ADITYA RAMAN KUMAR BHALLA... Don't you dare take a step out of this house... get back here right now and finish you breakfast... your football can wait..." I smile as I hear my mom shout at me... Romi Chachu, Shravu and Ruhi give me weird looks as they see me smile while my mother is yelling at me... I immediately rearrange my face to look sombre, turn around and walk to the dining table... I bend my head a mumble a "Thank you Ishima" as I sit down to eat my favourite breakfast... Chachu thinks I am weird... my day starts with the "Aditya Raman Kumar Bhalla" rant... and trust me it is the best way to start my day...
Every morning at 5.30 am, my mother walks into my room with a cup of filter coffee and a Tamil newspaper in her hand... she walks up to me, keeps the cup and paper on the side table, sits next to me and kisses my forehead... next she thanks her Murugan and Mata Rani for giving her a beautiful and healthy son (I have stopped trying to convince her that her son is HANDSOME... not BEAUTIFUL!!!)... She then pulls the quilt off the bed and asks me to wake up... not realizing that I am already awake every morning... waiting for my Ishima... as usual I hold her hand and make her sit on the bed... I keep my head on her lap and just lie there... my eyes closed... taking in the aroma of her filter coffee as she drinks it... listening to the crackling sound of her Tamil Newspaper as she methodically reads through 16 pages of Tamil news...
This has been our routine for the last 6 months... since the day I chose to stay with Papa and Ishima, every morning I wake up with my mother beside me... every morning for thirty minutes it is just me and my Ishima... neither of us speak... but in silence we thank God for each other...
Exactly at 6 am my Ishima get up and asks me get ready for football practise... I pretend that I am too sleepy just to hear her yell "ADITYA RAMAN KUMAR BHALLA... don't you dare lie down again... I want you in the bathroom in exactly 30 seconds... oh... and do not forget to wash behind you ears!!!" yes... my day has begun... while I am getting ready I can hear her persuade Ruhi to get up and get dressed for the kathak classes... in the middle I also hear Papa yell for my Ishima... he cannot... rather does not do anything without her in the morning... they are the cheesiest couple I know... finding corners all the time to kiss... whispering I Love You to each other every second... GOD!!! They can be embarrassing... I mean... just last week they both insisted that they would drop me at my friend's birthday party... it was a lovely party... for the first 20 minutes... because after that... all my friends were glued to the window... watching my Mom and Dad romance in parking lot... happily dancing in the rain... I seriously questioned Murugan about my parents' IQ that day... it was raining heavily and these two were oblivious to everything... and then they spent the next day bickering about whose fault it was... all the time sneezing...
It is time to leave for practise... and Ishima is going to drop Ruhi and me to the summer camp... never have I had a summer where my mom has been there for every or for that matter any practise session... but with Ishima... every day I experience a new way of being her son... Papa kept saying that it was embarrassing... that teenagers did not like it if their mammas shadowed them everywhere... and I pretended to agree with him... I don't want to hurt him... I have done that a lot in the past... but I want Ishima to come... my team mates think that I am weird... I mean let's face it... I am thirteen years old and I want my mom to tag along with me... but they don't realize... for me having my mom... or for that matter anyone taking an interest in my life is a gift... yes my mom did not give birth to me... but she made me realize what it is to be a son... how it feels when someone thinks of you before them... when they protect you from the world... when even an I Love You Ishima written on a torn tissue by you is treasured and kept safely as if it is the most precious item in the world... I may be thirteen years old... but it is only on the last six months that I have understood what having a mother with you all the time means...
