Friday, September 25, 2009

An Ode to Homemakers....

Have you ever felt that you are carrying the whole weight of the world onyour shoulder? Why is it that only you have to do everything to keep thethings moving? Why should only you struggle to make your house a home?

Well these questions were pondering in my mind on a Friday evening. It wasraining heavily and I was completely drenched on the way to my home fromoffice. The first thing I wanted was a nice hot cup of Ginger Tea, Coz no matter what, there is no combination better than heavy rain and hot tea. Irushed to the kitchen only to find that the Fridge didn’t have any milk in it. I braved the rain, went to the nearest departmental store and purchaseda packet of milk. I went back to the kitchen, all excited with the thoughtof having a hot tea. But things were not going my way. I found out that theGas cylinder was empty. No matter how much I try and extract the last bitof LPG from the cylinder, the burner wouldn’t budge. I was pissed, butthere was nothing I could do for a cup of tea. I mumbled a bit but thenrealised the best thing to do is accept the fact. So I decided to watchTV..


The hunt was on for the remote amongst the stack of magazines, CDs, andnewspapers and finally the remote. Switched on the TV, tuned in to themovie category only to be welcomed by a blank screen. There was a messagefrom Tata Sky – “ Dear subscriber, Your services have been temporarilywithdrawn for non-payment of the monthly subscription charges. Please makethe payment immediately to resume your services..” OH craap !! I forgot topay the charges.. Bloody hell !! No TV, and that too its a weekend !! Nooo !!


It was a good Friday evening. Our plans for a party had to be cancelled cozof the heavy rains. So I thought of spending some quality time at home allby myself as my roomie had also left for his hometown. But little did iknow what was in store for me!


All pissed and irritated, I finally decided to catch up with my friendsonline and I barged into the bedroom to grab my laptop. By the time thelappy was booting up, I had somehow managed to calm myself down. I clickedon the Mozilla browser, and by default hit the Facebook URL. You won’tbelieve, I was again welcomed by an alert message. – “Dear Airtel Customer,Please pay the current month outstanding amount to enjoy uninterruptedservices”.. I was spell bound. Have never felt so frustrated in life. I waslike wondering, why is it that only I have to do everything. Why aren’t myroommates concerned at all? But what is the point.With nothing working in favour of me and left with no choices, I decided toread a novel. Still feeling irritated, Pissed and helpless somehow byaround 12.30, I slept off.


But unfortunately, it was not over yet. I had to wake up the very next day,early in the morning as the maid had already come. Still groggy, somehowmanaged to get up, opened the door and went back to sleep, only to be wokenup by the maid, as there was no detergent powder and she couldn’t wash the clothes. I just could not believe it was happening to me. There are so many things to be taken care of in the house. I somehow told the maid to washthe clothes the next day, and finally just managed to doze off again.The door bell goes off again. It was the cook. Yes ! We have a cook. Abachelor’s boon. But not necessarily mine. She enters the kitchen andshouts out a list of things not available ranging from vegetables to atta and so on.. Man I had to finally pay her extra 50 bucks to go buy it andthen prepare brunch for me !! Add to it the additional effort of makingher understand how to prepapre the normal roti – sabji without adding herown favourite masalas.. My God !! No one can ever dare to taste itagain... he he...


This was the time when i truly missed my Mom.. It is only now that Irealise how difficult it would have been for her to manage me, my sis, Dadthe maid, the cable wala, the newspaper wala, the household shopping etcetc etc.. the list goes on and on and on.... She never ever made any of usuncomfortable. Whatever we wanted was always available. She used to solely manage the entire household with such great perfection that I had almosttaken it for granted. It is now when I have to personally manage thesethings that I realise the difficulty.


I want to take this opportunity to salute all wonderful homemakers who havebeen making houses as homes for so many years and meeting the needs of theentire family....

I salute u Ma...

Cheers..Kash !

11 comments:

Unknown said...

@Man I had to finally pay her extra 50 bucks to go buy it andthen prepare brunch for me" ...hey Ash hw come the gas cylinder was filled overnight..just kidding ya....nice blog....probably we have identical roomates...

Anonymous said...

That's indeed a very nice write up, stay-at-home moms are people who do all the work without pay - they would be on top of the pay scale if they were to be paid - it is round the clock work is it not? A very nice tribute to your mom, nice to see you blogging again, this is UL, too lazy to sign in :)

also caught the post on daughter's day - as it happens it was my little one's birthday...so it was special, though i ma just hearing that it also happen's to be daughter's day? I guess it varies from country to country! I am hearing one for the first time too...i suppose it is not big over here.. :)

Sh@s said...

I empathise with you as i can well relate to this post. Staying away from home and managing on your own is hell of a thing.
True, at home we take things for granted. It time we acknowledged the silent labour of our mom's n homemakers.

Amrit said...

Thats a nice one buddy. Really sometimes we fail to understand how much work our mother's do to keep everything at home up and running.

But I believe loads of things are untrue here. Atleast I can say being one of your room-mate. :) :)

Amrit said...

By the way...its good to see you back with a bang.
And now show some respect and gratitude for the award you received. Paste that on your blog dear!

Ashwin said...

@ UL... Sooooo Happy to c u back to mY blog after a looong time..
Yea UL .. neva knew that Household management can get so tedious.. hehe.. As they say.. Life teaches you everything.. ryt?

Oh wooow !! Please pass on my Belated birthday wishes to the Lil Rokstar..
Thats exactly my feelings associated with it.. Its just something created by someone jus to benifit a few... Please dont misunderstand this to be that me against daughters day at all.. All I mean is that every day should be a celebration... :)

Ashwin said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Ashwin said...

@ Shas >> Believe me Shas... Staying alone has made a lot of changes in me as an Individual... :)

Ashwin said...

@ Amrit >> I do agree man.. Its tuffto realise it till you do it yourself.. he he..

And Thanks a loot man.. And I will definitely post the award man.. trust me..

Mishree said...

Hi,

Chanced upon ur blog...n m glad I did :)

U r right,u know...I mean,I still stay at home and have had my mom help me all the time...n even though she is a professor and extremely career-minded,I don't think I have ever felt anything missing - life is always so complete with her around.and if I ever happen to move away,I know how lost I will be. Anyway,thanks so much for reminding me of something that always persists at the back of my head, but m not courageous enough to blatantly acknowledge.Take care!!

Ashwin said...

@ Mishree .. A very warm welcome to my space. Indeed very thoughtful of you to drop by a comment.. Thanks..

You have gotta believe me, I was saved from all this trouble till the time the social pressures of staying employed forced to move out and stay alone... :) Its only then I realised how many things had to be handled which were always taken care of.

The day one is out on their own is when they realise how difficult it gets...

Glad that could be of some help..I say, build the courage.. Its never too late 4 anything.. ;)

Keep visiting.. and Definitely keep posting...