From the window I could see a bunch of fresh flowers sway in the morning wind, water droplets dripping drop by drop on to the window panes and then splashing droplets on my face. I could feel the freshness of cool breeze touching my face as if in invitation. I went out in the garden, the air was so fresh that it relieved my mind.
Kids were playing in the street, sailing paper boats on the locked water… A young couple enjoying the first rain as they walked down the street returning from their morning walk. I smiled at them,
‘Good morning’…a familiar greeting forced me to turn back and there she was holding lot of stuff in hand … I said, "Aunty, Mummy is not home".
She said, “it’s raining and I don’t have an umbrella and got some stuff to carry”.
Dad came from inside and said “Come inside let the rain abate and then you may go.”
“No brother I got to go … Anto will be waiting for me to pack his Tiffin as he readies for college”.
‘Good morning’…a familiar greeting forced me to turn back and there she was holding lot of stuff in hand … I said, "Aunty, Mummy is not home".
She said, “it’s raining and I don’t have an umbrella and got some stuff to carry”.
Dad came from inside and said “Come inside let the rain abate and then you may go.”
“No brother I got to go … Anto will be waiting for me to pack his Tiffin as he readies for college”.
As I walked her home, she asked me if I had recently met Anto. I replied in the positive and that I had seen him with a few friends walk down the street in a direction opposite to where she came from a while earlier, as she was returning from church.
She thought she too had seen him at a distant, but as the group got closer she did not find him in the crowd. I told her that seated in my balcony, I had seen him hide behind the block and waited for her to pass by. He was afraid his friends would ridicule him after seeing his mother in her attire. Anto always wore a pretense about himself. He spoke ‘Queen’s English’ to his siblings knowing they understood No word of what he said. But it was English, and they were all proud of him.
On arriving home, she told Anto that she saw him disappear in the crowd, when she wanted him help her carry some of the stuff. He sheepishly grinned and tried telling her to resist wearing the traditional outfit and opt for something that was worn by the younger generation. She knew he was in denial of his mother. He was ashamed of her. Recalled the passage she heard that morning …. Matthew 26:34, 'Jesus tells Peter that before the cock crows twice, Peter will deny him thrice.'
