Continuing from where I left off yesterday, here are the other two things. Both happened at lunch. The third one might be a bit gross for some. So this is fair warning well ahead. If you don’t want to go there, stop at the end of Two, close your browser and leave. The others can read and call me names if you like. *grin*

Two

We were having lunch and talking of this and that and something else altogether when the topic of diabetes came up. By ‘we’ I of course mean mother, L&M and yours truly. Yes, we are a household of grand oldies, practically an old age home of three.

When the topic came up, as the only confirmed diabetic in the group, my diet came into focus. Ha! That’s a place where none can barge in shaking accusatory fingers at me. I watch my calories, take my walks and make sure I keep off the carbohydrates et al. Recent tests though have shown that the L&M is not doing so great. I took the opportunity to caution him.

“You,” I told him, “ …are worse off than me. You are at the border, the pre-diabetic stage and need to be careful!”

Mother who had been listening piped in, “That’s because he is an army man.”

Eh? How is that? I looked at her puzzled.

She continued nonchalantly, “He has been stationed at the border so many times in his career that it has become a habit with him to remain at the border when it comes to diabetes too.”

The L&M and I: 😳😳😳😂😂😂

Three

[Stop and leave if you are the easily grossed out kind]

Yesterday’s fare at lunch included green leafy vegetables, and a beetroot salad among other things. Looking at the colourful spread something struck me and I chuckled.

Me: Input is pretty colourful today, tomorrow’s output exit is going to be pretty colourful too.

Mother: Don’t tell me you are going to take a picture of that too!

Me: 🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺

Mother was on a roll!

I was amazed. This was a side of hers I had not seen before. Father was known as a witty man. He would pepper his conversations with jokes, some of them unkind at times for sure, especially to those closest in relation to him, but we laughed dutifully anyway. But mother? No I think I can safely say I have heard her crack jokes fewer times than the fingers of my one hand.

How come I had never noticed this side of her? And then it struck me. When a bright light emanates from something nearby, it blinds others to everything around. In Indian society, men are the bright stars. A wife’s talents (I don’t mean the extraordinary ones, but the ordinary, the mundane) and abilities go unnoticed (except cooking!) by everyone around (even children), except by the most astute of observers. More about it on another day.

© Shail Mohan 2022