My wife is visiting India these days. Its been a week since she left and its been seven long days. The condition of our house can be best described as...... chaotic! The race against time begins every morning, as soon as I wake up.
By the time I get downstairs, I'm already behind by a few minutes.
"Hey dad, where are my socks?" my son calls out.
"Your socks? look in the...the... sock closet. " That's the best I could do, between juggling cream cheese and bagels for breakfast. Even to me, my answer sounded lame.
"What sock closet?" he asks back. I pretend not to hear.
When he's ready to leave, I notice that he is wearing socks.
"Hey Simar, so you found your socks," I smiled.
"Yup. I called mom."
"You called mom? You called India to find your socks?"
"Yeah, dad. Can't go to school without socks. No shirt, no socks -- no education!" He smiled and rushed out of the house to catch the school bus.
Just then my daughter hurries down from her room, getting ready to drive to UVA, where she's a second year.
"G'morning, dad. What's the hindi word for appreciate?" (She studies hindi as a second language at college.)
I did some quick thinking, in between getting the dog out, throwing bread into the toaster, ignoring the persistent phone ringing.........
"I don't know, Neety."
"But didn't you study hindi in India?"
"I did, but I wasn't very good at it."
"Mom would know. So when is she coming back?"
"In a week." A deep sigh escapes me.
"You sure you can hang on, dad?" I can sense that she's a little worried.
"Oh yeah. I'm fine." God, I'm the one supposed to be taking care of her!
This is a micro chasm of life in my day when Kamna is not around. Things go a little crazy, a little unstuck around the house. I've realized that she's the glue that holds our lives together, makes things go smoothly without the hiccups. And she does this, day-in and day-out........ and she works......and she cooks....... and provides counsel to so many people we know..... and the household chores...... the list can go on and on.
The other aspect I miss is her company, the daily chit-chat about "stuff", the spontaneous laughter, the impulsive run to the movies or restaurants..... I guess she really does "complete me". (Excuse me, Tom Cruise!)
And I'm sure this story is repeated in all households, all over.
So hats off to ladies everywhere......
Sunday, November 9, 2008
Thursday, November 6, 2008
The Laundry Challenge!!
The other day my wife said "Can you put laundry in the washer?"
"Sure, honey," I replied. I strode to our laundry room and saw three separate piles of clothes. I put one of them in. There was so much space left in the washer, so I picked up the second pile and put that in too. And there was still some space left. I love my wife, so I said to myself --Let's get in the third pile too, so she won't have to to this when she gets back. So in went the third pile of our son's bright colored T -shirts. Then I looked around for soap and I put a scoop in. My wife's going to love this! All the laundry done before she returns home!
Then I noticed a bottle of bleach next to the soap. Didn't I just put in some white clothes too? So in went a cup of bleach. I slammed the laundry door shut and looked for the "Wash" button. To my surprise, there was none. There were fifty other buttons and tiny flickering lights, as if I was looking at the dashboard of a fancy sports car! I tried making sense of the words delicates, cotton, sturdy etc. And why was "hand wash" labeled on the panel? If I was going to hand wash my clothes, I wouldn't use the machine, would I? And what in the hell is fluff? I thought fluff was the frothy stuff floating on top of a Cappuccino!
And then there were numerous options for water temperature...hot/warm, warm/warm, cold/cold etc. etc. That was confusing. Do clothes really care about the temperature of the water they are being washed in? It was winter, so I punched the hot button!
But it was done. I felt proud, the laundry room looked so clean. I could hardly wait for my wife to return. And when she finally did, I just looked up and said, with a smile "There's a surprise for you in the Laundry room."
"My God, what did you do?" she said and rushed up the stairs. And then I waited for the sweet nothings to shower down. Instead, I heard a shriek. I looked up and saw her holding her favorite white top, only..... it seemed to be faded pink.
"That one is just like your favorite white shirt."
"This is my favorite white shirt" she replied, rather frostily.
"So why did it change color?"
"Why don't you tell me, sweetie." And take my word, there was nothing sweet in that "sweetie." The rest of the conversation......... Well, I'll leave it to your imagination!
Now there's a Laxman rekha around our laundry room, and I dare not cross it.
But I realized then that clothes suffer discrimination too. You see, as my wife patiently explained to me, the delicates don't get along with the cotton/sturdy ones, and the whites definitely want to go it alone in the washer, as they don't mix well with the colored clothes!
So, my fellow men, mow the lawn, hang a painting, do whatever...... but if asked to do laundry, just say no and walk away. It's too complicated for simple souls!
.
"Sure, honey," I replied. I strode to our laundry room and saw three separate piles of clothes. I put one of them in. There was so much space left in the washer, so I picked up the second pile and put that in too. And there was still some space left. I love my wife, so I said to myself --Let's get in the third pile too, so she won't have to to this when she gets back. So in went the third pile of our son's bright colored T -shirts. Then I looked around for soap and I put a scoop in. My wife's going to love this! All the laundry done before she returns home!
Then I noticed a bottle of bleach next to the soap. Didn't I just put in some white clothes too? So in went a cup of bleach. I slammed the laundry door shut and looked for the "Wash" button. To my surprise, there was none. There were fifty other buttons and tiny flickering lights, as if I was looking at the dashboard of a fancy sports car! I tried making sense of the words delicates, cotton, sturdy etc. And why was "hand wash" labeled on the panel? If I was going to hand wash my clothes, I wouldn't use the machine, would I? And what in the hell is fluff? I thought fluff was the frothy stuff floating on top of a Cappuccino!
And then there were numerous options for water temperature...hot/warm, warm/warm, cold/cold etc. etc. That was confusing. Do clothes really care about the temperature of the water they are being washed in? It was winter, so I punched the hot button!
But it was done. I felt proud, the laundry room looked so clean. I could hardly wait for my wife to return. And when she finally did, I just looked up and said, with a smile "There's a surprise for you in the Laundry room."
"My God, what did you do?" she said and rushed up the stairs. And then I waited for the sweet nothings to shower down. Instead, I heard a shriek. I looked up and saw her holding her favorite white top, only..... it seemed to be faded pink.
"That one is just like your favorite white shirt."
"This is my favorite white shirt" she replied, rather frostily.
"So why did it change color?"
"Why don't you tell me, sweetie." And take my word, there was nothing sweet in that "sweetie." The rest of the conversation......... Well, I'll leave it to your imagination!
Now there's a Laxman rekha around our laundry room, and I dare not cross it.
But I realized then that clothes suffer discrimination too. You see, as my wife patiently explained to me, the delicates don't get along with the cotton/sturdy ones, and the whites definitely want to go it alone in the washer, as they don't mix well with the colored clothes!
So, my fellow men, mow the lawn, hang a painting, do whatever...... but if asked to do laundry, just say no and walk away. It's too complicated for simple souls!
.
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