Anecdote #38

A Day at the Malhotra’s

It was a Sunday morning and Samil was ready for the gym. Going to the gym/Sirifort with his daughter on Sunday had become a weekly regime. Samil was a regular at the gym and could be seen exercising daily where as his daughter was laid back, with the Sunday routine being her only motivation. It was 10 AM and Samil rang his daughter, Ananya to get ready. He hoped she was up by now. She picked up the phone at the last possible ring which was a sigh of relief for the father because unlike him she was not a morning person. “How much time will you take beta?” he asked almost in a habitual manner. “10 minutes,” she said which translated into half an hour. Samil who was returning from his parents’ place parked his Prado below the flat. Everyone at home knew he had arrived before he could even ring the bell. The reason was the revving of his Prado’s engine. To top that the horn of his car was recognisable from Ananya’s paternal grandparents’ home which was at a 100 yard’s distance. Ananya was gulping down a glass of milk when he rang the bell so that she could pretend that she was ready before he entered. She quickly exited the kitchen and opened the door. “Hi Papa!” she said in her chirpiest voice hoping to implant her positivity into him. Samil could see his wife, Praveen near the dining table toying with her medicine tray from the door. “Hi Praveen!” he said in an uplifting tone hoping to instil her with positivity. The father and daughter were unaware of how they used similar tactics. “Hi Samil, we are getting the sofas redone” Praveen announced. Over the years she had become the boss of the house not because she was dominant as a person but because the other two realised that Praveen was always right. That is why both of them ran all their major decisions past her every time. She was the voice of reason in the Malhotra household. Samil replied with a very nice and his signature smile. This smile could be described as an arch with his lips jutting out. This would turn into an expression of disappointment as soon as he raised his eyebrows. His daughter who found this play of facial muscles hilarious didn’t realise that very often she mirrored those expressions.Ananya and Praveen expected a drill of questions from Samil such as Where did you buy the fabric from? Where did the Sofa guy come from? which naturally took it’s course and Praveen began answering them. Ananya’s father and grandparents had a habit of asking too many questions which perturbed her at times and that is why she had become the complete opposite and  had very few queries. When her parents would go out for official trips she wouldn’t ask them where they were staying, what time their flight was so if anyone from the family asked her these questions she would always remain blank. As her parents discussed the business of sofas she wondered how they were finding this discussion so engaging. At that moment her parents’ conversation was boring the life out of her so she decided to change the topic. “Have the both of you read my latest piece on the blog?” she blurted out of nowhere but it really seemed to ignite the fire in the parental Malhotras. “Ananya we are bored of this sad stuff,” “write some happy thing from college” and “Such pieces reflect the state of your mind” were some responses she had elicited. “ Alright, alright I will write something different this time!” she retorted and I did :).