Our daily conversations

She had called twice... My cell phone was on silent; I came to know only about an hour later when I saw the missed calls... And I immediately called back my mom, or maa as I have started calling her in the past year or so...

Even though we talk daily now, she would always ask about my day, my food, office, workload, friends, health, exercise, next trip to delhi etc. etc.... I would also try to ask her about her day, her daily chores, about her husband and daughter, her plans for Dee's engagement... Even though the answers to most of these questions are same and repeated everyday from both sides, none of us seem to stop asking...

When I was small and cute and had red kashmiri cheeks, I remember calling her Gaatajio... Probably that was a twisted form of Geeta-ji, which I heard from everybody calling her... I used to wake up in late afternoons and would start crying if Gaatajio wasn't around... I would look for her and start screaming Gatajiiooo if she left me without her company in a public gathering... In my class 1, my elder sister taught me that I had to stop calling Gaatajio as Gaatajio and call her mummy instead... I was also taught to start sleeping in a separate room and not with mummy... I assumed I had grown up... I couldn't cry from then on if mummy wasn't around...

It has been a few years since I am outside home mostly... And if I don't speak to maa for more than a day, it feels something's missing... Sometimes I wonder if it's really worth being so far away from her... I get to see her once in 2-3 months... Is that enough, I ask myself??? Maybe that's what makes me want to speak more to her... and ask her the same routine questions, again and again; sometimes i repeat questions even within a single converstaion... I always thought she felt strength with our daily talks... But now, I know it's the other way round... Talking to maa brings a calmness in me...

I am going to see her at the end of this month when I go home for Dee's engagement... Waiting for the month to get over...