Shock to Shanti by Archana Singh

Author:Archana Singh
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: null
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers India
Published: 2017-12-26T05:00:00+00:00

Together and Alone

Sunday morning and my day begins abruptly at 7 a.m.

‘Mama I want Cocoa Puffs,’ Ansh shouts as he stands next to our bed, one centimetre from my right ear. I wake up startled, first from the sheer volume of his voice and second that his face looks like a Macy’s Thanksgiving Day balloon floating inches from my eyes. I scream in terror just like my mom did when we woke her up in the mornings long ago. We stood over her head the way Ansh is hovering over mine. Watching her scream as if she was fighting for her life was very amusing to me, and likely why Ansh might be having a giggle fit now.

‘Can I watch Transformers?’ his lips seem to be moving in slow motion at this proximity.

I shut my eyes as rapidly as I opened it, hoping this will persuade them to let their mother sleep a little while longer.

‘Give me my iPad. I want to play “Cut the Rope” and “Connect Four”,’ Reya chimes in as she shakes my body, and in doing so I can hear my stomach sloshing around. Any hope I can snooze a bit longer is lost when Reya takes two of her small fingers and gleefully opens my eyelids. ‘Mama’.

Oh my head! Five hours of sleep after a few glasses of wine doesn’t qualify as well rested. Who instigated me last night? ‘Stop acting so old, have another glass.’

That’s right, it came from my shrinking circle of childless friends.

Shere Hite, a renowned psychologist, mentions in one of her articles that women ‘prefer to stick with other women in the same relationship situation’ which happened inadvertently to me; I can only party with other humdrum adults, whose acceptance about waking at the crack of dawn outweighs the thrills of late night clubbing.

On the other hand, bad things happen on the rare occasions I spend a night with friends without kids. Often I forget I’m a mother, and that a night of partying is balanced by a morning of pain.

‘Don’t you guys ever want to sleep in?’ I ask hoping for one last miracle before commencing my parent duties.

‘Don’t worry, Archana, it really gets easier,’ I can hear my sister’s comments playing in my head as I drag myself out of bed. ‘In a few years they’ll bring you breakfast in bed.’ I get a quick flashback of Manish and I in our pyjamas at 10 a.m., eating cereal in an oversized chair while we lovingly completed each other’s sentences. That was our life before responsibilities.

The kids grab my hands and pull me to the kitchen.

‘In there,’ Ansh screams. I mechanically take out their cereal and my own. We sit at the table and the light harshly reminds me of last night’s activities.

‘Mama, I saved Junior yesterday.’

‘Who is Junior?’ I ask slowly while staring at the flakes floating in the milk. Maybe I should have toast instead.

‘He’s the bestest dog, Mama, and we love him and he kissed us on the lips,’ Reya said with such zeal that she almost fell off her chair.

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