Hey Reed! It's Your Birthday

Padma removed her sandals and took a long breath. It was a tiring day for her. She worked in the Accounts department and it was the month of audits. Adding insult to the injury, she wasn't happy with her salary increment. Padma was focused on her profession and her days were becoming numb. She wasn't even thinking about her personal health and her hours were pounded by both official and household chores. Her kid turned nine and still, he needed her all the time.

To be precise, Padma was no different from other middle class working women across the country.

Feeling tired for the day, She opened the door and walked towards her hall. She placed her handbag near the reading table. Books and notes were placed improperly. Arranging that neatly, she went in front of the washbasin to wash her face. Water splashed on her face, so did her thoughts. Being a pillar of the family, she sacrificed everything she could, to make the family, run better. 

She noticed the wrinkles above her cheekbone and near her eyes. Silver hair strands were there in her hair forest too. Looking back into her 38 years of life, she never enjoyed her freedom. A quarter of her life was under her parents. Now another quarter was in the hands of her own family with her husband and her kid. She looked at herself in the mirror again. Controlling her desires and scream, she walked into another room of that 1bhk and changed her clothes.

Even though her wrinkles worried her, she was happy a bit about her body figure. She thought she was attractive and she adored herself. Her small breasts were her only concern. Losing taste in romance, her husband started making love with her just once or twice a month. Nothing was spicy between them, but care relied on each other. Unfortunately, her profession killed her private time with him in recent years. 

"Amma. You are home!", her son Iniyan came and hugged her belly. 

She hugged him tight and kissed his forehead. She offered his favorite Egg Puffs for the evening. On seeing the clock going past 8 pm, she started making dinner.

Padma heard footsteps and before she could turn around, her husband came behind her and kissed her shoulder. 

"So, what's my wife cooking?", he asked and started munching carrot from the fridge. 

She didn't answer and just smiled. He looked into the cooking vessel and found its onion chutney. "Nowadays you are turning very silent ammu.", he walked out of the kitchen and started doing lego toy play with Iniyan. 

She felt heavy on hearing that. Wanted to scream, but she couldn't. Her eyes turned watery. She didn't turn silent, Indeed she was tired of doing the routine. She thought, "Damn! I have a life too".

Once again the day didn't end even it was past 12 am. She cleaned vessels, made the bed for her kid, and finished all the pending household works. She felt exhausted while falling on the bed to sleep. 

The next day in the office, she couldn't focus on her work, being annoyed with her current life ongoings. She felt suffocated, she felt she never had rest, she wanted to climb on top of a mountain and jump to death, rise again like a phoenix and fly high.

Her phone rang and it was her close friend, Kavitha. 

"Padma baby, your birthday is on two days. And it comes on Saturday. Where you want me to accompany you?", she asked with giggles.

Padma didn't know that her birthday was coming. In fact, she forgot about her birthday and other days of her life. She felt sulking.

"Hey Kavi, that's so sweet of you."

"Don't sound low. Let me accompany you to a nice rooftop restaurant. Have pints of beers with me and I'll be your babe of the evening.", Kavi pressed her statement.

Padma was silent for a moment. "I assume I couldn't come Kavi. But you'll present to me that silver anklet we saw on amazon. Ok?", both of them talked for a while and the Padma went to her work.

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On the morning of her birthday, her husband woke up and looked for her. She wasn't there at home. And her mobile phone was there. Iniyan took that to play and he found his mother's Instagram post.

Posted from Nainital,

Quite on top of a high peak. With her lips widen and a happy glee smile. 

Her caption read "Hey Reed! It's your Birthday. Enjoy to the core. You too have your own time.". That's for all Padma across this country.