Spare some time for me, my dear!

Spare some time for me, my dear!

Let’s meet Mrs. Gomes. 

 Poor lady! What can she do? She lives all by herself. She stays in that huge and luxurious 3B.K.H. apartment and that too in a posh area of South Bombay, oops Mumbai. Of course, she does have a very big family of five grown up married children; two daughters and three sons, each having children of their own. So she has lot many grand- children. Yet Mrs. Gomes is lonely. All the children have settled abroad. They do come, once in a while to visit her, but their visits are few and far between – once or twice in three to four years! It was different while Peter, her husband, was around. She never felt alone then. It was Peter, who had sent all the children abroad, at first it was for their education, then he put his three sons in his business in foreign countries and they still do take care of his business interests there. He also got his two daughters married off to his business associates and helped his sons-in-law in their business. All was well then. Peter had always travelled with his wife  so many  times to America, Germany, France and Australia to visit their children abroad and for pleasure tours to Europe and other places. However, everything had ceased after Peter’s passing away some ten years ago. There was no more any fun and enjoyment in her life. Peter had left her enough. Money wise she was quite rich and had everything. But what she lacked was to have people around her, people to talk to and listen to her.

She really enjoyed whenever her family visited her, talking to her grand- children, telling them stories and listen to their chit-chatting, silly at times she thought, and she would find solace in their arguments and fights too. It was always so pleasing to her to have them around her. The emptiness of home, as well as her mind would then fill with their mere presence.   Mrs. Gomes would long for their visits. She had to remain contented with these rare and occasional visits, especially of her grand- children. She enjoyed every moment of their company.  She often stared blankly into the empty fogginess, thinking perhaps that her grand- children would fly in and hug her tightly. She longed for all this.

One day Mrs. Gomes was sitting in her drawing room, lost in her thoughts, thinking about her lovely grand -children. Her telephone began to ring. Even the shrill ring tone sounded melodious to her. She almost jumped, ran across and almost snatched the receiver off the hook, all with a zeal and enthusiasm of a ten- year old.

 

“Hello,” she gasped breathlessly.

Rea, her grand- daughter, had called from America. Mrs. Gomes was too excited and she couldn’t even grasp all that was said. Rea too couldn’t hear her grandma properly. Somehow she did manage to convey to her all of them, her cousins, uncles and aunts and her parents, all of them had decided to visit her at the same time. She couldn’t comprehend what was happening. Finally, it all sunk in her mind.

There were just ten days to go and so much to do for the little ones. They were all grown up now, but they were all her little ones, just the way her children were for her despite them having children of their own. The whole house would once again be full - filled with all the laughter and merriment. The rampage and the uproar – it was going to be quite a fun! She would have long chats with them, telling them stories and even listen to their silly and absurd arguments and meaningless chit-chats. Another thing she enjoyed was to take sides of one of them when they fought among themselves - ‘a casting vote’ – it would make her feel important and powerful. Rea, Jane, Susan, Jenny, Tom, Rig… (Age was really catching up. It wasn’t easy to remember names of all of them.) Anyway it was certainly going to be quite a fun!

The moment she kept the phone down she began to dance. The countdown had begun. She began her wait and she also thanked the Lord for her prayers had been answered.The ten days passed, taking the same time – the same number of seconds, minutes and hours! But Mrs. Gomes found the waiting period too long, she thought the second, the minute and the hour hands of her huge wall clock were going very slow and even the Sun and the moon were conspiring against her. But the day did arrive.

Let’s see what happened then.

The grandma must be thinking aloud, “My dear little ones, please come out of your world of mobiles, computers, etc. and please spare some time for me as well.”

                                                                              Vinay Trilokekar