Love Overloaded

Sandeep looked at his phone. It was his mom on the line. He pressed the answer button.

'Hello..'

'Beta, did you have your lunch..'

'yeah mom'

'did you finish your Dahi..?'

'mm...'

' make sure you eat the apple at 5pm. .'

' ok mom, stop harassing me. I have to work...'

'.........ok beta.. i wont harass you. Just take care of yourself alright.. be home soon..'

I just hung up the phone. Mom has always been like this. She always overdosed on love. Ever since dad died. I was way too young then, she became the all-in-one wonder for the family.

His mom had taken up the job of a teacher in a nearby school and conducted tuitions to make ends meet. Things became easier once he started working. His sister Sanjna was now in College and he took care of her education and most of family expenses. Even now his mom only relxed on the tuitions and kept her teaching job.

The loss of a husband seemed to have made her permanently sad and mellow. She directed all her energies as love on her children to the point it suffocated them.

Later that evening when he reached home, it was his mom who opened the door.

" come in beta, how are you feeling? tired? shall I make some kheer for you? "

" no ma.. "

" Wash up and come beta, i will make your favourite Mooli Parantha with some raitha.." she gathered herself to the cooking mode.

"no ma, i'm not hungry..." I just walked into my room and shut myself out.

Half an hour later when I walked back to the living room after washing up,

" .. children should eat on time beta, don't starve yourself beta, here I have made some kheer for you.. drink it up, you can eat later if you want.." she held out the kheer for me.

" ma, i told you i'm not hungry.. why are you torturing me.. leave me alone for a minute. Can't you.?"

Her face dropped a bit and she continued.

"look beta, you can curse all you want, but drink this and look after yourself. That's all I'm asking for.. "

I lost it this time

"look at me... do i look like I'm starving? do you know that I'm overweight and everyone laughs at me? what do you know? Do i have to tell you this each time? Why cannot you trust me to take care of myself? I'm grown up aren't I?"

The bedroom door opened and Sanjna came out to check on the commotion and she realized what was going on.

" ..Bhaiya, don't shout at ma like that.."

" Oh shut up sanju.. go back to your room."

" no.. I won't , don't you dare shout at ma. like that. Do you realize what she has gone through all......"

" oh stuff it, don't start all that history again. I have seen it all.. All am asking for is some peace and quiet. Is it too much to ask for in this house? "

"Miss..." a student called out from the study.

Sanju was glaring at me as mom left with a sad look on her face.

Sanjna yelled "Get lost sandeep.."and stormed to her bedroom.

I could not stand there anymore. It was suffocating. I just took my novel and shut myself in the room. The next few weeks and things didn't change much. Mom showed no signs of reducing her torments.

Relief came in an unexpected form. I was nominated to travel to the US to support my project when it went live. I was thrilled.

This would be my first trip abroad. That too to the US of frigging A! the dreamland of IT guys like me. Finally, i would be rid of mom's torments.

The final weeks leading to the travel were terrible. I had treble the workload to deal with.

My team mates were all giving me K.T. on all aspects of the project and my manager was brainwashing me on dos and don'ts with the client.

My mom! ufff... she was on overdrive. She was buying frozen paranthas and pickles by crates and she was bent on giving me a crash course on basic cooking.

" I will eat Pizzaas ma..' i tried telling her.

' you are a vegetarian beta, it helps to know a little bit of cooking' she would say.. What does she know about US! Another few days and I would be off. Until then I should just go along with her i thought.

She had brought an extra large suitcase and stuffed all her food items in that wrapped with layers of cling film and tin foil. The only thing she relented was when I objected to her idea of buying me a portable wet grinder. You can make dough and batter in this with no effort she told me.

" Ma.. I'm going to work there. I'm not setting up a hotel there.. ok.." i yelled at her.

thankfully Sanjna supported me on this and mom gave up.

"Ok beta, but make sure you take on in your next trip.. " she said postponing it for now.

" I will buy a box of alphonso mangoes instead she was telling herself.." I was doomed for sure.

What will my friends and colleagues think when they see all this food stuff. I have to get rid of this before people laugh at me. I made my plans.

The night I was to travel, I loaded all the boxes into the taxi and ensured I stuffed the one with all the kitchen items under the stair case before mom could notice.

I literally had to tear myself away from mom to get into the airport. She was all tears and embarrassing to the core.

"Beta.. "she called out as soon as I said byes and was about to enter the terminal. I was a good ten feet away and I turned.

" Beta ensure you use blue on your white banians and undies and don't mix it with your office clothes.. " she screamed.

"Shit..." i thought and checked around. A couple of guys with their ipods in their ears were sniggering at me.

I just turned my face away and moved on.

The flight was long. It was thirty hours before I landed in sky harbor international airport at phoenix. The cab was waiting for me and I was set.

The area seemed much different from images of US i had seen on TV. The land was barren and had few sky scrapers! Cars zipped by on the highway and huge signs of fast food chains of different kinds were smothered all along the highway.

I was busted, I hadn't slept or eaten properly since I left home. At the hotel the guy at the reception was nice. He asked me if I was new to the US and welcomed me with a special smile. He then led me to my room and showed me how to operate things.

"Have a nice day sir. " he said and left.

I checked the time. It was Saturday afternoon 2pm. I sat on the bed and switched on the TV. Shuffled some channels. Could not make sense of most of the stuff they were showing. There was a courtroom drama which appeared to have real people in it. One guy was accusing the other of letting his dog poop on his lawn intentionally and the other was denying it vehemently. In another channel the audience were shouting 'Jerry.. Jerry' as two participants were fist fighting on stage in what appeared to be a talk show of sorts. I tried to understand what was going on and lost interest. Some had some serials on ..

I shut off the TV. I absentmindedly opened the mobile and checked it. No Service. It said. I realized that It wouldn't work here and shut it off.

This room would be my home for the next two months or so. I checked the surroundings outside the window and i stared at the parking lot lined with cars. But for cars on the highway, the whole scene outside the window was desolate. No soul was to be seen around. Strange I thought to myself.

I started unpacking my bags. It took me a good two hours before I finished. It reminded me of Mom. "Sandeep arrange your clothes shelf its untidy", she would say.

I never did it. I knew she would do it for me.

I finally finished unpacking and went for a bath. It was a strange place, the switches all operated upside down. To switch a light on, one had to turn the switch to the OFF position.

Crazy I thought. I finished my bath and lay on my bed.There were no voices of

" Beta, come have food.." or "Bhaiyya, I made aloo subzi today.."

The silence in the room greeted me like an unfamiliar stranger. I opened the fridge and it was empty except for some nuts that read. "Welcome to sunny resorts, Scottsdale"

My dirty clothes were lying below the bed where I had left them. Normally Sanjna would have dumped them to the laundry basket in a jiffy.

The silence around me was strange. I looked around again, hoping that someone would walk in through the door and talk to me.

Nothing of that sort happened. I looked around to check If I can order food and found the menu. The food items were all strange to me. There was no mention of pizzas.

It had some burgers and sandwiches that I could recognize. But I was not sure if they were vegetarian. The lady on the phone was not sure either. First it was difficult to even ask her if the food was vegetarian and she kept asking me to repeat what I meant. Finally I used the term 'no meat' and that seemed to work.

" I'm not sure. sir" was her response.

Finally when the burger came, it threw away the middle portion and tried eating it. It tasted awful. Some sauce dripped from it and it made me almost throw up.

I dropped it on the table and looked for water. There wasn't any! What kind of a hotel does not keep water for its residents. I thought.

I gave up and drank the water from the tap to rinse my mouth off the awful taste. I tried finding the nearest Indian restaurant from the phone directory and they said they did not do deliveries. They were 10 miles away from my hotel, the mallu sounding guy said.

I was tired and hungry. There was no place to go and no one to call. I lied on the bed and looked up at the barren ceiling. It was unusual without the fan spinning on top.

I wished mom was there now. She would have at least made some kheer in five minutes and food would have been ready in fifteen minutes.

There was no Sanju, she'd have applied balm on his throbbing head and massaged it softly. She was an expert in this.She would then cuddle up to him and have a cup of masala chai.

I wanted them both in my life this instant. Now! I screamed silently. Nothing happened. The buzz of the air conditioner was all that responded to my scream.

The feeling of regret at my rudeness to mom, tiredness and hunger all overwhelmed me. I cried and cried and cried louder like I never have before.