Meera had been widowed when she was 56. Govind, her husband had died of a car crash a few years ago. The only solace for her was that her four sons and a daughter were all married and Govind did not really have any unfinished business left as such. Of course he’d have loved to live longer and see all their mango trees give out some fruits… the rose garden to bloom and what have you.

The door bell rang and Meera broke off from her reverie to open the door for her grand children. Eisha and Neel finish school at 3:00 pm and they are both quite fond of their grand mum who bathes them, feeds them and takes care of them. She also takes them to MacDonald’s every Saturdays when their mum n dad go out shopping. Glenn Drive in Houston is not very far from Mac’s and it also has a kindy section for the kids to play. Only thing in the US for Meera is that she normally does not have anyone to talk to. So she normally ends up thinking of all those endless people who were visiting her back home in India while going shopping or to the vege market etc. Or her other option was to carelessly read a book. 

She was living with her daughter Rani and son-in-law Vivek. After Rani had Neel, she was finding it a bit too difficult to manage both the kids and had requested her mum to come over for a few days to help her. That was 7 years ago. Since then, till now Meera had not gone back to India even once and from the past few days she had this huge urge to go back and meet all her relatives, and meet her sons, daughter-in-laws, other grandchildren and spend some time with them. She wanted to ask Rani from quite a few days but was just not too sure how she would manage as she had resumed going back to work a year after Meera came over to help. Both Rani and Vivek work and come home late in the evening. Meera was thinking within herself “If I go back to India for a few months…who will take care of the kids?” She almost started feeling guilty for having had such a thought when she saw another child with an African-American lady tending to the baby. The black lady looked at Meera and smiled. That’s when the other kid started playing with Neel. The kids were busy on the play-slope when the black lady walked towards Meera and said “Hello, I am Yolanda... how are you?” 
“Fine thanks” said Meera “I am their grand mother”. Meera always got quite conscious when she spoke in English as she had started talking in English only after arriving to America. She was always apprehensive about her language skills and thought it might be bad and that people might laugh at her. 

“The kid is white in color” said Meera and you are…

“No no the baby is not mine. I am just baby-sitting” said Yolanda. 
“Oh”
“It’s not so bad y‘see. I make quite a good living of it. Of course it was not what I thought I would do when I was growing up and sometimes kids can also get quite dirty and smelly... those are the down sides but they are so lovable. I just love kids and I am told I do a good job as a nanny”

Meera had the solution to her thoughts now… NANNY. Yes that is what Rani could do; get a baby sitter or a nanny for the kids while Meera was away in India. She decided now that in the next 15 days, she will sort out a few other things and then tell Rani about her wish to go home.

The weekend came and went so did another two. With this thought in mind, Meera could not really concentrate on whatever she was doing. Finally one evening she mustered enough courage and after Rani came back from work called her into her room and said “Rani I’ve meant to talk to you sometime about this”
“What’s it ma?”
“It’s a real long time since I went to India…I’ve not gone back at all since I came here and seven years is a long time my child. I was wondering if you can make arrangements for me to go to India for 6-8 weeks or so.”

Rani immediately flared up…”What’s wrong with you mum? What’s wrong here? Why do you want to go now?”

“I’m remembering your brother’s n sister-in-laws and the other kids a lot and then there are my own brothers and sisters with whom I have never spoken to for such a long time”. Meera said. “You can try and hire a nanny or a baby sitter to take care of your kids while I am away – if that’s what you are worried about.”

“It’s not just that ma. What can I do if you tell this all of a sudden? Going to India is not like going to Boston or to DC mum. It will cost us thousands of dollars… And then I still have to repay the credit card money that I spent on getting your green card. We’ll see what we can do okay” said Rani and barged out of the room leaving her mum to her thoughts. 

Meera was quite positive that Rani would work this out and thought of Govind and how life was in their hay days. He was a civil engineer and always wanted to have a daughter after four sons and he was elated when Rani was born. Rani meaning queen…. He was very fond of Rani and she was brought up and treated just like a queen all through. He was also very attached to Meera. He had given her a good life and had planned for her old age too.

In his will, Govind had left a handsome amount from his savings account to Meera so if need be, she can be independent during her old age. And then he knew that if people knew she had the money, atleast then they would not ill treat her in his absence. Now Meera thought that if she went to India, she would spend two weeks in each son’s house and try and visit all the relatives closer to the area. Going to the temple in itself was giving her great joy when in India. That’s where she normally caught up with her friends. They would then go shopping and have lunch at their favourite Hotel Swad. Oh the food at Swad was just so delicious. As she thought of that, she compared it to her life in the US. Here she had to wait for weeks in row until Rani was free to take her. Meera always felt dependant on Rani to go out. The climate was really cold in the winter and everything was so far off. There never really was any cheap conveyance like the Rikshaw in India. She had to wait for Rani or Vivek to come home to take her where ever she had to go. Winter in America was always so cold that taking off the footwear and the socks in the temple was definitely not possible. She hated wearing the socks inside the temple. If she did it anyway, then that would lead to some other health issues and she did not want to be a burden on her daughter. She thought, if she went to India, she will first see how much money she has in her fixed deposit account – by now, it would have fetched her a good amount of interest in the past 7 years. She thought, if need be, she will buy a small one bedroom house near a temple and live by herself. That way when she is bored, she can walk up to the temple and do some “bhajans”. Normally there are quite a few vegetable vendors and grocery stores near the temples as people frequent there everyday. So that way she will not have any issues to buy veges etc. 

On the other hand Rani was thinking if she had reacted badly when her mum asked her to make arrangements to go home. She started thinking that, it is for a fact that her mum has helped her a lot since she came over and never ever once asked for anything. This is the first time that she had ever asked her and for that she (Rani) perhaps reacted hastily? Was she treating her mum like a cook and a nanny? She remembered the days when she was back home in India where they had domestic help for everything. They had Ramuji to help them in cooking, Narain and Bageeya as gardeners and a host of other guys to run errands at home. She remembered the day when once Ramuji had requested her mum for a couple of days off as his sister was getting married and she remembered how her mum had not only purchased a return ticket for him, but she had also given him extra money for the wedding expenses too. Of course, her mum had had a tough time when he was away but she had managed without complaining about anything to anyone and was awaiting his return. She then started feeling guilty for how she had treated her mum. Infact it was her duty to ask her mum if she wants to go home... she had to ask that long ago perhaps 3 or 4 years ago. She must have sent her mum to India 3 times by now. Was she treating her mother worse than how some domestic help are treated in India?

The next day was a Saturday. Rani went to her travel agent and made enquiries on the next available ticket to India. She also booked one return ticket for Monday morning 11:00am flight.

She went home and called her eldest brother and informed him that mum is flying to India on Monday…she will reach there on Tuesday at 10:00 am IST. So he could go to the airport and pick her up or make arrangements for that.
She informed her mum about the ticket and they started chatting about how she can manage cooking etc in the evening so she will not have to rush too much in the morning before going o work. Her mum had also prepared a couple of other spices which would help her in her cooking. All of Sunday went in running errands, packing and in doing a host of other things.

Rani was getting quite tensed about managing the show from the next day as she had not really done a lot of cooking from the past 7 years. By the time she dropped her kids and got back home in the morning, her mum would have prepared the breakfast and dinner would be ready by the time she got home from work in the evenings. On the days that her mum had not packed lunch for her, she would just buy a regular burger or eat at Subway.

Thoughts of how she could manage her time was racing in her head and eventually she fell off to sleep that night. Within a few minutes the alarm clock’s beeping noise awoke her. The time was 5:00 am already. She got up and made breakfast and got the kids to brush their teeth etc. Since her mum had still not woken up, she assumed that with the excitement, may be her mum too was planning on a host of things to do once she reached India and hence may be she too had just dozed off early in the morning. 

The kids were ready and Vivek had arrived at the breakfast table. She thought it would be good to wake her mother now and knocked on her door. “Mum ... its half past six now. We need to leave here by 8:00am at least. We will have an hours drive to the airport and you have to check in there by 9:00 am. If we get any Indian family traveling to India, I will request them to keep an eye on you. You will get a companion for this long journey and you will not feel lonely too.”

It was quarter to seven and mum had not woken up yet. Rani went into the room and asked her mum “Mum wake up.. we will be late if you don’t get up now.” She shook her mum to awaken her. But all she felt was a very very cold body which moved lifelessly.

Meera had perhaps died of a heart attack.