Ritika had wandered far from home in search of a job and she had found it in another city. It had been four years of ups and downs, some crucial learnings from dealing with the challenges of life almost alone. Ritika’s parents would come by once a year and once a year Ritika would visit them during festive holidays.
Everything was fine and getting better, why wouldn’t it be, the more you learn the wiser you become and more is the calmness in mind.
Ritika knew she had a few distant relatives in the city, but was also aware she would never come across them, after all there is a reason, they were distant, not only literally but also on multiple other regards.
One not so fine day when looked back upon later, Mrs Girkar, one of Ritika’s aunts arrived, calling it a ‘surprise’ for some unknown reason, since Ritika wasn’t on talking terms with her and they were never ever close.
It was Ritika’s mother who kept in touch with his particular aunt. Now, why had Mrs Girkar come? Apparently one of Ritika’s distant relatives had passed away and Mrs Girkar was here to attend the preceding rituals and she had assumed she would be welcome in Ritika’s apartment.
Mrs Girkar was an imposing lady, a housewife, fond of sitcoms and inside news of neighbourhood households. In her mind everything had to align with what she wanted, whether it was her own family or the entire world outside. She wouldn’t give even the slightest effort to lower her voice when speaking her mind and it is something that happened a lot.
Ritika sat at the dining table opposite Mrs Girkar who was sipping tea and had also eaten the entire 175 gm pack of cookies. Ritika was trying to control this urge to ask ‘why’ or the subtle ‘for how many days’.
“She will be out of there in 4-5 days,” said Ritika’s mother on phone
Two weeks went by but Mrs Girkar spoke nothing of her return. She had occupied Ritika’s bedroom where she watched television most of the time with the air conditioner on almost all day. She came out to eat and she ate a lot, offering no help with either household work or expenses. She just vaguely gave ‘a few things to be done’ as the reason to keep on staying.
Ritika tried her best to keep to her own work and wait it out, she wanted no problem to occur within the family, but calmness was slowly edging towards end, especially when trying to sleep at night on the sofa in rising summer temperatures with only the air from the ceiling fan.
The arguments had begun, and things were aligning to explode at some time, Ritika’s mother had sensed it and thus she came. It wasn’t easy to get Mrs Girkar out, telling her that what she was doing was wrong; Ritika’s mother had come to face the explosion and save her daughter from at least this one ugly experience that was forcefully being imposed on her.
A day after Mrs Girkar left, in the time of peace, Ritika and her mother sat having tea one evening, and they had a good laugh about it.
Written by Anuran Chatterji
Early Morning Memories 