Through A Homemaker's Eyes

It is 6:00 am.

She wakes up to the alarm and before anyone else gets disturbed by it, puts it off and lies on her back for five minutes.

It's a brand new day! And she has been especially looking forward to starting her day as she has a creative writing assignment to complete today. She needs to write, in detail, about something that makes her truly, honestly happy. And she is looking forward to writing about her passion, her writing!

It is 6:15 am. 

She is thinking about her assignment as she enters the kitchen and, being one of those people who are incapable of kick-starting their days without a steaming cup of java, brews a pot of fresh coffee. As it brews, she starts organising her thoughts in her mind; and the ingredients she will need for cooking the breakfast and lunch for the men in her life, on the kitchen counter.  

It is 6:30 am. 

She has been in the kitchen for a quarter of an hour now, and her prep for the cooking is nearly complete. The pressure cooker with potatoes is doing its thing on the gas stove and the ingredients for the paratha dough have been measured out. She decides to award herself with a hot cup of coffee and pours it out; simultaneously, also starting to knead the dough for parathas. Absently, she picks up her cup and takes a sip of her coffee.

Ouch! Having waited for just this opportunity, the scalding coffee burns her tongue! “Great! There goes my sense of taste for the day,” she thinks.  

Then just as she is about to take another sip, the pressure cooker gives its final whistle and she takes it off from the burner, sprinkles some cold water over the top and keeps it aside.

She then places the idli steamer on the burner where the pressure cooker was. While the water at the bottom of the steamer boils, she fills in the batter in the idli plates. Then she sets an alarm for fifteen minutes and turns back to the dough.  

As she kneads, the basin skids precariously and almost knocks her coffee cup off the counter. She hastily picks it up and, this time blowing on the coffee to be on the safer side, takes a tentative sip; only to find that its now gone lukewarm! 

Done with her dough, she decides to reheat her coffee in the microwave, silently thanking its invention and her parents who gifted it to her for just such an emergency; when her reverie is broken by her husband calling out to her.

He’s up! And that means her little one would be up soon too! Her husband and her child – the two most important men in her life – for whom she has been toiling in the kitchen in the early morning hours of the day that are usually reserved for chirping birds, paper-walahs and doodh-walahs!

It is 7:00 am. 

She goes to the bedroom, hugs her little one and when he says he wants to sleep a bit more, she tells him she will call him in five minutes and leaves him be. She starts pulling her husband’s blanket off him, and he too says he wants five more minutes. She tells him she will be back in two minutes and as she looks longingly at the warm bed, her fifteen minute alarm for the idlis calls out to her! She goes in the kitchen and takes the steamer off the burner. Now it’s time for her to peel the potatoes which are waiting in the cooker and to start on her parathas. But before she has to make one more trip to the bedroom to wake her favourite people!

As she tries to wake them again, they say they want some more time. Again, she lets her little one be and pulls the blanket off her husband. He grumbles that she is being mean and she tells him its time for him to wake up and take charge of the little one. Their little one’s morning bath is the only time her husband gets to spend qualitatively with their child; as her husband works long hours and is usually either travelling or getting home from work late in the night after the little one has slept off. 

She reminds him of this; and he smiles at her; then gladly turns on his side and starts tickling the little one, waking him up. 

Phew, that went well!

It is 7:20 am. 

Back in the kitchen, she gets busy with the finishing and packing of three different meal-boxes for the two different and very special people in her life. The next hour goes by in a blur and before you know it, her husband and her little one are ready and sitting at the table for breakfast. She smiles as she sees them chatting up and licking the breakfast plates clean (her husband, not her little one). 

It is 8:30 am. 

She stands at the balcony looking at her two favourite people in the world leaving for another super day! As she stands there, looking at their car disappear around the corner, she realises she is smiling.

She is amazed at how happy she feels despite the fact that she has been up for almost three hours, drank only one cup of coffee; (no, make that half a cup, the other half is in the microwave); and looks frazzled and messy!

And yet, none of it matters, because she has successfully packed two lunches and a snack box – healthy ones at that – and fed the men in her life a nutritious breakfast and given them all that they will need for a successful day.

And now, she thinks, it is time for me to start my day.

With a fresh, steaming cup of coffee, she sits at her laptop to complete her assignment – to write about what really makes her honestly truly happy, and her own story pours out!

I do love my writing, but in my heart, it is really the time I spend getting things in place for my loved ones that I cherish! She writes.

I am sure there are a lot of mommies out there who will agree with me – working mothers, stay at home mothers, old mothers, new mothers, expecting mothers and even the harried and hassled mothers like me – that life is in the little moments when we think we are stretching ourselves to the limit, but happily, for the benefit of our loved ones! 

Of all our achievements and our successes in life, it is really these little moments we dedicate wholeheartedly to our family, are really the ones that we will hold dear in the years to come! 

She has completed her assignment and sent her story for perusal. As she awaits the feedback though, what do you think? Do you agree with her?