A Mother’s Brilliance (Prompt 29)

Naina and Sampat were seething with anger. They were standing a few feet apart, looking away from each other, grinding their teeth in fury. Their mother, Sarita, was sitting on the couch in the hall and gawking at them, bemused. She was tired of their infighting. No matter what she did, the siblings were always at each other's throats. 

‘Oh, what do I do with you children!’ Sarita moaned.

The children gandered at each other. Their faces presented a flawless picture of their emotions towards each other. It had been like this for more than a few months now. Ever since they had entered their pre-teen years, they had been fighting non-stop. Sarita was slightly concerned about this behaviour. Her husband, Goran, seemed unconcerned.

‘Children fight. That’s what they do. They will grow out of it.’ Goran used to tell her.

Sarita had always thought that being a housewife would be peaceful. Sure, there’s a lot of work to be done. Cooking food, cleaning the house, wiping the dust off the furniture, taking care of the children, shopping for groceries, washing the utensils etcetera, but chores didn’t daunt her. In fact, she found peace in going about her routine. She looked forward to the late afternoons when she could stretch her legs in front of the telly and watch the reruns of her favourite dramas. Alas, these kids were a nuisance!

They lived in a two-bedroom apartment, with not much space to roam around. Sarita knew if she dismissed the kids back into the room, they would just start fighting again. Punishing them by slapping them wouldn’t work. As it is, Sarita was against this tyrannical method of disciplining children. 

Sarita had acceded to Goran’s suggestion of letting the children fight, hoping they would grow tired of each other, but somehow it didn’t work. Husbands are useless and on most occasions, if not all, clueless. 

‘Why have you been fighting this time around?’ Sarita asked, knowing the reason beforehand.

Before Sampat could reply, Naina started. ‘Mom! He was pulling my hair. When I told him to stop, he slapped me.’

‘You slapped me!’ Sampat shouted. ‘Mom, she’s lying! She slapped me and called me a pig.’

‘You’re a pig. Mom, he’s so stupid. And such an idiot. He dirtied Neha’s dress. My best friend, Neha!’

‘It’s not my fault. The school bus was moving wildly, ma. There I was sitting quietly, enjoying an orange flavoured ice cream stick and suddenly the bus swerved and I fell sideways. The ice cream slipped out of my hand and landed on her…’ Sampat started to laugh.

‘It landed on her shirt ma and slipped into her gymslip. It left a mark all across her white shirt and her tunic.’ Naina finished angrily. Sampat laughed even louder. Tears were rolling down his face.

‘Did you at least apologise?’ Sarita asked her son, again pretty sure of what would have happened.

‘No ma, he didn’t!’ Naina instantly replied.

‘I wanted to. But Naina started shouting at me immediately before I could do so. She called me a pig and a donkey. I got angry. It was not my fault.’

‘Now, Neha will never want to talk with me or want to be friends with me. All because of you.’ Although Naina was addressing Sampat, she was looking at her mother.

‘You’re such a loser. And you know what, you’re a pig and donkey and…’ Before Sampat could finish, his mother raised her hand, gesturing him to stop.

Sarita held her head in her hands. Her head was throbbing. She had no idea what to do. She remembered her childhood, of her sister Ganga. They never used to fight. They always used to support each other, in front of their parents. Oh! The lies she had told her mom to protect her sister. Why couldn’t her children act the same way? 

And just like that, she knew what was to be done.

‘Naina, you shouldn’t have abused your brother like that, calling him names. As punishment, you’ll clean your room. Even Sampat’s bed and cabinet. I want it spotless.’ Sampat was beaming, whereas Naina was shocked. 

‘But Mom…’ Naina started.

‘Sampat. You come into the kitchen with me. You will help me with dinner. There are a lot of vegetables to be chopped.’ Sarita said, looking at her son.

Sampat’s smile faded and Naina looked vindicated.

Ignoring her children’s subsequent protests, Sarita made her way to the kitchen, pulling on Sampat’s ear, and dragging him with her, while Naina went to the room.

After an hour or so, after Sampat had teared up after chopping the onions, she sent him to fetch the iron.

‘You are taking too much time. There are some clothes for ironing. Get the iron from my room and start ironing them.’ Sarita chided her son.

Sampat’s protests fell on deaf ears. With his head hung down in defeat, he made his way out of the kitchen.

Sarita followed him, quietly, making sure her footsteps weren’t heard. Instead of making his way to her room, Sampat went into the room that he and his sister shared.

Sarita stopped at the door and hid behind the wall adjacent to it. She watched the events, hidden securely.

‘Oh wow! The room looks so tidy.’ Sampat said while her sister was stacking the books on the table.

She turned towards him.

‘What are you doing here?’ Naina asked.

‘Mom is making me do ironing too.’ Sampat complained.

‘Good for you. You deserve it.’

‘Don’t be so sure. She’ll give you some other task once you are done.’

Naina looked shocked.

‘What do we do? I don’t want to spend my day doing household chores’ she asked her brother.

‘I have an idea. Let’s go to Neha’s house. I’ll apologise to her and then after, we can go to the park and play. Our friends would be there.’ Sarita heard Sampat say.

‘Ahh! No need to apologise to Neha. She’s not that good a friend anyway.’

‘To the park directly then?’

‘Are you sure mom will let us go?’

Sampat was bobbing his head. ‘If I say, I have learned from my mistake, she will.’

‘I’m sorry I called you a pig and a donkey and slapped you.’ Naina apologised.

‘Forget it. Though, I would always remember the way Neha sizzled when the ice cream fell into her dress.’

Both laughed loudly. They were fighting no more. Their animosity was at an end.

Sarita, meanwhile, started to make her way back to the kitchen, congratulating herself on the success of her plan.