Familiar Chronicles

The first observation Mom makes every time she lands in Delhi is “Oh! Not bad! You are looking clean.”

After that very significant dent to my personal reputation, she goes about “setting the house right” as she calls it. This includes complaints on how that obscure corner in that very unused room is terribly dirty, how the pickle has not been sufficiently refrigerated, how the TV stand is coated with dust – you get the drift.

Then, after bringing my life back to normal, as she likes to think of it, she leaves, happy and contented. She comes back a month or two later, and the cycle repeats.

I hear from friends that am not a unique victim of such torture as this. Apparently, one of my friends’ mothers questions him unfailingly, day in and day out, on the cleanliness of the fan. As if on ground woes are not (de)pressing enough.

Incidentally, Mom was very excitedly telling me over call last night how she got the fans cleaned by the maid before she left and that I do not have to worry about them for some time to come.

Mom, you have no clue what all creatures live inside my air-conditioner, do you?

The Ugly Truth

A cup of coffee and a very obliging colleague were all that were needed to break my heart today afternoon.

So, my colleague has an 8-year old son and she was talking about what a handful he is. “You have no clue Kavitha. He has such a bad temper and he shows it all on me,” she said. I just nodded my head in empathetic acquiescence having no inkling to what she was about to say next.

It was then that she dropped the bombshell. “He is a Leo, you know. An August born Leo. An August 15th born Leo. You can imagine.”

Ah well, dear colleague. It is not a funny sight imagining my mom saying those exact same words about me elsewhere.