Sabita was in the kitchen preparing Poha for breakfast. She kept the karai on the gas and added oil. Then she cut the onions and red tomatoes into perfect cubes and slit the green chilies and was ready for the perfect tampering. She was in a good mood today and she wanted to treat her husband, Somesh with his favorite breakfast. No one except both of them knew the specialty of the day. They just gifted happiness to each other with small gestures that went unnoticed in front of other family members.

“Your pea-sized brain would have forgotten to add groundnuts to Poha, I knew it! Just add them and prepare just like my son loves it.”

“Your son loves just the way I make it and that is without the groundnuts”, whispered Sabita while adding the groundnuts with disgust.

When Somesh complained. Sabita replied ,”Why can’t you tell your mom that you are no more a boy who used to have his hair plastered to his scalp? You love to spike up your hair now. Why can’t you make her understand the difference?”

” As if she will ever understand! She will never believe that I loved groundnuts as a kid , not anymore. You can at least choose not to listen to her.”

“Ohh really! And what makes you think I will do it? “, She said before barging out of the room.

“Only if you would have done some work at your home, you would have known that Poha is incomplete without groundnuts”, The mother in law said this a straight face.

“Only if I had known that I had to marry your son and come here of all places, I would have stopped studying and would have focused all my energies on being an expert in making the perfect groundnut-filled Poha!”

“What do you mean to come here? You have everything at your disposal in this house! How can you even complain?”

“How can I complain, yes how can I ever? This is just a palace and I probably did not have a house to stay before marriage”, Sabita was irritated.

Somesh, by this time, had silently kept his half-finished bowl of Poha in the kitchen when his wife and mother were engaged in their ‘important discussion’ ,had quietly escaped to the living room. He took the remote and switched on the Television after selecting his favorite sports channel. He cozied up on the sofa and with a big smile was ready to devour the cricket match and simultaneously get way from the Saas- Bahu battle at home .

“Please keep the remote and use your phone. This is our time to watch the re-cap of yesterday’s serial that we both missed.”

Both his wife and mother came with full force towards Somesh just like a hungry lion comes after his prey. Without a single word of protest, Somesh kept the TV remote on the teapoy.

“Just record your conversations and then make a YouTube channel. I am sure with an ever-growing number of subscribers, you both will surpass the TRP recordings of the serial.” Somesh said this in a low voice and went back to his room.

“Did you say anything?”, asked his mom.

“No, No nothing. I am not saying anything. The Poha with the ‘groundnuts’ was super delicious. He said this to tease his wife with a mischievous tone in his voice.

“See, I told you na. No one can know their son better than their mothers? Did I not tell you, poha is incomplete without groundnuts in it.”

“Yes. mummy. When mothers know everything, I wonder what do wives have to do in their son’s life?”

“Don’t you again start baseless arguments with me? Switch on the TV set now “,ordered the mother-in-law in a commanding voice.

The recap of the daily soap started and both the mother-in-law and Sabita were glued to the TV set with all their attention focused on it. They seemed like best friends while sharing those lighter moments of the serial while laughing out together.

Just when the serial got over, Neeta ,their neighbor along with few others paid a visit to their house.

“Namaste! How are you all? Just thought we will spend some time together. Its Sunday , the only day which gives us little relaxing time and It’s been so long.”

Neeta was their neighbor and had her children settled abroad. She often used to visit Sabita’s family on holidays with few of her paying guests.

Sabita welcomed them and went into the kitchen to prepare some snacks for the guests who had invited themselves. The discussions started from exchanging pleasantries to being keen on checking each other’s health, to knowing how the nearby vegetable vendor has been mischievous in raising the prices to which new trends have made an impact in the fashion industry.

“By the way, my daughter-in-law is now very close to her due date. ” Neeta looked at Sabita while saying this.” And we just spoke on the video chat. I just can not hold my excitement as the date is approaching. And they have also bought a property in Canada now! The snowfall that they showed me on the laptop was so amazing. Isn’t it great when your kids prosper?” She said and looked straight into the eyes of the Mother in law?

Neeta, felt an immense sense of satisfaction to show off and sometimes used sarcasm to hint that Sabita had not been able to conceive even after four years of marriage and Somesh was engaged in a clerical job as compared to her own children who had excelled in their fields and had bid goodbye to their nation in search of greener pastures abroad.

Sabita understood the remark and was about to leave the room to the kitchen when her mother-in-law pressed her hand signaling her to stay back.

“Neeta, congratulations. I am really happy for you. It must also feel wonderful to see your grandchild virtually na. Thank God we have such technological advancements that you can be connected and today time zone difference is not a matter at all. Even though you can not take the child in your arms, feel the little bundle of joy close to your heart, still you can witness it through the same laptop screen. Isn’t it just fabulous? I just pray for smooth delivery to happen.”

Neeta forced a smile and could not say anything rather than nodding her head in agreement.

“And I forgot to tell you something. My son has learned a new kind of omelet from YouTube and me and Sabita love it. Isn’t it wonderful to taste your kid’s preparation when they put in that effort to make something for you? I get the ultimate satisfaction in these little attempts. Isn’t it Neetu?

“Somesh beta, see Neeta Aunty is here. Why don’t you make that special omelet for all of us? You can watch your cricket anytime. I promise we will let you watch it on the TV if you oblige.”

Somesh was a little hesitant at first but the proposal that his mother had made was too great a deal. He went straight into the kitchen and with assistance from Sabita, his wife served the guest with delicious omelets sunny side up style.

The mother-in-law and Sabita sat back on their sofa and taking in the satisfaction with the visuals of Neeta, their neighbor quietly tasting the omelet and in the mean time tasting the repercussion of her own sarcasm.

Sarcasm sometimes is the foundation of many relationships and many find utmost satisfaction in it.

I have decided to take up an emotional joy ride with this year’s A2Z challenge where my focus is to showcase different aspects of human behavior . I will be penning down pieces of fiction centered around emotions in alphabetical manner. I have a title for my theme and it is : A little bit of you; A little bit of me . 

I’m participating in #BlogchatterA2Z -2021

You can click on the alphabets below to read the stories that have been published so far.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Love,

Chinmayee