From my bedroom window, I heard the front gate open. Irritated, I got up to have a clear view of the person who had disturbed my afternoon nap. I watched her enter the gate.
Before setting her feet in the front verandah, she paused for a moment, took back a few steps and checked the mailbox. As usual, she found nothing inside. Before she could ring the bell, I opened the door just in time to watch her wipe the perspiration off her face by a corner of her pallu.
‘You must know how times have changed, Maa’, I remarked. ‘Its not the postmen delivering letters anymore. It’s the era of Couriers and Speed Posts. You know you couldn’t have found anything there’
She didn’t bother to pay much attention to my pseudo-intellectual comments, but greeted me with a hearty smile and asked me about my day. It gave me an opportunity to ramble about how cringe worthy it had been for me.
‘It’s been dreadful. Still no luck with the MNC I applied in. The HR said that he would get back to call me. But I have been waiting all day. I don’t think they’re interested in someone as mediocre as me’.
‘Don’t talk like that’, she said. ‘Whatever happens is for the best. Wait for a couple of days. Even if they don’t call you, don’t stop trying. There are so many good companies you can try your luck in’.
I instantly felt relaxed listening to her.
She wasn’t a very beautiful woman in her early days. She was soaked in simplicity from top to bottom. She hadn’t had what we call a happy childhood, though it was an exciting one. Her father worked as a Sales Representative in the famous Burma Shell Corporation and was into a transferrable job. Her mother was a strong willed woman but a nagging character. Never easily pleased, she often had long and unending arguments with her husband over small and insignificant issues. She was born after two of her elder siblings, my eldest aunt and my loving Mamaji. As the next child was born in the family after 5 years of my mom’s birth, the three of them shared a deep bond. After school, they spent a good time together in outdoor activities; climbing trees and playing with other children of their age-group. They kept themselves busy despite their parents never finding enough time for them. As a child, my mother understood pretty soon that their childhood might not be the same as most of the others, who found solace in their mothers’ arms after a school fight or being reprimanded by their teachers.
As talked about before, being in a transferrable job that my Nanaji was in, the family shifted to Delhi where she went on to finish her high school studies. Before she completed the first year of her graduation, her father got transferred again, this time to Dehradun where mom passed her B.A. Literature final exams. After obtaining her degree, the family went to Chandigarh to stay for another three years. My mother decided to apply for a course in M.A. (English) despite the initial skepticism shown by my grandparents.
Completing her course, she got married the same year to my dad, who belonged to an upper middle class family in South Delhi. Her married life didn’t turn out to be entirely blissful, though my father was a very supportive husband. It was her mother-in-law who tended to interfere a lot in my parents’ lives and never let my mother have a say in their family matters. Despite facing these hassles from my paternal grandmother’s side, mom always tried her best to balance her family and work life. Waking up at 5 AM in the morning, she prepared both breakfast and lunch for everyone, and left for her School Teacher's job as early as 7 AM. Coming back at 2.30 PM, she had her meal, helped her kids in their homework, and returned to working around the house. Thankfully, she had my father to help her as much as he could in the household chores, and my sister and I tried our best to not give her any trouble.
She has always been a woman of strong character. No matter how grave any situation is, no matter how seemingly impossible it may be to handle a given task, she will try her best to resolve matters without taking any form of stress. Life has taught her a lot from an early age; from her parents’ quarrels to their deaths, from entering a joint family having high expectations of her to taking nagging comments from her in laws in her stride despite her best efforts.
When I come to think of it, the HR not getting back to me doesn’t seem to be such a big deal at all. I am sure I can learn to take it in my stride too!
