Visiting Day...

…every last Sunday of the month is visiting day for the mothers / parents of the children…a day they wait for anxiously each month in the hope that they will get a visitor…as I walked in yesterday I saw Swetha and her 2 siblings talking to their mother, Majula…Manjula has a good job in Gokulum working for Ganesh and Anu…a lovely couple who run an internet and small café…Manjula divorced her husband some years back…one of the lucky ones…as I got to the office I noticed Mamata sitting quietly with her head bowed trying to hold back the tears …it was 2 pm and she was still waiting eagerly for a visit from her mother…Arabia was sitting not too far away from Mamata anxiously waiting too…as I get to the main house the other kids are getting ready for lunch…some of them have already had their visit and so they show me the little trinkets that their mother’s have brought for them…little plastic jewelry, some chocolate biscuits, sweet drinks…after lunch we are playing and every so often you will hear a shout…”Shanti…Ama coming!”…Shanti runs to the gate to be greeted and chat for a while with her mother…I sat and watched this going on for the remainder of the time I was there…many thoughts went through my mind…imagine having to wait a whole month till you see your mother or any relative for that matter…mind you not all of them get a visitor…and this was the most heartbreaking for me…only because I began to imagine my time with my parents…and realized though you can’t push back time and spend more time with them now that they are gone…but I really really wished I had spent more time with them when they were here…there are a lot of things I can do now with the remainder of my family whilst I am still on this earth…and it’s not that difficult…we are the lucky ones here and we don’t even know it…we all take our families for granted till they are gone…why?...is it because they are conveniently there…they are family after all why shouldn’t they be there…think about it we are so busy with our schedules that we sometimes dun visit our family except for once a month…and we aren’t even living in a shelter…slip me into the dumbass category please…we have to change the way we run our lives and treat our families…as I take my leave only Arabia is still at the office waiting…a usually bright girl but today the smiles are gone…it’s getting dark and I think she knows that she will not get a visitor today…