I Want Back My February.

Last year February was drastically different from what February looks like this year. I was almost without work, with fewer children coming to take classes due to the ongoing exams. I had a maid (God bless her, though not too much coz she left me in beech majdhar six months back) who would time and again play with Seeya, taking her away for an hour or so, a couple of times during the day. I had just then (after five years of rigorous running around Seeya like a puppy behind its owner) begun to indulge in movies, surf the net, tweet like a celebrity, read books and do whatever pleased my heart, though in intermittent portions. (Yes, we like to play the victim card, you'll shortly see) If you had listened closely, you would almost hear me sing "Freedom" though mostly in the shower and with an unsightly jig.

Damn, I was even beginning to think of joining some kitty parties, where posh women assemble in clothes they never repeat and gossip and barely eat (thank god that urge passed). For me an outing means overdosing on chicken and a kick in the butt to lauki and tindas and gobhis, but more of that some other day.

Being so optimistically charged, I even took a package of twelve facials at a parlour. Hell yeah! We were all set on the path of rocking it. But as is human nature, the keeda within never lets you rest in peace till actually they add RIP beside your name.

So being complacent that my life is finally on track despite a child and I have "so much" free time at hand (how we humour ourselves), I ventured out to take up work coming my way, that would enhance my productivity and take for a jog of whatever was left of my rusting cells. I could never be or see myself as the sit-at-home-shout-at-the-servants-watch-serials kinds. (Yes, we're stereotyping, Sue us?)

G of course would give me his outstanding doses of advice -
• Why don't you do more work in the kitchen?
• Why don't you drop the car for servicing?
•Why don't you go to BSNL and lodge your internet complaint yourself?
• Why don't you sit in the mandir or join a satsang?
• Why don't you take a broom and clean that makdi ka jaala in the bathroom?
Yes, I stopped seeking advice from him thereafter. (Sit in the mandir, like really! Does this guy even know me after fifteen years of tolerating me?) But then he would laugh at his own ridiculousness and I'd feel alright, he does know me thoda Bahut.

So I did a stint in an institute taking up batches for personality development for children. From there I moved on and took to the idea of being a visiting faculty for a popular school. All was fine. I had work again. The feel of teaching in a classroom and listening to your voice making sense to a handful of eager listeners. Well, we all have our own stupid ways of tasting heaven.

I now had no time to indulge in mindless internet banter or clicking stupid selfies. Just then the realisation dawned. I'm growing fat. Like terribly out of proportion. Like I would enter a room and my butt would still take a while to pass the threshold and thus joining the gym became of paramount importance. But oh no! My morning hours post dropping Seeya to school were now devoted to teaching. And the idea of leaving her and going anywhere is still light years away from my reality unless it's a life threatening emergency.

I lessened another hour from my six hours of sleep, dropped Seeya to a camp in the evenings and in the meantime gymed my guts out (not that my guts or any other inch of the body felt threatened in the teeniest of bit). The rest of the time I had my long nose buried in the books, Seeya's or my own.

So now I was slowly coming in the overworked category. And the feeling of "I have no time for myself" was taking roots. Man, I tell you. How we keep yo-yo-ing from one side of the fence to the other. Even the songs in the bathroom changed to "I will survive, I know I'll stay alive".

And just then the mother of all fuck ups happened. The dear maid left. Not like to the heavenly abode. Just packed her bags and left. Without a trace. So I couldn't even cling to her clothes and bodily stop her, with my tears wetting her clothes to submission.

Yes, imagine a drowning, non swimmer of a man coming to the surface gasping for breath. That was pretty much my situation after a few months of coping with the crisis. You tell me to do jhaado-poocha, I will. Saaf karo the bartan, I will, with a smile. Wash clothes even and I wouldn't budge from my resolve. But to babysit and play round the clock with her and it's like someone put a straw in me and sucked my energies in slow sips with gluttonous pleasures. Don't get me wrong. I love her. She's the light of my life. But every light must give some break with a night also, na? *sniff, sob* I've spoilt her so much with the idea of being entertained that it's difficult to pacify the keedas in her now suffering from even the slightest pangs of monotony.

'Mamma, let's do racing?' Whoa, does she even realise how much weight I'd have to carry of my own to go from this side to the other? 'Mamma, come on. You're getting fat'. 'What nonsense Seeya, I'm just tired' Abhi toh mein jawaan hoon.

And then the icing on the cake was the cook going away for five days but taking a month and a half to return. Bhai Saab, I became the ma of multitasking. Half the day would pass in me waiting to exhale and the other half in me sighing! (To think I would have breathed the fat out of me but no. My fat just sticks to me better than any human could ever. Aww!)

The last six months have seen me working round the clock. Managing some 100 plus students in back to back classes at school, an odd 20 others for classes at home, gyming, teaching Seeya with her Prep syllabus so she qualifies for Class 1 in a good school and in between managing to write for whatever portals that gave me some peace of mind. I don't need to mention my own chores like self bathing, attending to the calls of nature, etc, do I? Okay, okay. You get the drift.

But please let me mention the duties of Seeya from bathing and dressing her up to dropping to school and various classes and bearing her non stop chatter and growing intolerance for not getting my undivided attention at all hundred percent of times. Matlab mamma toh insaan he Nahi hote. (I want my mommy)

And then after all this when you feel you have some super powers in you perhaps that the world should stand, applaud and take notice, someone comes around and asks "Tum kaam karte he Kya ho saara din?" Or rubs in that "huh, all women do that". Sigh! Gee, aren't we glad we're engrained to be a non violent nation!

And why am I telling you all this crap? Because G does not listen to my whine anymore.
G*hesitatingly*- Baby, agar manage Nahi ho raha toh chodd do na school?
Me*aghast*- What! Nobody asks the man of the house to quit his work and stay at home with the child in crisis, why should the woman always have to leave work? Inquilab zindabaad *some feminist, male chauvinist bullshit blah blah. Auraton pe Zulm Abhi Nahi chalega, Nahi chalega!*
G- Baby, ab mein thode der akhbaar padh loon? Mujhe yehi Ek ghanta milta Hain shanti ka.
Me- What! Aur Mujhe toh Woh Bhi Nahi milta *some more blah blah blah blah, sob, sob, blah blah*
G- Okay baby, ab mein nahane jaata hoon, Kal chai ke time pe Phir discuss karte Hain.

Next day-
*copy pastes the above conversation*

Songs crooned now in the bathroom - Yeh duniya, yeh Mehfil, mere kaam ke Nahi!
Man, I need a holiday. Desperately.