Mother's Days Out

It all started about a year ago when Ma began
those Aerobics classes at the local Gym run by
Aunt Gulshan. Eight months into Ma's fitness fad,
Naina, the second instructor, left Kolkata to join
her husband on his ship, and Aunt Gulshan bullied
Ma into substituting for Naina. Her decision came
as a shock to the three of us.
Until then, Ma was a normal Ma. You know, the
type who woke us in the morning, hurried us for
school, got our tiffins ready and so on. Now she
had to be at the Gym from 9 to 12 in the morning
and from 4 to 7 in the evening. She had to workout
along with each batch of exercisers. It was
strenuous work. Sometimes she overslept in the
morning—which meant that all of us did too—and
then there was a mad rush to get out of the house
on time.
Ma had to prepare the lunch and dinner before
she left and she no longer had time to lay out our
school uniforms or polish our shoes if we forgot to do that the night before. Torn shirts, crushed
collars, no tie—for the first month it seemed that
my kid sister, Sumita and I were getting hauled up
by the Dress Captains almost every day.
Tiffin became a packet of chips or a jam bun.
Once in a way, as a special treat, we got a toasted
sandwich. That, when we were used to parathas
and sabzi, noodles or fried rice, or even a piece of
fried chicken!
Papa did not know what had hit him. He came
home on more than one occasion to find Sumi and
me fighting like two starving predators over the
last bit of cheese in the fridge. The bread was often
mouldy. Obviously someone had forgotten to put
it in the fridge—and the same someone had not
bought fresh bread.
It took us two or three months to get ourselves
into functioning order. Ma was cool. "Time you
learnt to darn your clothes," she said to me, as
she handed over a needle and thread.
I moved away dolefully, muttering to myself that
I wished I had a Ma who was always at home, like
my friend Bishu's. Bishu did not have to darn his
clothes, that was for sure!
"And Shekhar," Ma added, "you are fourteen
now and old enough to take on some responsibility
around the house. See that you buy the bread daily
and if it gets over faster than expected, fill up the
bread box again."
In time, Sumi and I got accustomed to doing our bit and so did Pa. Our house began to look like a home
again and there were more smiles than snarls till a
second bombshell was dropped on us.
Aunt Gulshan rang up one day to say that, as in
the previous years, the second instructor from the
Gym would have to go along for a children's
Summer Camp at Ranchi.
"But it is holiday time, Gul," Ma protested.
"Amit is on tour and I cannot leave the kids alone."
"Let them fend for themselves," Aunty Gul
bellowed and Ma, as usual, gave in to her superior
lung power.
Before we knew it, missile number two had been
launched. Sumi and I had been bundled off to
Papa's sister, Aparna, in Meghalaya. She was the
only one among our relatives who was not going
anywhere that summer.
Like two waifs, we landed in Shillong where she
met us and drove us off in her jeep. We travelled
for half a day before we reached her house in the
wilds. Aunt Aparna did not talk a lot or try very
hard to be nice. It put us at ease.
Her cottage nestled in the hillside and as I looked
at the scenery around, I understood why Aunt
Aparna had not needed to go away for the summer.
The place was awesome!
We stopped and got out of the jeep and Aunt
Aparna said, "Relax today. Tomorrow we will do
some spelunking."
"Spello-whatting?" I asked, wondering whether Aunty expected us to play some kind of spelling
game indoors!
"We will go exploring the caves," she replied.
"It is called spelunking and you will like it."
"Wow!" Sumi and I exclaimed in one breath.
We started to walk into the house but found
ourselves in the middle of a commotion of massive
proportions. A huge German Shepherd launched
itself at Aunt Aparna. A slightly smaller one
wagged its tall from the corner of the covered
verandah, but would not move as it was
surrounded by little greyish-black furry things that
were apparently its puppies.
Sumi and I froze. We were not used to animals
around the house. Ma would not have them and
we had not really wanted them either. To face a
family of them suddenly, was a bit too much!
Aunt Aparna saw our faces and realized what was
happening. She made sure that the big guy she called
Romeo only sniffed us. We hurried away from the
mother—Juliet— and the rest of the clan.
The next morning I was awake really early, so I
wandered off on my own. A short distance away
from Aunt Aparna's house, I spotted a cave.
I headed towards it and was almost there when
I sort of felt a presence behind me.
I spun around and saw Romeo. He had a
forbidding expression on his face as if to say, 'Look
friend, you better check with me before you
wander in my territory,' but I refused to be bullied. "Shoo!" I said as convincingly as I could given
his size and the sight of his teeth as he bared them
at me.
I walked on, bravely. Romeo suddenly caught
hold of my pant and tugged. "Hey!" I cried in
panic, "Let go!"
But Romeo was in no mood to listen. I tugged, so
did he. There was a ripping sound and my knee
pocket was left between Romeo's teeth as I backed
off. Five strides and I tumbled headlong into a steep-
sided gully. It must have been about fifty-feet deep
but luckily, I got stuck on a bush about half way down.
It took me some time to recover my senses. Then I
looked up and there was Romeo, looking down, my
pocket still dangling in his mouth.
"Don't just stand there!" I gasped, as the bush
seemed to give way. "Get help!"
Romeo turned silently and disappeared. I had
no way of knowing whether he had understood.
I tried to twist and work my way up, but the bush
appeared unsteady and I was forced to keep still
and cling on.
At last I heard voices.
"I am here!" I yelled, "get me out fast!"
Sumi's anxious face peered at me and I must
admit that never before have I been more happy
to see the pesky little thing.
"Bhaiya!' she cried, "hang on!"
I heard a scrambling sound and mud and pebbles
began to fall around me. Then Sumi was suspended beside me and she managed to fasten a thick length
of rope round my chest without pushing me down.
Within moments, both of us were hauled up.
As I lay panting on the ground, Romeo began to
lick my face. I was so relieved to be safe that,
without thinking, I hugged him!
"Romeo brought your pocket to me," Sumi said,
"and I knew something had happened to you."
"Thanks, Pal!" I whispered to Romeo, now
absolutely sure that he could understand every
word I said. After all, he had got me safely out of
the gully, had he not?
"You are very lucky," commented Aunt Aparna,
"that bush broke your fall, or you could have hurt
yourself badly."
"Romeo tried to warn me," I muttered, "but
I thought he was attacking me..."
I looked down at him and saw a hurt expression
in his eyes.
"Sorry," I said, "I will never doubt you again."
I did not. In the days that followed, Romeo
accompanied us everywhere, even to the longest
cave in Asia, which was a couple of hour's drive
from Aunty's house.
We spent the rest of our time climbing the hills
around Aunt Aparna's cottage and exploring the
caves nearby. As usual, Sumi and I found
something to fight over—Juliet's puppies. And as
we put them on our beds and rolled about with
them, we were really thankful to Aunt Gulshan for sending Ma off in one direction so that we could
go off in another!
When Papa came to pick us up, we were not
ready to go home. Papa caught on what was going
on in our heads and the three of us convinced Aunt
Aparna to let us have one of the pups as our own.
I would have preferred Romeo but I knew Aunty
would not part with him. Besides, how would I hide
such a huge guy from Ma? A pup was okay.
It would fit into the household and Ma would not
even notice him.
We had, of course, not reckoned the mysterious
growth factor that takes a pup to within a couple
of inches of its adult size in just a few months.
Little Caesar began to inflate before our eyes and
we knew that we would not be able to keep him
out of Ma's range of vision. He began to take up a
lot of space. Pie made a great deal of noise. His
presence was certainly felt in the house! What
would Ma say? Our only hope was for her to be
out of the house most of the time so that she would
not fall over him and order him out!
By now you must have guessed that ours is not a
very predictable family. When Ma returned, she
did not notice the gnawed legs of the chairs or the
patches on the carpet. "Guess what?" she said,
"Naina will be back soon and I can return to being
a twenty-four hour Mom again. You would like
that, would you not?"
Sumi's grin and mine was kind of fixed. Papa had a dazed look. From inside, the pup gave a
whine and to drown out the noise, all of us began
talking at once.
"You must not give up what you enjoy, Ma..."
"We will help you out Ma, don't worry..."
Even Papa's words came out in a rush. "You
need your freedom, dear... You need to go out
to work..."