"What do you do all day?" People ask me incredulously.
Hmmm...I just let that go..unanswered. I mean they won't understand.
How would they? When I go into details...they'd either look away at something more interesting or subtly change the topic.
Why should they listen to my mundane details? A friend once remarked, "Hey, going out to work is much easier..than staying home. Now that's a 24 hr job."
I agreed.
My day begins at 6:30 AM, sometimes I'd loll lazily around some time more. Hubby brings me my ginger tea, he knows I need it for a great start..my petrol!
Ablutions over, head straight to the kitchen. Bottles are already being filled by hubby dear at the filter. Breakfast preparations on..some days it's the appams..the batter ground overnight. If it doesn't rise, I'm doomed.
Then a dash of eno does the trick. Egg curry to go along with it. Peeling, chopping, grinding masala..rrrrr..of the mixie.
Next, appams being rotated on the appam pan, like an Egyptian woman doing a belly dance. Dressed in a frilly dress. It's called 'lace' appam. Haha.
Breakfast ready. And vegetable juice too, hubby insists, it helps cleanse our aging system. Set table. Folk seated. Gobble..gobble..What? All my hard work going down the drain..(literally..next day!) in seconds.
Clean up, plan for next day's breakfast, soak dal for afternoon.
Clothes whirling around noisily in the machine, vessels clattering about in the other...I decide to do some dusting. Bai comes in early..so to shift around furniture or she'd pretend she didn't notice.
Peek into his room to see if sonny's up and about studying.
Ding dong..the milkman. Coupons exchanged, milk safely deposited in the refrigerator.
"Bhaaajiiii"..cries the vegetable vendor at my door.
Check if guest room's up to date, the bathroom clean.
Some time for myself. Meditation, my quiet time with Him, that is if I'm fortunate to go undisturbed by a stray incoming call. Then write, show my face on FB, laugh.
An hour passes swiftly.
Must rush again to the kitchen. More chopping, shaving, grinding follows. What about dessert?
'Ma, you don't make anything nowadays," sonny complains.
Culinary needs of my guests to be looked into too.
Lunch over, some more cleaning up..then heading for some nap.
Ding dong..the plumber..
then the carpenter..oh no my nap ruined.
Lo and behold! Time for tea. Later, dinner preparations in full swing.
Ah, time for a soothing, musical walk around the building now. The cool breeze pulls at my dupatta teasingly. Someone says hi. Or we'd just settle for a smile.
Half an hour exactly. Then return to the roti round, an unhurried, much looked forward to dinner chat around the table. Take sonny's lessons, then some more net scanning, especially for red notifications... and settle down for a hard earned sleep.
Well, in my own little ways, I enact many roles each day.
Mom, wife, daughter-in-law, teacher, cook, maid, personal manager, house keeper, writer, comedian..the list is endless.
So when someone looks at me in disdain, when I say I'm a home maker...
I simply let it go.
It's a full time unpaid job. With no bonus or increments.
But when I watch my loved ones smile or even burp noisily..
I feel so satisfied.
I feel I've done my job.
