Mumbai July 2007. I yawned and aimlessly looked at the clock; it was 11.30 am on a hot and humid Saturday. I smiled to myself and thought ah the blessed feeling of a weekend :). I called to my mum,”Mumma…can you please make onion bhaji today….please naa please.” In a household full of women where I was the youngest – I surely was living my fairytale princess dream life. While my mum started on preparing the onion bhaji, I did some multitasking along with yawning, aimless thinking , I also started flipping the channels using TV remote (see I was trying to be efficient here..:).Then the doorbell rang. I heard…I knew…I ignored. Mum came out from kitchen, she said something…”How on earth can someone be so lazy?” Again I heard…I knew…I ignored but this time with a sweetest smile to my mum and her heart melted in a sec and she said to me “Useless!!” returning my smile.
Mum opened the door and I saw The Diva on our doorstep. Honestly I need to know her secret, whatever she is eating…I need that too….I mean how can someone have so much energy …even after running around 24×7!She smiled at my mum, walked past her and came straight to me and started ,”Arey do you know that Ramesh from next building..I think he is having an affair…?”Meet our maid – Mala. She is a super woman, works non stop, gossips non stop and still manages to look completely fresh every time I see her!! My mum who does not gossip gave both of us a disgusting look, we both happily ignored and continued with discussion and we almost had reached to a conclusion that Ramesh may be already married. Then my mum shouted again. This time to both of us “Useles!!” and I and mala quietly got back to our own tasks which we did best I started my multitasking of sweet nothings and she started hers of cleaning our house.
Through the rest of the afternoon – Mala cleaned the house and left, our iron man 🙂 …I mean the guy who iron’s our clothes came to our house and delivered a big bundle of neatly pressed clothes and left and finally even the groceries arrived from our local kiranawala (local grocery shop). While all this happened, I just concentrated on my yummy onion bhaji’s. Ah mum your are the best!
Truly a princess life…isn’t it? 🙂
London August 2007. It was a Saturday morning – they said it will be sunny; I looked out of my window and thought definitely not! Still feeling homesick…I sighed, rolled my eyes…I had to make some breakfast…really felt like having poha…..but then who has the time and skill…I took my cereal bowl, poured in some healthy muesli and milk and my breakfast was ready! Still thinking about hot poha I started eating my muesli making faces to myself! Then there was tones of other work…I had to laundry my clothes then even press them. I looked at my iron – it was an impressive advanced model that I had bought and some of its features said “Automatic” …well hello …definitely not….nothing is automatic..I have to manually press the clothes with it!! Then next…super market for some grocery shopping…my fridge looked too thin already and definitely needed some good food! But then the grocery list?? Oh yeah..I remembered I had to make that one too ….or else entire next week will be a mess! Running like a mad woman I was doing one thing after other….in my hallway I looked at the mirror “Oh..I was looking such a mess!” and still the list went on ….cleaning vessels…cleaning house…..and on and on..
Truly a mess, I was a damsel in distress!
I closed my eyes and just wished to be back on my sofa in Mumbai, next to my mum, still gossiping with Mala while clothes and grocery just arrived and oh yes my yummy onion bhaji!!!But then it was just the start of my new independent life..First time I was away from my home..My mum and my country …And I was not ready to give up ..I had to make my mum proud!! I knew I had to learn and bring things on track!! But then it was still a long long difficult way to go……..and at that time my heart just had this feeling …”From Being a princess to a complete mess”!!
How was your experience when you had to stay away from your home for the first time ever in your life?
thewritingspree 