It was 4:30 a.m. again, and exactly at that moment, Rajat was woken up by his mother’s sewing machine noise. Unlike in earlier days, he doesn’t get startled now.
“Maa. Why do you have to stitch this shirt at this time? It’s just 4:30 a.m.,” he asked his 65-year-old mother, who was sitting on her sewing machine under a dim light with her specs on her nose. She raised only her eyes to look up at her son and lovingly dismissed his concern.
“It’s okay beta. Tomorrow your school starts. I told you that I completely forgot to stitch your shirt yesterday because I got too caught up with preparing food, getting ready, and waiting for your father to come and take us out”, and she got back to her stitching
“Maa. See, it’s Sunday tomorrow. My school reopens the day after. Look at that calendar there. C’mon. Everyone in our neighborhood is also sleeping. They will get disturbed. You sleep for now and stitch it in the afternoon. Okay? Come. Stand up. I will take you to your room”, he gently took her by her shoulders and took her to the bed.
While she was lying down and taking off her glasses, she asked, again!
“Has your father started from his factory? Can you call up Mahesh uncle and ask?”
“Maa, Papa told in his last call that they have a big order to finish and it will take him many more hours. We should sleep now. Good night”
Rajat closed the lights after making sure that his mother had settled down and was going to sleep. He closed the door slightly and went to his room.
“Has Maa slept?”, asked Meenu, Rajat’s wife for 2 years
“Yes. Sorry, I woke you up while I got out of the room. That door closed so suddenly. You also go to sleep now”
“I am okay. Even I am now getting into the habit of waking up at this hour, watching you go out, settle her down, and come back to me. Tell me, Rajat. Doesn’t it bother you? You have been doing it for more than 12 years now. Same time, same words, same calendar. Is there no way we can convince her that you are a grown-up married man and Papa is never coming back? Why don’t you let her complete stitching that shirt for you or just remove that sewing machine”, she asked very patiently.
“Do you think that I have not tried all of these things? Open that right side cupboard and you can find 7-8 white school shirts that I let her complete but the next day she wakes up and goes to the market to get the new white cloth since she thinks that the one on her machine is the old one. She tries it on me and obviously it is too small for me and buys new cloth to stitch the shirt for my size. She stitches as per the measurements she had written on that day but tries on me – the grown-up man”, he took a pause
“And for the machine. I once secretly sent it off to Lakshmi Chachi’s house. She frantically ran about the entire colony to search for it. She even went to the police station to lodge the robbery report and when she one day saw it at Chachi’s house, she broke all relations with her. She doesn’t remember it and still meets Lakshmi Chachi with the same fondness.
Apart from feeding us with good food, her only other passion was stitching. This sewing machine was given to her by her grandmother and till that day, I had never worn a readymade garment, Meenu. She would always stitch clothes for me. I could never gather that courage to sell off this machine”
Meenu had nothing to say or offer. Though Rajat had very clearly told her all about his mother’s mental condition however it always felt so uncomfortable for her to introduce herself to her mother-in-law every morning. Her getting upset that Rajat didn’t even complete his schooling, got married to Meenu, and didn’t even invite her for his wedding. Though, by afternoon, she starts liking and loving Meenu as she is a “good-natured and cultured” girl.
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“Sumitra, I will come back home by 7:30 PM. Tell Rajat to pack his school bag for tomorrow and you finish cooking and wear my favorite red Banarsi saree. We all will go to the beach and have a picnic there. From tomorrow Rajat’s school will reopen and we won’t get time”, Rajat’s father had called from his manager’s phone that day 12 years back
“Maa, it’s already 8:30. When will Papa come?”, Rajat asked his mom
“He will come soon beta. You go and play with your friends”, she sent him out and got back to check if she had packed the dinner and other things properly for their under-the-stars dinner. That’s what her husband used to call these outings.
By 9:30, they started to get worried and called up the factory. But nobody answered the call. After yet another hour, he finally called.
“I am so sorry Sumitra. There is a very big order that we have to complete and a couple of machines have broken down. I have to stay back late to fix them up. Say sorry to Rajat too. I will come by early morning to drop him at the school. Sorry Sumitra”
“It’s okay…”, but he had already hung up the call
“My dedicated husband. How will the factory run without him”, she smiled to herself and consoled Rajat. She had already fed him the dinner and asked him to go to bed
At 4:30 am, Rajat woke up startled by the sound of the sewing machine. Rubbing his eyes, he came to check and saw his mother sewing his school shirt
“Maa, it is 4:30 am. What are you doing here? Where is Papa? Is he not home yet?”, he asked
“Sorry to wake you up beta. But in my excitement for the picnic, I forgot to sew your shirt for tomorrow. I am almost done”
“Maa. Tomorrow is Sunday. My school reopens on Monday. You forgot? C’mon, sleep now”
At 7:30 am, there was a loud knock at the door and Rajat opened it to see Mahesh uncle and other friends of his father.
“What happened uncle? All of you are here. Where is Papa?”, he asked. They all looked at each other in surprise
“Didn’t your mother tell you anything beta? Can you call her out please?”, said Mahesh uncle
“She didn’t tell me anything. What happened uncle?”, he asked
“Beta, ummm, we called her at about 4:15 am to tell her that… uhhh… please call her out”, seeing the hesitation, instead of calling his mother, Rajat stepped out. There was an ambulance at the door. He mustered his courage to peep into the ambulance. There he was. His father. Wrapped in white sheets.
“While fixing one of the machines, his hand got stuck and the machine started. We couldn’t do anything Rajat. All of us tried. We really did but… so sorry”, said Usman uncle before breaking down…
His mother could not get out of that trauma and shock when she got to know this. To dismiss that ‘prank call’ telling about her husband’s accidental death, she decided to divert her mind by stitching Rajat’s school shirt.
And it’s been 12 years since that 4:15 am call and exactly at 4:30 am, she dismisses the idea of her husband’s death and starts working on her machine. Every single day.
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Photo by Long (lTiga) Nguyen on Unsplash
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