DAY:17

 

I was tired even before the day started. I woke up at 10:30 with massive pain in my stomach. Lying on the bed trying to suppress the pain, I fell back to sleep. When I woke up again it was around one-thirty. I thought the pain was gone, but seconds after getting off the bed it reappeared, and I retraced my steps back to bed. Around three thirty, when I felt better, I got up to have lunch. Lunch was same as yesterday, what wasn’t the same was my reaction to it. But it’s fine amma was busy with work and she didn’t have time to prepare anything.

I think it’s been days since I sat with chechi to have any meal. We broke the curse today by having lunch together, while watching “Modern Family”. This again is one of those rare shows we enjoy together.

After lunch, as we were enjoying “Modern Family” an alarm went off. It was the oven. The awaited “Focaccia bread” was finally ready. The Mystery was unraveled, and I discovered Focaccia bread means over salted, over buttered plain bread, with garlic rubbed over it for flavor. Yet I won’t disagree to it tasting good. Amma said I liked it because chechi made it, might be true. I’ve idolized her my entire life, it’s hard to see flaws in things she makes, whatever be it. And her approval is what I seek the most. Anyways we all enjoyed it, and no, we didn’t have “tea” with it; we’re lazy people.

At 5:30, amma and I went shopping. The main agenda was to get a new yoga mat. We do already have two of them at home, but a few months back, our beloved Pablo relished on one of them. So up till yesterday, I have been adjusting with Pablo’s leftovers.

I recently (I mean in march, but who’s counting anymore) got my driver’s license, and every opportunity I get, I beg amma to let me drive. So far, I’ve only been able to convince her to let me drive in the basement, but I do seize every opportunity. And soon this underdog (literally) will rise to main streets. All I need is Achacha, when he comes back, I will finally get my chance to take on the world. Please come back soon.

Anyhow we got to amma’s trusted “plastic shop”. This is where everything and anything in my house come from. We got our new yoga mat, but since amma doesn’t know the concept of get what you came for and leave, she went looking around the shop. All this while the shop uncle was telling me the benefits of yoga, how he’s been practicing “art of living” for twenty-five years, and how finally at the age to 71 he’s starting to attain control over his mind and body. He seemed so sweet I didn’t want to break his bubble by saying I don’t do yoga. He just seemed so happy sharing his experience. In my defense I wasn’t lying. I did do my share of yoga in school, thanks to Ramadevi ma’am. And I did venture on the path of yoga during this quarantine, before I came across chloe ting.

When we got back, I got to take the car down the basement and park it all by myself. This was the first time I ever did that; it was pretty exciting. Once we reached home, I relaxed for a while, since today was an active rest day I had a lot of time in my hand. At 7:30 I sat for class but just like yesterday the net was slow, and I gave up. Hopefully it starts working by tomorrow.

Though I didn’t do much throughout the day, I was still very tired. I had no energy to take Pablo for a walk, and asked chechi to do it. Even at nine-thirty having seen no movements from our side to go for a walk, Pablo decided to take matters into his own hands. Since I’ve been the only one taking him on walks, I ended up being the only person who had to suffer through his emotional blackmail. It’s really true that words are not a necessity for communication, Pablo is the best example. I eventually surrendered to him. I am glad I did; it was a good change from the usual evening walks. I do admit we spend more time sitting and looking at the sky rather than walking, but it was a nice end to the day.