Home alone

When I look back, I feel what the Almighty designed for me was just right.

As the year was ending, I thought of applying my pending casual leaves, lest they lapse.  I applied leave from Monday to Wednesday.  With the television being out of order and husband being out of station, I thought after I send my children I would be fully free and enjoy my three days leave to the fullest.  I wanted to pamper myself and wanted to do just nothing.  I wanted to be ‘Home Alone’.

But destiny had different designs for me. On Monday, my daughter had to reach her college as early as 5.30am in the morning as their class was going to picnic to nearby waterfalls. So my day started earlier than usual. I not only had to drop her to college in the chilling cold, but also had to wait till her accompanying lecturers came. After coming back I sent my son to school thinking he will be back only by evening and so I will have a whole day for enjoying. But he came back in the afternoon as school left early for the preparation of the school-day which was scheduled for the next day. The remaining afternoon was spent cajoling my son to do something productive. My daughter returned at 9pm from picnic and of course I picked her up from college!

The next day i.e. Tuesday, my daughter had regular college, but my son had school only for two and half hours from 8.30am to 10.00am, as there was practice for the evening school-day. I was required to drop and pick up my son from school. And needless to say, I was again behind him asking him to prepare for the upcoming class test. Then comes my last of day of my ‘joy’ i.e. Wednesday.    I got my son ready for school amidst his retorts that the school will remain closed because the children who performed in the school day programme would be tired. I waited for his van to pick him up. But it did not turn up. Finally in desperation I rang up the van-driver (my son’s van-uncle) only to know that my son was right after all.  My daughter went to college as usual but came back in the afternoon as there was some unrest in college. So on Wednesday I had to handle both my children!

As normal siblings they had altercation all the time and I had a tough time pacifying both the parties. I found myself either in kitchen preparing something for them or running some errand for them. My dream of compensating my sleep and doing just nothing got frozen. In fact, I was the busiest on those three days. 

But when I look back, I feel what the Almighty designed for me was just right. Otherwise I would have probably got bored to death if the children were not there as company with me. The list of the to-do chores like cleaning the kitchen, resetting the book-shelf, tidying the pooja-room... are still waiting for their D-day!