Mother's Day

God had blessed us with everything in life, money, fame, fortune, cars, bungalow, and whatnot, but still my mom, Rachana, always used to complain about something or the other. My father, Rajan, was an illiterate, but very shrewd, which had made him achieve all this through his business. He hardly used to be at home and that's why my mom was the whole and soul of our family. My brother, Sachin, used to love her like anything else, and why not, she was the main source of his pocket money, who always used to take advantage of her forgetfulness.

It was me, oops! forgot to introduce myself, Aanya, the only daughter of Mr. Rajan and Mrs. Rachana, who was always involved in a tug of war with my mom.  But, I was the apple eye of my father, whom I used to lovingly call as Chinnappa, meaning a man with heart of gold, indeed he was and that was why my dad always used to tell everyone, I was his lucky charm.

On mother's day, my brother, Sachin, had got a beautiful saree as a gift to my mom. My mom was waiting the next day to wear it, and she had told me to get her blouse stitched for the same with zig-zag of the saree.

The next day, I.e., on mother's day, I wished my mom and as I had college, I left pretty soon, planning to buy her a cake while coming back.

There was construction going on behind our house, and as they were putting RCC, there was a lot of noise heard in the backyard. My mom as usual, after finishing cooking, went to her room, which had direct access to the balcony of the house which was under construction. 

As soon as she entered the room, she saw a lady smiling at her from the balcony of the house under construction. She was startled for a moment. She drew the curtains of her room and opened the almirah and searched vigorously, but in vain.

Her eyes were full of tears, the same saree, but how could she steal it from her almirah was the question in her mind. She then realized that she had kept her bedroom window open the last night and anyone could enter her room through the window. She rushed to check her almirah, felt relieved after seeing that everything was intact. But the thought of the saree worn by the construction lady made her go mad. After all, that was the mother's day gift given by her adorable son, Sachin. Without even thinking twice, she barged out into her balcony and called out for the lady who kept smiling at her. As she couldn't hear her properly, Rachana sent word with her watchman to go and call for the lady who was smiling at her.

Hesitantly, the lady who was smiling all this while felt scared to enter the house. Rachana stopped her at the doorway and started screaming at her left and right. She wouldn't even pay attention to what the lady wanted to say. Rachana warned her that if she wouldn't admit that she had stolen her saree, then she would complain to the police and that she would be behind bars. After hearing the name police from Rachana, the construction lady got scared and told her that she would get her son. Rachana wouldn't allow her to go. She instructed the watchman to go and bring her son. Unaware of all this, her son came into Rachana's house only to see his mother in tears. 

He consoled her and asked Rachana as to why her mother was crying. Rachana was stunned to hear this. She blamed that both mother and son were doing drama and that she would be calling the police if they both wouldn't accept their mistake of stealing her saree from the wardrobe, which his mother had worn. The construction lady's son was devastated. He knew that Rachana was not in a state to hear anything from their side. He folded his palms and requested Rachana not to blame her mother and that she would be getting her saree back immediately. Rachana was happy on hearing this but said as she wouldn't trust construction workers, she would send along with her watchman with them to get the saree back.

Both the construction worker's son and mother left shattered by Rachana's remarks. Before they could reach the gate, a car stopped by and Sachin came and shook hands with the construction worker's son. He told them to come inside the house and literally dragged them in. Aanya followed them from behind. Irrelevant to the situation, Sachin introduced them to his mom. Before she could utter anything, he told her how this construction worker had helped him to select a saree in the shop for Rachana. Sachin told her that the construction worker had come to the same shop where he had gone to buy a saree to his mother with all his savings as it was her birthday today. As Sachin had liked his selection so much, he had asked the shopkeeper to pack the same saree for Rachana too. Aanya chipped in and gave her mom the cover consisting of saree and blouse. Rachana now remembered giving the saree to Aanya for stitching blouse and zig zag.

Rachana felt as if the earth had opened up and swallowed her. She was not able to face both the construction worker and his mother, leave her own children. She told them to be seated and asked the maid to serve them tea. The construction worker was in total confusion and wouldn't want to sit, but seeing her mother's gesture, he sat down silently and strongly controlled his urge to slurp while having tea.

Rachana came out. Construction worker was awestruck. She was wearing the same saree, which he had selected for his mother and for which both of them were blamed for stealing it. His mother signalled him to close his mouth. Rachana invited the construction worker's mother to the hall where the cake was kept. She told her to cut the cake. Aanya and Sachin were very happy to see this side of their mother. The construction worker's mom hesitantly came front and took the knife with her shaking hands. Rachana held her hand tightly and whispered in her ears.... which only she knows. The construction worker had never thought of cutting the cake on his mom's birthday, but he was happy that she had cut the cake for the first time in her life.

Both the mother and son took their leave and Sachin dropped them both till the gate and came back and hugged his mother. Aanya was totally surprised by her mother's gesture towards the construction worker's mom. She felt happy all the more and waited for her dad while Rachana slept peacefully in her room unaware of the fact that though her watchman was quiet of the ordeal, the watchman above us will never be quiet...........