A Tale Of Two Brothers

XII

As the sun sets, the skies deepest secrets come to life.

None of them had realized, even though they saw her everyday, that their mother was growing older rapidly. Her face had begun to form thin and dry lines, as of a dried up river or the pattern of a dead tree. Her face was getting darker, hair greyer and teeth had already started vanishing.

Neither Rudra nor Adrith had ever felt the need to help her in the chores she ran through the house. Their duty towards her consisted of getting gas cylinders when she said, paying the bills on the right time and at times, accompanying her to the vegetable market or the temple nearby. On the weekdays, her husband would take her to a park situated in the city's lowland. But that was all she got as an outing.

As a mother and a wife, she'd accustomed herself to always serve, without any question, as she was trained to do ever since she was a child. One of her most favorite tasks to do was to prepare spices beforehand, cut meats on a cutter that'd be levered on a thick wooden plank. In the kitchen, she had two dibbis (boxes) with sections for all the spices with which she added aroma to the food.

The mother was obsessed with organizing.

The house would be swept clean, dusted, and left fragrant. Without a second thought, she'd clean her children's room as well, never really telling them to even fold a blanket. In the beginning, when they were small, she got tired easily. Her head would be drenched in sweat, a few drops creating a stream down her face and dripping off her chin. Some of them, she swallowed. She'd never complain though, and clean the sweat with the back of her wrists, holding the fall of her sari and tying it around her waist. Her bangles jingled loudly while cleaning.

When the father insisted on giving a helping hand, she'd retract it.

"No! No! How can I let you do that?" She'd reprimand with her eyebrows pulled in towards her nose, the bindi on her forehead staying intact and her sindoor (vermilion), untouched.

And so she'd shoo him away and keep working. She was too used to doing it herself now. It didn't really matter to her if she was asked to do any extra work. In fact, her physical strength was beyond the limits of her appearance. She would pull about twenty liters of water in three earthen jars at the same time, pull two cylinders of gas at the same time - something Rudra or Adrith only did once at a time.

She was preparing about a dozen of laddoos (sweets) and had already begun packing them in a steel jar, very precisely, making sure every ball was comfortably seated and would not crumble. She prepared two such boxes, one for the family and the other one to give at the temple.

When her husband asked her what was all this about, because he knew well that sweets would only be made if there was a special occasion or festival, she replied, "I'm going to the temple with my sister. I had asked for a mannat for these people to leave our country for good. I had promised God a dozen of freshly-made laddoos in exchange. Since He finally replied to all of my prayers, I am fulfilling my promise."

No-one ever argued with her about the things that she'd want to do. She was, after all, the woman of the house. Her husband only nodded in response, not wanting to take away her faith and devotion. He quietly walked into their room and opened the locker of the steel cupboard. He dug his hand in there and pulled out a bundle of currency, separated two heavy notes from the it and then handed it to her.

She gladly took it, without any awkwardness, and folded the notes very neatly and stuffed them into her hand-pouch that had the logo of some local jeweler with only one compartment. She zipped the pouch in swiftly and arranged it into her bra, right against her left breast and next to her armpit. She adjusted her blouse then and covered her chest with the rest of the fall of the sari.