Testing Fields At Home

 

A light hearted anecdote before the post on Tukaram Abhang.

Friday we were slated to reach Pleasanton for dinner. It is a good 3.5-4 hours drive depending on traffic. I had a full day at work and we could only leave after I returned home. I had asked mom and my husband to keep their bags ready so we could leave right away. I actually managed to wrap up work an hour early as there were mostly telephone appointments that afternoon hence I didn’t need to wait for the patients to show up at the office at the designated time. 

The day before I had planned on making ghargay , a traditional Maharashtrian sweet puri with pumpkin filling. My dear husband did not get the squash until late evening despite multiple reminders. Once cooked it took long to cool down before it could be added into the flour. Barely mixed the pulp in to make the dough before going to bed on Thursday. Mom said she would make the puris the next day while I was at work. 

When I got home next day from work she had barely started making the puris. I washed up, changed out of my saree and got to helping her with the task. In the meantime I was directing my husband to get an icebox ready to carry some food items for the kids. We were going to meet them over the weekend.

When you are anxious about a trip, reaching on time and all that, the threshold is very low to deal with problems. 

Dear husband was bringing in iceboxes that were too small to fit the food containers. On one hand I was rolling puris and on the other getting interrupted between each puri to get the right size icebox. This went on 8-9 times. Once the icebox issue was sorted out I asked him to put cold ice packs at the bottom. Turns out while I was in India for four months he had taken the initiative to throw away lots of things from the refrigerator. Many of my precious spices were tossed out. Most of the saved blue ice packs were disposed off. A few that were spared were not frozen. I was losing it one by one. 😅 And could not hide my displeasure. 

And just when I am struggling to stay in control there comes a below the belt blow from mom. “ What’s the use of reading the Gita ?” 😳🫣🤭🤨

Finally the puris were done and packed, the icebox and our bags loaded into the car and three of us hit the road. A good one hour after I had reached home. We barely made it to my niece’s home in Pleasanton by 8:30 pm to join them for dinner. I narrated to her the incident and she was sympathetic. Nahi maushi, navra ani aai ashi naati ahet ki tithe raag avarta yet nahi! ( Spouse and mother are such relations where you can’t control your instincts and anger!) ( And imagine these are the only two people I have with me under the same roof 😜) Thank goodness at least one person (my dear niece) could understand me 😅( She is a SS member too.)

Ladies, if you want to get agni pariksha ( a full proof test) of your patience you must be married and have to deal with a spouse who has no clue about what is important to you. 

And if you need to be truly grounded in what you preach to the world you need a mom like mine !! 😃😃. They tell you exactly how well your pot is baked 😅

Saree: cotton Sambalpuri bandha with tree of life motifs all over.