12 O’ Clock (Part III)

The quarrels and bickering increased, day by day. The laborer and his wife began to spread that the Sardar becomes insane at noon. Such things spread like fire.
I had just about finished the narrative that Sukhwinder’s phone rang. When Prem asked, who it was; she said, “Mom.” She also put the call on speaker.
The lady lovingly spoke to both the girls addressing them as Sona and Heera. She asked, “Did you have food? Sona (Sukhwinder), you had a headache in the morning. How are you now? Don’t have too many cups of coffee and tea. Have fruit juices, instead.”
The lady spoke to her children for 15 minutes with so much love and affection that I felt jealous of them. I openly told them that I was jealous of them.
Sukhwinder replied, “She is more than mother for us. Ask us why? She is not our biological mother. Our mother expired within 10 days of our birth. She is our mother’s friend. Ask us how she became a friend? Within a few days of my mother’s marriage, she was walking on the road and one of her shoe-heels broke. This lady, Vanita, came and picked up the shoe to make it walkable. They found that they knew each other but could not place when and where they had met. When they spoke further, they got to know each other. Vanita had just lost her husband and had been thrown out by her in-laws. She was an orphan and so she was looking for a job. She had completed 10th standard. My mother welcomed her as an assistant at home.
“Soon, she began to do other petty jobs at home and even at my father’s clinic. My parents helped her take up nursing and she joined a hospital at the same time helped my parents. My parents did not have children for 6-7 years and Vanita took Mom for treatment to her hospital. Soon, Mom was pregnant with us. Around 7-8 months later, it was discovered that Mom’s uterus was weak. Vanita took care of Mom and made her take bed rest. When the pain came, she took Mom to her hospital and we were delivered by caesarian section. Within 2-3 days, the doctor said that the uterus needed to be removed. Vanita took care of all the 3 of us, day and night.”
To be continued…