(Sep 5, 4:49pm)

The rooms and the hall are cleaned now.. the wall hangings and mom's pictures too.. Now I'll quickly get some tea and biscuits.. Oh, didn't have anything to eat all day.. You wouldn't know how listless it feels..

Anyway, let me take a bath and then I have to rush to the temple.. the grand Mahavir temple beside the junction.. I want some pooja done on mum's name tomorrow.. but you need to book in advance..

XXX

From there I'll collect the sweets from the N.P. Centre shop, and buy some snacks too.. and since Bharatij din't come today, I'll have to pack something for dinner.. 

I guess chilli chiken from Maurya would be fine.. I can cook some rice when I'm back..

XXX

(Sep 5, 2:49pm)

Finished doing the dishes.. it was tough job.. don't think I'm talking about the regular chore.. I washed the whole range of dishes, stacked in the kitchen wardrobe.. some 80-100 pieces..

Even my kurta is drenched with water and detergent.. and my nails, solid stains in the walls of the pots have all swooped inside them..

XXX

Ok, kitchen is over.. muma's room is done.. I just did the washing too.. now what remain are sweeping and mopping the rooms and bathroom cleaning.. let me take a few minutes to rest..

XXX

(Sep 5, 1:00pm)

Now the guard tells me, the sweeper too is absent..
which means I am cleaning the washrooms also! Crazy!

XXX

Anyway, let me have some tea.. just finished cleaning mom's room..

I know, if somebody else were at my place he would have left it all for tomorrow.. but I am impatient.. and I don't like keeping things for the last minute..

It's mom's b'de tomorrow.. everything should be perfect by night itself!

XXX

(Sep 5, 12:03pm)

Don't tell me.. The maid didn't come.. I had told her specifically, today I would need an elaborate cleaning-up of the house, since it's mom's b'de tomorrow.. and she doesn't turn up!

Now I have to do sweeping, mopping, I have to clean the kitchen, I have to clean the window panes.. wash all the table tops, mats, change the curtains.. and Oh my God, what would I eat?

XXX

And unless I finish all that by evening, where would be the time for rest of the marketing?

XXX

(Sep 4, 8:27pm)

Just returned from Patna Market.. the same olden day place, where mum would take us to shop.. and where her father would take her when she were young..

Before its charm was overshadowed in the razzmatazz of city malls coming up!

XXX

Got a dining table cloth, fridge top, flowers and vases, a set of dining wares, and some other miscellaneous item..

It's mom's birthday on the 6th.. Have already ordered the cake, a chocolate truffle, and different sweets..

XXX

(Sep 4, 4:56pm)

On this day in 2010, mom and I had gone out for shopping... It was her birthday on 6th, and there were little things we wanted to buy..

Little, unplanned things, which you do not really need.. but which catches your attention on a lazy evening like this, when you are roaming around in the company of your loved one.. 

And when these little things, one item from this shop, another from that, rise above their trifle value and become the most important of all..

XXX

Why do we curse fate for not giving us any hint of a grim future? For not allowing us to prepare?

Do you not think it actually gives us the chance to enjoy, to be carefree and add meaning to the present, even though if it were to last only temporarily?

XXX

If I were to know, mom would die exactly 10 days from then, then forth of September wouldn't be so happy.. it would be an overwrought day, marred in foolish resistance to the future which seldom relents..

XXX

(Sep 2, 9:49pm)

Anonymous 99.. where are you...