Neeta reached home exhausted. She had clients throughout the day and it was taxing. Although it was mostly sitting around listening people talk, the mental energy needed itself was huge. And after that she knew there was grocery shopping and a pile of household chores waiting for her. The thought of messy home, hungry child and lazy husband made Neeta dread going home. But she had no other choice.
As soon as Neeta opened the door, Arav ran shouting "Amma" and hugged her. He was still in school uniform even after coming home a long time ago. Neeta sighed looking at her son wondering what her husband was doing. At that time Pavan walked towards her with a beer in his hand. One look at Neeta and he knew she was going to lecture about Arav. He tried explaining, "I told him many times to change into something else. He just ignored me and started playing with his friends. "
Neeta was used to all of these excuses. She just said "hmm" and coaxed Arav and sent him to change clothes while she went to the kitchen to keep the grocery bag. Pavan had gone back to staring TV. He hardly came home early, and even when he came early, it made no difference to Neeta. 'Was this the man I fell in love with ?' Neeta wondered. Just like a million other times, she told herself not to think about unnecessary things. 'Thinking about all of this would not do any good. She should rather focus on the task at hand.'
Neeta quickly freshened up and started cooking. She always liked cooking; all the years of staying in hostel had made her hate outside food. That was the only reason they had not appointed a cook.
Dinner was noisy as always. Arav and Pavan were chatting about school and cartoons and other things. Pavan always used to make tired or bored faces when Neeta wanted to talk. But with Arav, he was completely different. He always tried to actively involve in conversations that interested Arav. They liked playing together and watching cartoons together. Neeta had to be the strict one and had to discipline Arav and check his homework because, well someone had to. Neeta ate her food mostly in silence. She smiled whenever the father son duo laughed, but she was not actively involved in the conversation.
By the time she put Arav to bed and finished cleaning up the kitchen, it was well past 12am. She went to the bedroom and found Pavan sleeping. He was lightly snoring. Another day had just ended and there was no change in Neeta's monotonous life. She fell into a deep slumber and dreamt of mountains.
****