lady, my mother, wouldn’t budge an inch once she has set her mind on something. If she says that a rabbit has three horns that is that. There would not be any further arguments, the point being settled once and for always in her favor. I do not know what technique my dearest uses to get along with this adamant lady. Perhaps mom is a little soft in her case because I have always been the trouble maker in the family. She is literally afraid that I would do anything in the world if I get really angry. If I was not entirely the black sheep, I was quite close to it in our family. I used to get into so much trouble when I was young that my grand mother had kindly predicted that I would destroy the entire world when I become a man.

I am sorry that I couldn’t fulfill her fond hopes. I think it would have been much better for the world had I done that. She said it when I was very young, but up to the point I got married, I would periodically steal my parents sleep for days on end. My father used to say to me:

“You are useless; you would become nothing in your life”

And would add as an afterthought “You are the Jack of all trades, but master of none”

And again

“You have a lot of fancy words in your kitty; you think they are great, they would land you in trouble”

He is no more now.

I grieve deeply whenever I think of him. We fought all the way, not because of any fault of his. He was the nicest person I have ever known in this life, very, very simple, very, very honest. He could not be called an intellectual perhaps, but he was steady enthusiastic, did all with a dictum of “do the deed and do not think of the fruits there of”. He was a great soul, I could never become like him. I sometimes ruefully think that I have not brought any discredit to his name though, for people often say,

“Oh he was so nice!” and would look at me very disapprovingly.

It seems that I haven’t done much damage to his name.

Well my mom and my dearest regularly talk with each other over the phone and I would hear myself being discussed again in not very flattering terms

One would be saying

“It is your son, you know!” and the other would be responding with a laugh

‘Why did I ever give birth to him?”

There would be more laughter.

This one would then say.

“What should we do with him?”

“We can’t pack him off to somewhere can we?’

My dearest would sigh.

“Would have been better for me’

There would be laughter and tears on both sides. I could not ever guess which was which. They laugh talking about the cruelest things that I do and they cry talking of the gentlest of my deeds. I am afraid I can never understand them.

Whether I understand my mom or not I should be visiting her soon.