Disha Khanna woke up to witness a pleasant, rainy weather. Had her topmost priority for the day been of lesser importance, she could have dozed off again on any other Sunday. But this was something that must be taken care of. Her husband had left early morning for a Business conference in Mumbai , and there was no way she could rely on any other person for the chore that needed to be attended to.
Getting down from her cozy, remote-controlled water-bed, she went straight to the bathroom for a quick shower.
'I hope Anil did not take away the cash I had kept in the cupboard. I'm such an idiot that I didn't remind him not to'
Disha could hear the machines, big and small, doing the rounds of the house. Every day the alarm went off at 11 AM, and the shelves, furniture and floors would be cleaned, leaving no speck of dirt anywhere within the premises of her 3 BHK house.
After taking the bath, she had to face the little tantrums of her two-year old son Sanket while taking his clothes off and pouring cold water over his round, tiny head. The world had drastically changed, but motherhood was still a challenging but an equally delightful task.
After making the reluctant kid gulp down his bottled milk for breakfast, she went to her room and groped to find the sealed envelope in the lower shelf of her cupboard. She heaved a sigh of relief immediately.
'Thank God it's all here', she managed a smile and came back to the dining room. Taking the car keys and her handbag in one hand and holding Sanket's little hand in the other, she went out of the main door, opened the zipper of her purse and took out her Constellation Tab to lock the house.
It was a five minute drive from Shivalik to Manav Bharti School. Thankfully, Disha had a car in the house that made it convenient for her to carry the household durable and non-durable items. The couple had got the latest Hyundai model at a price much less than its original cost, after agreeing to an irresistible deal offered by the Sales Manager.
Like the previous year, she was supposed to meet the same representative, Mahesh, who had advised her to reach at 12 PM, after which he had to reach a different venue because of lack of enough people in Delhi to carry out the campaign.
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'You're late Ma'am', Mahesh complained when she finally met him. 'I would've normally left by now. How could you be so irresponsible in these matters?'
'I'm sorry. Sanket was a nuisance today', she defended by laughing it off.
'I understand how much trouble our little man here is', Mahesh flashed a playful smile, looking at the child.
'Anyways, here they are' Disha handed over the envelope to him. 'Three thousand in cash'
'All right'! he exclaimed. Carrying the child in his arms, he went straight to the counter, ahead of the sixty odd people in queue.
'Urgent case', he said casually. 'Get it done now'
Five minutes later, she drove out of the main gate of the school. There were a few more things left in the day to take care of, and she had to reach home by 12.30. After all, she had to attend to the Airtel guy who promised to set up the Free Broadband connection in the weekend.
Before she took a left turn off the main road, she looked in the rear view mirror to have one last glance at the horading outside the school, which said:
PULSE POLIO CAMPAIGN, 2030.
