"Moooom", I hear a wail from my daughter's room. It was 8 in the morning. I was in the kitchen making breakfast for everyone.
"What?", I yelled back.
This is the routine every-day. They yell loud enough for our neighbors to hear them and I yell back equally loud. Like mother, like children, I guess.
"Mom, I can't find my blue t-shirt. I have to wear it for the presentation today." I see her head peeking from the stair railing.
"It's in the right drawer of your closet" I say, "like it has always been", I say under my breath.
I love my children, I really do, but they have a way of getting on your nerves. One minute you want to leave the house to cool down, the next minute you regret It when you see the innocent faces.
"Good morning mom" my son Rahul says opening the fridge. "What's for the breakfast today?"
"Good morning. I woke up late today, so it's paratha and eggs." I say smiling sheepishly.
I was never a morning person, but I have to wake up early because everyone is out of the house before 9. Still, sometimes, my body just does not cooperate with me.
"It's okay. Oh, I forgot to tell you, I will be late today. My colleague is getting married, so he is throwing us a party." He says, pouring tea in his cup.
"Okay. Everyone is getting married. We get invitation from everyone these days." I say trying to hint at him.
"Mom, please no. Not this early", he groaned. "Shiksha and I are not ready. We want to settle down in career first." He says trying to hightail from the kitchen.
"You are 25. You were 4 years old when I was 25" I say putting a hand on my hip. Kids these days, always running from commitment, but they have no problem with having a long-term relationship. One word of marriage and they act like we are locking them in a cage.
"Mom, I will take a day off my office one day and talk with you about marriage the entire day. I promise", this brat is teasing me.
"Don't tease your mom, she will give you burnt food otherwise" my mother-in-law enters the room.
"Mom, you know my children are brats because of you and dad, right?" I tell her shaking my head.
"It's not a crime to love my grandchildren. These are not just your children" she narrows her eyes at me.
"I don't know why I even try when I know I am not going to win.", I mutter getting back to my cooking.
I love this family. Before marriage, even though I had a family, they were never mine. The only person who wanted me there was my grandfather. Rest of them just tolerated me out of fear of him. I was shocked out of wits when I was married in this family. I thought they were all fake because everyone was so polite. I thought they hated me and wanted to play nice just to my face. But after more than 20 years in this house has taught me that these people are one of the nicest and genuine people I have ever met.
My father-in-law and daughter, Payal came to the kitchen giggling about something. My in-laws were my children's best friends. People their age are usually quite conservative, but nope, not these people. They will literally talk about anything and everything with their grandchildren.
I hear a boom of laughter behind me and I turn back to see 4 of them bending over their chairs clutching their stomach. I am not even going to ask them. I'm sure it's something stupid.
I plate the breakfast and place in front of them. I look at the empty chair and wonder where he is.
"Where is dad?" Payal asks.
"He went to bring my medicine. I forgot to inform him yesterday." Dad says.
"You are always forgetting things old man. See, now, because of you son is missing breakfast", mom complaints.
On the surface, if you look at them, you'll wonder, "how the hell are they even together? They seem to hate each other?" But then when you see them caring about the smallest thing that we could never even imagine, you know that their love isn't defined by romantic gestures, or affectionate names.
"Guys, please stop fighting, I'm here", I hear a voice as the door opens.
I fill his plate removing the tomatoes from the egg. I quietly place the plate on his seat and start packing their lunch.
"How many times have I told you to eat first? Those lunch boxes aren't going to run away." Even without turning my head, I can hear the scowling on mom's voice.
"Just a second. I want to pack the paratha while it's still hot" I say.
Quickly packing the boxes, I sit on the table for my own breakfast.
This is my usual day. I wake up, cook breakfast for everyone, pack lunches, and then everyone leaves for their office, mom leaves for her neighborhood gossip session, dad goes with the neighbor uncles, to do what? I have no idea. Then I do some chores, start on for lunch, have lunch with mom and dad, do some more household chores. I get a little bit of free time before everyone comes home. Prepare evening snacks for them, and then get started for dinner. Payal usually helps me with dishes after dinner and then I go to sleep.
Really, this is an average day of my average life as a housewife. People might think housewives don't have any work, just sit in the house all day, but as a mother, daughter-in-law, a wife, I can vouch, that being a housewife is not joke.