Ashish Goyal is a well settled man in his late thirties with a beautiful and understanding wife and an ever-so-loving daughter. He's jeweled with countless employee of the month trophies, lives with zero guilt and regrets, and likes to believe that...
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“Aru, aaaaaan…” Ashish had a plate in his hand, breaking a morsel of chapati, dipping it in the curry, and holding it in front of Ariya.
Ariya opened her mouth, distractedly having the bite from him, her eyes trained somewhere else.
Currently, they were on the couch, where Ariya was trying to hog down the contents of her textbook in one go; like a look at it, and the words would imprint themselves on her brain. It was the day of her final exam. Ashish was trying to get her ready for school while she did her supposedly ‘second-last revision’ before doing the last one on the bus or after the assembly, just fifteen minutes before the exam.
“C'mon, open your mouth…” he held out another morsel for her.
“I’m full Paa,”
“It’s the last bite, princess!” As she opened her mouth to protest, he fed her the morsel with a satisfied grin.
“Paa, socks,” she said in between the bites, stretching her leg to show that she hadn’t worn them yet.
Ashish put down the plate to go find that weapon of Satan, which could get any human late for an important event. His race with time to find a matching pair of socks was real. Because he’d never find one. When he was in school, his mom did that for him, and then, his wife. Now, he was doing it for his daughter.
Ashish rummaged through Ariya’s cupboard, going through at least six different pairs, to finally spot the white, school one. He quickly made his way to the living room and bent on his knee to make her wear them. Ariya instinctively forwarded her leg to him. “The right one…” he said, bunching up the sock in his hand.
She again forwarded the same leg.
“The right one, Aru!” Ashish was getting slightly frustrated at this point. He had been a topper student in the school, he didn’t get the point of not being fully prepared from the beginning, and fretting over the textbooks at the end. Which was pretty much Ariya’s strategy for exams.
“Oh! Sorry,” she smiled sheepishly, forwarding the other leg to him. He made her wear the socks and moved towards the dining table to check the lunch box and school bag for her.
“Everything’s in order, Aru?”
“Yes, Paa.”
“Pen, pencil, eraser, ruler, exam board, admit card, ID card, water bottle…….” He started listing out all the necessary things for her, which was followed by a “Yes, Paa” for each mentioned object.
“Okay then. Get up, you’re getting late” he started collecting her books and putting them in her bag.
“Just two more minutes, Paa” She raised two fingers, again burying her face in the book at hand and started turning the pages more rapidly.
