THAT HARD EARNED CUP OF TEA.

     He came back from office late at night and had the same old question to ask, what I did today? And as usual, I had the same old answer, “nothing”. He looked around himself and saw clean house, dinner ready and our children all set to sleep. He nodded an empty nod and asked me to make him tea. I did. He ate his dinner, talked about his day at office, all the hassle he had to go for a file, and then slept because he had to wake up early the next morning. After he slept, I made tea for myself and sat quietly on the sofa. How could he not see what I had done today? He simply ignored all of my efforts to keep the house clean. His indifference was killing me from inside. I finished my tea and went to sleep because I had to wake up early too.

     Next morning was as usual. I made him breakfast for the morning and lunch for his afternoon hunger. I made him coffee just like he wanted. He went to his office for a long day of work. How hectic that would be all, I thought. Suddenly my thoughts were diverted back to my surroundings when my baby started crying, apparently for no reason. Upon careful examination of the situation, I found out the reason. Well to be honest, I did not have to work much on the reason, he was just being cranky. He wanted me to hold him in my arms. He cried just for that. Cranky baby. Sometimes these kids test your nerves. I thought. Unexpectedly this sentence took me back to my office when I was working. I always used to say that these colleagues were testing my nerves. I remembered how irritable staff members could become. Gossiping, leg pulling, always trying to bring each other down, that was my office. I should have been awarded a certificate of patience for bearing with such colleagues, I used to exclaim. Next was the thought of my friends at office. I would be wrong if I said that all I had were bad people around me at my office. Many of them were nice decent fellows. I remembered them and kept smiling on my own.

     Later that morning my cleaning machine stopped working. I was vacuuming my carpets and it stopped. Oh the hassle! I started analyzing it and tried to make it work again. It did not. I looked for an alternative and picked up a broom to continue with my cleaning. It reminded me of one afternoon at office. I had to take printouts of some important pages but our printer gave away. I tried this and that to make it work again. But it did not. The time was running short so I looked for alternatives, writing! I jotted down all those important points on a paper and headed straight to attend the meeting. That was fun, I thought!

     I was cooking in the kitchen when my cat decided to show up. Ms. June wanted me to pat her. She wanted love at that time. Your cat would never understand you, I reflected. I tried to make her leave the kitchen but she did not. So what I could do? I sat on a chair for her to jump on my lap. Ms. June changed her plans and went out of kitchen, just like that! I could not comprehend whether she got angry on me or she found her interest in something else. I smiled at her ever changing moods. Moods, hmm… well this was not the first moody creature I had encountered. My boss was the same. One minute my boss would be all so good to us and the next, he would rip our self esteem apart. His name was, that moody jerk. Actually not, it was what we used to call him. His parents did not name him “moody jerk”. Why they did not? We would question! I kept on smiling for many minutes.

     I was immersed in my thoughts when my phone bell rang. It was a call from school. My baby had developed some sort of irritation on his skin so I should go and pick him from school lest he become sick. I stopped my cooking, filled bowl for my cat, held up my little baby and went straight to school. There was a traffic jam on the way. I analyzed and changed my route to reach my kid in time. I reached there, picked him up and went straight to see a doctor. It all happened so quickly and after almost two hours I was back home with my kids. I hurriedly did my cleaning, separated clothes for laundry, ironed clothes and made a whole new meal. Why? because according to my older son the cooked tomatoes in curry resembled the lesion on his skin and the younger one did not want to eat because his older brother refused to eat and he thought he would be left behind from eating something heavenly that I was going to serve his older brother. I was so tired to argue that I made a whole new meal for them.

     After completing my home chores and finishing with my son’s homework, I took them outside for play. I sat on the grass thinking about how my day went. I sat their reflecting on all the stuff I did till this afternoon. I thought about all the work I did the other day, and the day previous to the other day and earlier and before. I thought about indifference of my husband the day before. I was hurt. Why he could not see what I had done the whole day? How could he ignore all the chores I did at home. Why? I started analyzing our conversation, every bit of it. Then I realized something. It was I who did not tell him what I did. It was I who undermined my own self. It was I who did not acknowledge what I had been doing all day. How could I expect appreciation from others if I was not sure about my achievements? I was doing job. A job of a housewife. My life was same like that when I worked in office. Probably a cranky baby was not comparable to terrible colleagues, or a cleaning machine to a printing machine, or a boss to a pet cat. Probably my picking up my son from school and taking him to a hospital did not correspond to me rushing to our second office building in downtown for some urgent work. Probably. But these were all works. All sorts of works that I would do on a daily basis. I was not comparing the outside world with my in-house comfortable world. The challenges might seem different with dissimilar intensities but my work at home could not be taken for granted. I had been a caretaker of our house. I was a cook, cleaner, entertainer, concierge, trainer, electrician, plumber, gardener, maid, custodian, janitor, psychologist, counselor, manager, teacher, play date, and above all, a mediator for my kids. I had to start acknowledging my self. It was nobody’s fault but mine. I had to start taking pride in my work. I was a housewife! Right with this word I heard a loud cry; my baby had toppled from see-saw. Boy! I could not even think for a minute. I rushed to him and took my children inside.   

     That night he came from office, all tired. He asked me the same question, “So what did you do all day?” I told him. I told him about all what I had done that day. He looked around himself and saw clean house, dinner ready and our children all set to sleep. He nodded but not an empty nod. He smiled and offered to make tea for me. We smiled together. He handed me a hot mug of tea and sat beside me. I looked at the tea. I inhaled its aroma, I admired its sight and took a deep breath to take a sip of that tea. It was perfect. Perfect ratio of milk, tea, sugar and a bit of coffee sprinkled on it. Perfect love. This was my salary. A cup of tea made with love. I looked at what I had earned after work of all day, I looked at that hard earned cup of tea!

                                                                 Purrfect!