The Magic of Mom

It was one of those days today, when even after 6-7 hours of sleep, I got up in the morning feeling I had never slept. My mind kept telling me, 'get up - you will get late for office' - and I genuinely tried. But within a minute, my body was lying back on the bed, me telling my mind, 'just a few more minutes, and i will get up...promise! After atleast 10 of such unfulfilled promises, my mind reasoned, 'Yashi...you know you have to wake up. You can't take a leave. So what is the point of delaying the inevitable! JUST GET UP AND MOVE!'

'Okay' - I sprang out of the bed, realizing that the reason was valid. I HAD to go to office, as I am planning a vacation pretty soon, and cannot afford to take a leave. So I forced myself to get up and freshen up, and took a bath with utmost effort. By the time I reached office, my head was throbbing like crazy, and I had started feeling a bit feverish.

This is not going good at all, I told my mind.

'Don't worry, once you login, you will not even know how time flies' - it consoled me.

Well, that's true on most days - the time between the beginning and the end of a usual work day just flies. But not today.

I strained my eyes to concentrate on my emails, tried smiling back at a lot of people who smiled at me - but each movement was making me feel worse.

Finally, good sense prevailed, and I called up my boss to check if I can leave early, and he agreed.

I packed my bags, and was out in the next 15 minutes.

I reached home, had dinner that my roommate helped me cook, and lied down after gulping a Crocin.

I closed my eyes, and out of nowhere, I realized how badly I was missing my mom.

I mean, I speak to her often, think of her too, but it's been quite sometime that I missed her like this.

The only image that captured my mind was, a much younger me, falling ill like this, and my mom sitting by my bedside, knowing exactly what to do when. She knew when I was ready to eat something, and would bring something almost instantaneously. She would know when I was almost fast asleep and would ask people around us to be quiet. She would know exactly when I was pretending to be asleep to avoid eating tablets, and would coax me into it. She knew when my head was hurting, and would just stroke my forehead with her palm - and it worked like the best touch therapy ever.

Today, thinking of this image, I suddenly find tears in my eyes. It was so great to be pampered with her undivided attention. Everything else would take a back seat - my dad, my brother, her work, relatives - everything. The only most important thing was me. I even remember at times pretending to be much more ill than I actually was - just to get more of this attention. She could sit hours and hours at a stretch, watching my every move, listening to my breathing, presenting whatever I needed in the split of a second. She was like a magician.

And then I grew up, and moved to a different city - alone, on my own. It felt great to be independent, to take charge of my life. It still does. But there are times like these, that make me feel no matter how much I grow up, there still is a small kid in me who would love to be with my parents - with nothing to worry about...knowing that they are there and will take care of everything.