Raabta: The Connect by Mukta Chauhan

Author:Mukta Chauhan [Chauhan, Mukta]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Short Stories (Single Author)
ISBN: 9781945825675
Google: gnjeDAAAQBAJ
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Notion Press
Published: 2016-08-17T18:30:00+00:00

Mithu

The cake was rising in the oven, and the house was filled with the aroma of pineapple and vanilla essence. Radha glanced at the wall clock. Soon the girls would be home from school. She smiled at the thought of the happy faces of her daughters. They loved the smell of freshly baked cake. It was for their enthusiasm that she enjoyed baking just to see the pleasure on their two little faces. She cleaned the slab with the mop and took a last glance at the neatly set dining table when she heard the shrieks of laughter coming from outside. The door opened with a bang, and two little hands pushed a wriggly mass of flesh towards her face. She shrieked, ‘What is this, Priya?’ ‘A parrot! Jasrotia Uncle gave me.’ Colonel Jasrotia was the Brigade Quarter Master. Radha regained her composure and cajoled the young, excited face. ‘It hardly looks like one; where are the feathers?’ ‘Oh, it’s a baby, Ma’, the little one explained wisely in an excited voice that said all that it could for the ignorant adult world. This time Radha looked closely and even offered to take the bird in her hands and examined it quietly. ‘There is something wrong with her, Priya. It has no eyes’, she said, expressing her doubt and her inexperience with birdlife. ‘Do you think we can really keep it?’ she asked and took in the excited eyes suddenly getting clouded at the possibility of giving it up. ‘Of course, we’ll keep him. I have already thought of a name for him. We’ll call him Mithu.’ Radha looked at her elder offspring for assistance, but all she found was an eager face waiting for her decision. So, it was settled. A cardboard box was organised, and a set of old T-shirts were laid out neatly as Mithu’s bed, not to mention a soft heart-shaped cushion that belonged to their doll’s house, and soon he settled into his new home.

Radha’s daily routine now had two additional chores – feeding Mithu and cleaning his box. Initially she found it difficult to lift him, but gradually she got used to clutching his delicate form in one hand and feeding him with the other. She experimented with different things – all the antics that mothers try with their infants while feeding them – from mashed bananas to potatoes and cottage cheese and lo! To her surprise, cottage cheese turned out to be Mithu’s favourite. So, his mornings began with a diet of cottage cheese followed by some guava juice. Radha cleaned him with some diluted antiseptic solution to ward off any infection from his frail body and then she would settle him in his box where he snored unabashedly after the strenuous exercise of eating and cleaning. She was scared of his visionless existence, and it increased her sense of responsibility. She would remember to close the door of her children’s room in which he slept peacefully. The inquisitive exploring of their spaniel kept her on guard.

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