I realised just today that in the 21 years of my life, I had probably seen my mother brush her teeth very few times, so few that I wouldn’t run out of molars.
This got me thinking about how the day starts for them. Breakfast in bed and husbands who rise before them stay a distant televised dream. By and large their mornings are thankless with grunts from an “On Snooze” husband, and complaints from a lazy child and a seasonally variant maid.
Padded in Bata’s finest rubber they flap their way downstairs at the unholy hour of 4 or 5 am to heat the milk, draw geometrical designs at outside the gate and periodically resonate a shout that reverberates in snoozing ears.
Coffee, Bournvita, breakfast and lunch packed and parcelled follows much like a mini branch of the Dabbahwallas. The geyser is put on with the cooperation of the electricity board which if in a bad mood can unforgivingly kill the power. This leads to new complications of heating water in voluminous containers and routinely emptying them into buckets. In the middle of all this the better half rises, and lion-hearted, offers to help; but fool that he is often makes things worse. A little slip of the tongue, a fool-hardy comment results in a verbal lashing that reduces him to the cowardly lion (of Oz fame) silently sipping his tea hoping fervently that it contains sprinklings of the proverbial courage.
Depending on the little half’s age or ages added complications emerge adding the host of other responsibilities of uniforms, timetables and homework. After all this and more the mother pads upstairs only to realise her day of work has just begun.
She dresses hurriedly, while an impatient, ungrateful horde await, honking horns and tapping feet. She sprints through the bathroom, runs through dressing and flies by the mirror on her way down, her makeup and hair left for the road. As she slams the house door clicking her way to the car she sinks into the seat thanking God for traffic’s respite.
As I sat my alarm clock and muse about how I often go to college unbathed, I doze off wondering if my mom saved time by not brushing her teeth....
