Mothers

Three short stories adapted and inspired by reel and real life. 

Seoul, South Korea, in the far East.

The receptionist in the pediatric ward of a large hospital in Seoul was surprised to find a box of freshly made food on her desk. The woman, who had kept it, walked in straight, did not say anything, she just kept the tiffin box on the counter as if to say…eat it. Before the receptionist could speak to her, this woman gave her a blank expressionless look and went to the place where the other women were sitting with children in their arms, waiting to meet the doctors. Surprisingly, this woman did not have a child around her but was trying to be playful with the other toddlers. The receptionist called for the resident doctor, Soon Yoo, to come to the front desk. Dr. Soon came running and the receptionist narrated the incident to her and also pointed towards the woman who had given the food. Dr. Soon looked at her and was shocked to see the lady staring back at her intensely.  

That’s Min Su’s mother!

But Min Su died a couple of months ago. Why is she here then?

She is observing our activities and must be recording them as well. She may be planning to sue the hospital for the death of her baby.

If she does that, we are all done. I will lose my residency and be debarred from practicing anywhere… said the resident.

Let us not jump to any conclusion. For the moment, she looks pleased and happy. Anyone who is disturbed and seeking revenge will not be playing with others’ children.

After a while the woman went away, and the resident and front desk ladies all sighed a huge sense of relief and went back to attending to their routine work. Rest of the day was like any other day. In the days that followed, however, the strange act of Min Su’s mother coming at a fixed time, handing over a large food container at the reception counter and staring endlessly at Dr. Soon Yoo and the ladies at the reception continued. Dr. Soon was very worried and she thought of informing Dr. Han, who was her Departmental Head about Min Su’s mother and her apprehension about a possible legal suit for negligence that may be filed against the attending doctors and the hospital.

Dr. Han was a very balanced man. He was extremely good with his work and even better with managing people. Not only the staff at the hospital but even people living around his residence looked upon his deep understanding of human psyche. Mostly his assessments and easy solutions never failed. When he heard Dr. Soon, who was almost in tears while narrating the story, Dr. Han just raised both his hands, calming her and said… You are worrying for no reason. Min Su had a serious heart related ailment from the time he was born. All the doctors at the hospital tried their very best to save the infant. The struggle went on for not less than three months and the mother never left the child’s side even for a single moment. The other family members would come and go but she stood there all through. Her baby died in this hospital and never went home even for a single day. For the mother, this hospital holds a special place. You, Dr. Soon, who had been so kind to her in those days is someone she has good memories about. I am sure she comes here just to revisit the place which was the only home to her child. The food that she brings everyday is to thank you and all others on the floor. You need not worry Dr. Soon, and next time you see her, just go up to her and offer her a cup of coffee, take her to the cafeteria and speak to her. She may just open up to you and feel better.

Dr. Soon stood there and shook her head in agreement. Next day, she waited for Min Su’s mother to come and the moment she arrived, Dr. Soon, smiled and went up to her. She spoke to her and made a request to accompany her to the cafeteria and the lady readily agreed.  Both the ladies sat there for long and spoke to each other. One of the receptionists peeked inside the cafeteria to see if all was fine and Dr. Soon invited her over to the table where Min Su’s mother sat. Soon some other doctors, nurses and support staff of the pediatrics department came together and enjoyed the food Min Su’s mother had got for them. Slowly the mother’s visits became infrequent but the staff in the hospital looked forward to her coming and bringing them hot, delicious food. Then, one day, Dr. Soon got a call… I am pregnant again and I will again come to your hospital very soon. I refuse to go anywhere else.

Santiago, Chile, in the far West.

Lovina was an assistant in Judge Benjamin’s office. Her work involved typing and recording minutes of deliberations and interviews conducted in the office of the judge who took on criminal cases. She also did some odd jobs from time to time which the judge asked her to do. Lovina found her work very fascinating as she got a chance to see some rich and the famous people along with their equally famous lawyers who would argue their cases before the judge who was always very fair. He would not pronounce any judgement without being fully satisfied with the investigations. Lovina was the sole bread earner in her family. Her husband kept trying his hand at various odd jobs including photography while her two sons were studying in college. She paid for all things but found no help from anyone at home. She had to cook, clean and do almost everything. The men in the house took her for granted and did not even lift a dirty plate from the dining table after dinner and place it in the washing sink. It was all left for Lovina to do it. They would just loiter around and play cards while she toiled hard. Lovina never complained and just went about her work at home and was always excited about her work at the office where she felt important as the other people in the judge’s room treated her with respect and she was never made to feel small.

The latest case Judge Benjamin was handling was of a high-profile lady who had shot dead her lover in the restaurant of a prominent hotel in the city in front of a lot of people. There was nothing much for the lady’s advocate to defend as witness after witness came and testified how the murder had taken place. Based on the eye witness account, the judge had sentenced the lady to imprisonment. However, the lady had good connections right up to the President of the country who spoke to the judge and instead of sending her to a high security prison, she was allowed to spend her prison period in a nunnery in the outskirts of the city. This nunnery was used as a correction home for some other convicts as well. Soon stories began to appear in the dailies that the murderess was living a life of grandeur in the nunnery and making a fool of the so-called punishment. Judge Benjamin was very confident that nothing of that sort was happening at the nunnery but to put to rest the speculations in the press, he asked Lovina to go to the nunnery and take pictures of the living conditions of people there and the convict’s room and amenities. 

Lovina was very happy at getting this special assignment and fought with her husband to part with his camera for a day. The husband showed her a few simple ways to handle the big camera and how to get the best shots. She listened to him carefully and then after loading a new roll, hung the camera from her shoulder and sat at the back seat of the car the judge had arranged for her. Lovina made sure everyone in her family and neighbourhood saw her sitting in a big car driven by a chauffeur. The car reached the nunnery and Lovina was ushered in. She took pictures of the common areas in the nunnery; the room of the convict and she saw that everything was very basic there. There was no trace of any luxury in the place be it in the food served, clothing worn or the other utilities available. The convict was getting no special treatment. After finishing her work, she sat down near the exit gate to smoke a cigarette. She wanted to relax a bit because her toil at home would start the moment she set foot there. Just then a tall woman with a broom came and stood before her and said… will you take my picture, please.

Lovina could not say no and clicked a few pictures of this woman who would be in her sixties and had a big frame. The woman now asked Lovina for a cigarette and started chatting with her. Lovina asked her the reason why she was here and the woman said…

My husband died young and I had a daughter. She was beautiful and I made sure she got good education. She was my angel and soon she found a good job and then a man. I never liked the man and disapproved of their relationship but then love is blind. She liked him far too much for me to dissuade her. They got married and started living separately. Soon, the real face of the man came to the fore and my lovely daughter realized her mistake. The man was a drug addict and would often beat my girl. She never said anything to me for she knew I would be worried. She bore the pain quietly for long and then, finally, she turned up at my house one night and told me everything. She also said that she was pregnant. I told her that she could now live here with me and I will take care of her. She agreed and we were living happily when one day, while I was at the market, her husband came to my home and foolishly my daughter opened the door for him. He started beating her mercilessly and then pushed her down. He caught hold of her hair and started dragging her out of the house, all the while abusing her. I returned and saw the scene. I rushed inside the house, went straight to the small workshop we had in the garage, took out the machete and slit the man’s throat. I was arrested and have been living here for the last fifteen years.

Lovina asked… what about your daughter now?

Oh, she is a mother of a pretty girl. They come to meet me every weekend, come snow or rain. I wait for that one day and that one hour I get to spend with them. 

Delhi, India, at home.

Shambhu was an office boy in a multi-national company’s office in Gurgaon. He would diligently take his two-wheeler to the metro station very early in the morning, board the metro and get off at the terminal station and then, finally, walk another two kilometres to reach the office. He always made sure that he reached the office well before eight in the morning and after changing into his light blue shirt and dark blue trouser, he would begin his activities which included dusting the office, filling up water bottles, arranging the cups and saucers and, finally, checking the beverage vending machine. The office started at nine and all those who came in early would greet Shambu with a smile and a warm good morning. He was a person no one disliked for he always made sure to get things done fast and well. By nine-thirty almost all the staff would be in and the office would come alive. Almost all… one senior lady would always walk in at eleven in the morning. No one bothered about it as in MNCs it is the work that mattered, entry and exit time never was given important. Shambhu was also told by another office boy that the lady had been given special permission to come in late. She was very good with her work and the company valued her much but to Shambu, he found it very strange.

One day, the lady was relatively relaxed and in a good mood. Shambhu got her nimbu-paani in the evenings and she loved its taste. Shambhu would do it perfectly to her taste. It must have been a relatively light day and so she started chatting and asked Shambu about his family. Shambu told her about his wife and two children. He even told her how naughty the boys were and it was becoming difficult for his wife to manage them. Finding her in a light-hearted mood, Shambhu asked the lady about her family. The lady said, …. Life is very busy. My husband is the CEO of a company and has long days and often travels outside. I have two lovely daughters of five and eight and have a full-time nanny to take care of them. I have a cook and another domestic help to do other chores and take care of the house plus the two drivers to get us from here to there in this mad traffic. To manage all these people at home is quite a task. Plus, I sleep late and get up late as well. When I do not get my eight hours of sleep, I feel groggy and feel sick. After getting up, I do an hour of yoga without fail. That is something I have learnt from my father and never miss it even for a day. Then I spend a good amount of time in the puja room. So even though I stay less than two kilometres from office, I have told my boss that the nine am time will not work for me. I need flexi-time and he agreed. But I must say Shambhu, life is tough and very hectic.

Shambhu sympathized with the lady and then left for home after a while. Post dinner, after the boys had slept off, he sat with his wife on the terrace and started chatting. He was narrating the life of his lady boss and then said, I wonder how my mother managed to do all and yet reach office on time every day…. We were three kids in the house and one of us was a special child as well. My father would do all the grocery shopping, etcetera, but would not do a thing in the house. We were not well off to keep servants, so Ma had to get up very early in the morning, clean up the clothes and utensils, prepare breakfast for all of us, pack tiffin for us and when Baba would take us to the bus stop, she would mop the house, take bath and then eat food before rushing to work. On return from office, her cooking, cleaning and managing the children and the house never took a breather. Don’t know when she found any time for herself. She worked in a government office and there was no flexibility of time allowed to her. Her washing clothes with the wooden bat, cleaning the utensils with the iron jali and going down on her knees to mop the floor were part of her daily yoga. Getting into the DTC buses daily and managing three kids was her total body exercise… every inch of her sinews turned and twisted many a time every day. She would have never got more than five to six hours of sleep and that too with the help of pills she would pop each night, something I came to know much later in life. Her biggest joy was in cooking tasty meals for the family and then eating food together with the children and talking to them. I wonder how she managed it all. 

SS