Road to mom’s home

A random call on Sunday morning to exchange pleasantries with mom threw a surprise at me. My mom answered the call and she did not sound the same.  When I pressed hard to tell me where she was, she replied in a low voice that she is at a nearby clinic. I could just gather these three words “I am coming”.

There are innumerable occasions and times I have told myself I am lucky to be living so close by to where my mom lives.  20 kms is a big boon when compared to some of my friends who are 10 times more the distance and 100 times more helpless during the times of crisis or joy.  I took my car and set to my home, my birth home, my mom’s home.   

It was not a pleasant drive as the summer has set in to Bangalore already.  As I reached closer home, the road to mom’s house is closed.  There was some construction work going on and there was no way I could enter the territory.  As I am relatively familiar with the area, I took an about turn and went around the place to get to mom’s place through a different route to get closer to that road.  This was tough.  The roads were extremely crowded, narrow and congested.  The best part there was no road.  As I did not want to give up, I scraped through those by lanes and made it almost to the road which is parallel to where my mom’s home is.  The road further is closed.  Well, I too thought what anyone at my place would do.  I looked for a place to park my car.  The closest I could get was 1 km away.  I was at HALT (Hungry, Angry, Lonely and Tired) at that moment.  Partially helpless, I called mom to let her know my plight and asked her if she could come and meet me. My mom, being my mom said, “I’m busy cooking food for you.  Why don’t you somehow get here”?   As couldn’t find a place to park my car and get to her place by walking (I was wearing high heels), I reversed the car and got straight back to my abode.  

The whole week my mom and I couldn’t really speak.  Once that we spoke, she did mention how she is disappointed she could not see me.  I promised her I’ll meet her the next Saturday which I think consoled both of us momentarily.  

The most awaited Saturday did come by.  As a backup plan, I even thought how I should get to a place where I could part with my car and continue my journey in an auto. Saturday morning after my walk, I thought I’ll quickly catch up on my work and sat there on the couch with my laptop for close to 2 hours.  End of 2 hours a nagging pain started in the upper back.  I ignored and started getting ready to go.  After a while, the pain really troubled me so much that there was no way I could drive 20 kms. I called my mom to let her know I won’t be able to make it.  My mom said just three words “I am coming”.