Bend it like Mom!

Before I start this post.. I just wanna shout out to the world "MOM ROCKS!!! ABSOLUTELY!!!"..

I got up at around 8a.m today, which is a little too early to be out of bed of a Sunday morning, especially when I was feeling slightly feverish and I had an irritating dry cough which didn't allow me to have a really peaceful weekend crash. Some might mistake this 'early rise' as a step towards preparation for my cycle tests from Monday but hey, you guys know me better!
I had the alarm set for 6 am initially. The reason is that Mom has gone to attend her cousin's wedding in Bangalore and our servant was sacked a week back. So she wanted me to do some chores, like sweeping the house, mopping it if possible and to wash the clothes(washing machine is there ofcourse). I decided that this wouldn't take more than an hour so I decided to start the day with some things she said I needn't bother myself with. Watering the garden!
Been too long since I had a communion with Nature. The garden was too tempting. The weather was perfect and I set out to water the plants. Our garden is not very big but there are plenty of pots and a small lawn, which took more time than I had expected, to be watered. I had almost finished watering them all, humming arbit tunes. The last few plants were outside the compound wall, and I impatiently tugged at the water hose, hoping to get over with it soon. That was my first mistake. The water flow stopped. I turned off the pipe and check all the connections and when I turned it on again, surprise! a forceful jet of water rushed as the hose broke off the pipe and I got totally drenched! I might have enjoyed getting wet had it been another place and at another time, but with so much of work ahead, I got really pissed. I spent some fifteen minutes clearing up the mess(yeah, there was water everywhere and I didn't want anyone, mainly me, slipping in the marble pavement)
I decided to start the original work plan. I collected clothes from all the rooms, seperated the ones that could be washed in the machine and hand-washed the remaining few. I had loaded the machine and I confidently turned it on. It actually worked pretty smoothly for some time. When I came back to check on it, after helping my cook was the vessels, I found the machine making weird noises and worse still, not working! Spent another quarter hour trying to fix it, at the end of which, thankfully.. it worked!
Sweeping the house came next. I hated sweeping even as a kid when we were supposed to sweep our classes in school. Pushing benches, emptying the dust bin, picking up papers, I'd do them all but sweeping was a big turn off. My house(for the benefit of those who haven't come home) has three halls in the ground floor with a kitchen and a bed room and one hall and four rooms in the upper floor. Since dad was having his breakfast downstairs, I started sweeping upstairs. I don't remember the last time I sweated that badly. I was soaked and I had to change before I came downstairs. My hands started to ache and I was feeling exhausted. I remember Dad saying something about the 'second wind' and today, was one of the rare days, I experienced it. By the time I had finished one hall, I was feeling ok enough to finish the rest! Mopping followed.
Mopping was fun usually, but today, my patience had worn as thin. Mom would generally empty the pail of water used and refill with clean water for every room and I was doing it only after finishing two rooms. I was swinging the mop so wildly that I knocked off the pail of dirty water! and that too, just when I had finished the entire hall. What ensued is pretty easy to guess. I had to mop the hall all over again. And to add on to my woes, I slipped in front of my room and almost sprained an ankle (thank God it didn't get sprained).
Cleaning the bathrooms was the last item in the morning chores. I was way too tired and the time was already 12:30 so I finished it as fast as I could (translated as, as shabby as I could) and had a long shower.
I really can't help but admire mom, as she has done all this without complaining for the past one week. She starts working at 5 am, finishes all the chores by 10 am and then leaves for the hospital! A couple of days of this schedule and I'm sure I'd have all my extra pounds dissolving. I learnt so many things, the dignity of any labor, the meaning behind some of our old customs, the difficulties of a professional woman, the value of mom and yeah, remembering to check the hose-pipe joint before you turn on the pipe!