“Mom, I’m really sorry. I really can’t `make it! Please stop bothering me about it time and again”, snapped Kim in feigned disdain and rammed the receiver into its socket with a force that sent the poor inanimate object hurtling across the room and saved from being shattered only by the plush carpet of her swank office. Behind the carved wooden table piled with stacks of neatly arranged files and a snazzy laptop sat the powerful woman who handled a law- firm and her life- all by herself. Overwhelmed by conflicting thoughts and the conversation that she had been a part of a few moments ago, the wonder-woman was reduced to a weeping girl lost in the woods.

Resting her throbbing, heated forehead upon her hands, she cast furtive glances through a film of tears lest her employees saw how wretched their boss looked with red, puffy eyes and a swollen, running nose. She could feel her earlobes burning but the tears would not stop.

A few hundred miles away, the scene was similar, only not as dramatic. The fieriness of Kim’s youth was offset by the sublimity of her mother’s maturity who sat heavy-hearted on a couch making a futile attempt at identifying with her daughter’s state of mind. “Simi, is she still angry at us?” a male voice questioned from across the room to which the middle-aged woman replied in the affirmative and added, “I really don’t get any of this, Vij. I mean, why is she being so selfish? I have given her all that she’s ever wanted and now she even refuses to acknowledge me as a parent!” Vij placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder and a pained smile swept across his handsome face. “I know how it must feel dear, but u must at times step into her shoes. After all, you are going to marry a man who is not her father, not even close to it!” Simi looked up at her lover – a tall, strongly built manly figure with specks of salt and pepper on his well-looked-after head of hair. He looked like a teen heart-throb- even at fifty. To keep up with his charm, Simi too had regained her inclination towards grooming, beauty and fitness and seemed to have won the battle against time.
Simi had not been the same a few years ago, she had looked haggard and bogged down with life- the incessant fights with her abusive husband, the helpless sobs of a child caught in between them, the uncertainty of the future and the time, energy and money invested in legal proceedings had taken their toll on the woman and left her with fine wrinkles on a dull skin and streaks of grey. Divorce was anything but pleasant and easy but she was surprised by the element of relief that it brought along. She was free as a bird, stuck with an adolescent daughter who would refuse to let go of her father’s memories- a father who never cared to even visit her after the last proceeding in court. There had been hear-say that he had left the country for good and would never come back.

A couple of years ago, Simi and Vij had met at a gathering and a few sparks had flown between the two. The graying bachelor came across as a sensitive, smart fellow and had swept the divorcee off her dainty feet. After a few meetings, he had said “I want to spend the rest of my life with you and your daughter” and ever since that magical moment, life had hardly been the same for Simi. Love had revitalized her and life had found a whole new meaning. Vij had returned her wasted youth back, another chance to relive those precious years and a promising hope of beautiful years to come. Kim however had not taken well to this newly formed bond and did not welcome this new male addition to what she thought was a content family life. Burdened with social conventions, the idea of her mother dating, falling in love and now marrying – all at fifty did not quite appeal to her. She found relationship between the ageing couple quite disgraceful and out of place and perceived it as a threat to the mother-daughter equation. Finding herself trapped in the narrowness of her mind and far from even trying to reason, she grew openly contemptuous of the relationship – much to the dismay of the couple.

“Why is she doing this to me?” Simi’s voice quivered as she fought back the tears and tried hard to maintain her composure but the flush of her face gave her away. “The wedding is just a week away; do you think she’ll come around by then? Can’t she spare an hour for her mom and be by my side on the most special day of my life? Why is she being so hard? Doesn’t she want to see me happy?” the questions were addressed more to herself than to Vij. “It’s just a matter of time Sim, we have to give her time”, his baritone voice seemed to have a reassuring effect and all of a sudden, she felt better. She knew it was not easy to accept a new addition into a cocooned family of two but she also knew that this addition was necessary because being the mother of workaholic daughter was a lonely situation to be in; she had been here for too long and the loneliness had started eating into her. She badly wanted to escape and Vij was her only hope.


“Hey, what on earth happened to you?” exclaimed Jose as she barged into her best-friends office, appalled by the melodrama and preparing herself mentally for the worst news to unfold. “They’re marrying Jose, next week!” Kim blurted and Jose heaved a sigh of relief. She could feel her sunken heart rise to its rightful position in the chest. “Is that all? Is that what makes you so damn upset?” Jose said in a tone that annoyed the already overwhelmed lady who lashed out, “you can never understand! That man has finally succeeded in taking mom away from me. Everything is going to change now. I mean, there’s an age and time for everything. Don’t you think so?” Jose shook her head in silence and listened intently as Kim bitterly spewed venom against mom and her “lover boy”, fully aware of the situation and yet, confused. “Is your problem the age, the man or the relationship, I fail to understand!” she finally retorted after a moment of thought, only to find her friend at a loss of words. “It hardly matters”, snapped Kim indignantly as she tried to avoid the prying eyes of her friend and stared out of the window as Bombay bustled below. Far away and yet in the middle of it all, she gazed aimlessly at the cars, the buildings, the people and the grey skies which were bent upon washing them clean with the torrential rainfall. The traffic, the chaos and the gloom echoed and added to the turmoil within her. Sensing her hurt pride and realizing that she needed some time alone to introspect; Jose made a closing remark, “take it easy on you girl. Mr. Vij is a nice man and you know it. They love each other for heaven’s sake! No-one’s never too old for love and what’s more, you’re gonna get a new dad for free. Give the old folks a break! You take care. See you later.” Jose hugged Kim and made an exit, leaving her to ponder over the words. Her mood had changed from volatile to pensive and she began to realize the truth in what her pal had just said, although she was still reluctant to admit it.

It was past office hours and Kim hurled her bag and papers absent-mindedly into her car, her mind flitting from one thought to the other. She threw herself on the driver’s seat, damp, dazed and deflated. The wipers were working hard to clear the windscreen of the watery deluge, but her vision was still glazed by the pool of tears that rested between her lids because they were not voluminous enough to flow down the cheek. As she struggled to concentrate on the traffic, her eyes fell upon an oldish man; holding his aged wife by the waist and helping her cross the road- huddled up under a huge black umbrella, they made a cozy picture. “no-one’s ever too old for love”, her friend’s words echoed between her ears and her heart was overcome with a shadow of remorse and ached within. She confessed to herself that she had been unfair. Pride came in her way but she brushed it aside and gave herself a much needed push and before she realized it, she was greeted by a warm “hello!” in a familiar voice- a voice that she had grown up with. She had dialed Simi’s number and now there was no escape. “Hey mom, what’s up? I’m sorry”, she blurted awkwardly.
“Bache, you don’t have to be sorry. I know it’s been difficult on you. I love you more than anything”, said Simi reassuringly with a wave of relief sweeping over her worked up nerves giving her a new found sense of calm. “No mom, I’ve been mean and….. selfish. I failed to understand that you have a right to life and happiness too. I wanna be your bridesmaid mom, can I?” The sniffling and sobbing seemed to bring back a flood of memories. Memories of the times when the mother and her princess would lean upon each other; pour out on each other –sharing their moments of crackling laughter and at other times, with pained tears. Today Simi fought back tears of joy and she tried hard to remember the last time when she had experienced a similar emotion- it had to be the moment when she held a tiny Kim for the first time in her arms and it had been two decades and a half since then. How time flies! She wondered in amazement. She couldn’t have asked for more. “There couldn’t possibly be a better wedding gift than that dear”, Simi answered before the surreal question posed by her daughter could register itself completely. Kim mischievously smiled within, “not even a honeymoon trip in the Bahamas? “.

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