The Corner

It was the cosiest , warmest , and loveliest corner in the whole of the house .

Ravi remembers coming bounding in , his satchel flying , tripping on his shoe lace , hair all over his face , dusty uniform , barging into the kitchen , grab a wooden “Patta” ( a really low stool), plonk himself, and begin recounting everything that had happened in the school , play ground, class room , at the assembly , school play . 

She would smile indulgently , wipe the brow off her sweat , and listen to him , enraptured . The hands , of course , would be automatically making rotis . She was always making rotis , or turning some stew over , in a steaming pot , fanning the flames . The kitchen was always ops, the fire burning , and food cooking . It was the yummiest and the most welcoming place on earth. 

“What ?” “She doesn’t whack you with the back of the ladle ?” “Or shoo you out with the rolling pin?” Ravi’s friends found this behaviour of Ravi’s mother , highly suspicious , un-mother-like . Yes , she would gently tell him to take off his dusty shoes outside his bed room , place his satchel on the string cot, wash his hands with soap . And he would comply . But all this was accomplished in gentle undertones , and while he continued his stories , babbling , non -stop.

Ravi would consider himself lucky . He had a beautiful , gentle mother . Not the whacking psychos others had . 

Years later , into his twenties , when away on a job in the city , he would hear of her grave illness , and would rush down , to find , hand wringingly , she having passed away quietly . A quiet woman , who was always cooking , smiling ,  uncomplaining , with her back to the door . A befitting end . The kitchen fell silent , and no fire burnt . For the first time , in Ravi's lifetime , there were no hot rotis being made , and no quiet soul , waiting to hear his stories.

When he returned back with her remains in a brass pot , placed reverently next to the Gods , in the Puja room , did someone whisper behind his back " Did someone tell him , she was his step-mother ?"