Age

An aberrant sound in the night woke me up from my peaceful sleep. After a long day at school and tuitions, I found it fretting that someone would agitate my sleep. The sound continued, I turned towards the other side only to find that my mother missing. I looked around the room and saw the lavatory’s light open. In an instant I discovered the source of the sound.
Hysterically I jumped out of the bed and raced to the lavatory. I saw my mother puking. I massaged her back. When she was done, I gently held her hand. A chill ran down my spine. Her hand had wrinkles of golden age. She was breathing heavily. I helped her to walk towards the bed. Another wave of consternation hit me when I saw her limping.
Gradually I helped her to get into the bed. I noticed how her face was dull due to sickness. She was very warm. She looked at me smiled and said, “Sorry I disturbed your sleep." Her words drowned me into remorse. How could she being in such a terrible state think about my comfort!
I got the thermometer. She had high temperature. I gave her water and medicine. She constantly kept denying my care, because she thought that I was taking futile trouble for her. I slowly massaged her head so that she may feel relieved and go off to sleep. After about an hour her breathing became even and she dose off into her dreams. I gently covered her with a blanket. Just then my gaze fell on her limping feet. It was swollen. I went outside and brought a crepe bandage and an ointment. Very carefully I applied the ointment on the swollen part and tied a crepe bandage around. She murmured something in her sleep, but the medicine that she took was strong enough not to wake her up.

That night I could not sleep. My mind and heart could not digest the fact that how I had grown to be so covetous! I knew that seven years back my mother had fractured her leg by slipping on the stairs, then why did I never cared to ask her that did the old wound still pain? I was well aware that she was asthmatic, then why did I allow her to push herself all day? The answer to all this was the fact that i was so drowned into the tantrums and feckless demands of teenage that I forgot that my own parents were aging too. They too were growing old with time and facing a crucial age that made them extremely vulnerable. Whereas we fought with the just a trifle outside world, they fought with their own body and health to provide comfort to their children. 
In an expeditious era where everyone is engulfed in their own development, a divergent breed is left behind. And sadly that divergent breed comprises of our parents, who are sluggishly trying to accustom themselves into a world where affliction is the new kind of affection, where scorn is the new strain and where impiety is the new civility!
They have tamed their hearts to be joyous at our success and mourn at our loss. They show utmost understanding of our busy schedule and resentful behavior. The least that we can do as their children is to show a little care and respect which otherwise we flaunt in our workplace!