Hari Priya's new story provides the perfect conclusion to what has been an intriguing Women's Day at Quills
To Mum, with Love
Hari Priya
Nora hated her mum. And no, it wasn’t the ‘I-hate-everyone’ phase Nora was going through. She really hated her mum. They say hate is a strong word, and they are right about it. Nora strongly hated her mum. But then, a part of Nora’s conscience was thinking if she really hated her mum, or was it another one of her ‘leave-me-alone’ episodes. No, it wasn’t one of her ‘episodes’. She really hated her mum. And it is a mutual feeling, Nora thought bitterly as she climbed onto the bed and covered herself with a blanket, waiting for sleep to consume her.
Deborah was sad. She shouldn’t have done that. She regretted it. It wasn’t the way she had planned out the night to be. There was always something which ruined her plans, and it just had to be Deb’s parents that night. Deborah wasn’t ready, and she suspected her daughter to even have thought of it. When Nora was four, she had asked Deb who her father was. Deborah brushed that question off as if she hadn’t heard it. Nora was an intelligent child, she must have understood that ‘dad’ was a no-no topic, she never asked again.
Deborah filled her glass with red wine and stared out of the window. The night was stormy. Ah, the perfect representation of her mind, Deborah thought. Little did she know that young Nora was staring at the storm, thinking the same thing. Both their minds drifted to the past two hours. How a simple question changed the whole dynamics of their relationship... ...
Nora had prepared food by the time her mother reached home. It was in the afternoon, so Nora decided to cook up a small snack both the mother and daughter would feast on, chit-chatting. It was a usual routine for the pair to do so. The door knock made Nora rush to the door. She might not admit it, but she always looked forward to the mother-daughter time, partly because they were rare and partly because she loved the funny side of her mum. Nora opened the door, to be met by a postman. She took the letter and closed the door. To Nora, the letter addressed. Nora was surprised. She didn’t expect a letter for her, and when she opened the letter, she didn’t expect whatever was written in it.
“To our dear little grand-daughter,
From you grand-parents.”
Nora found few pictures attached to the letter. They were of a baby and a couple who looked at the baby with slight detest .The baby’s mother was not to be found in the pictures. Nora climbed the stairs and opened the door of her mother’s room. She headed straight to the photo-frame which was hanged on the wall. It was the photo of her mother and her grandparents. The couple in the pictures sent to her looked very similar to her grandparents.
Clearly, the baby in the pictures was Nora herself, but, why would her grandparents look at her with detest? There is something else to this, Nora thought.
The doorbell rang, shaking Nora out of her thoughts. The clock showed the time to be 04:30. It was her mum. Clutching the letter and the pictures in her hand, Nora bolted her way downstairs and opened the door. Nora opened the door with a passive expression on her face.
Deborah knew something was up and headed straight to the kitchen and listen to Nora. Nora walked behind her, determined to get the answers to her questions. Deborah will not be brushing her questions aside, Nora would make sure of it.
Nora then slapped the letter and the pictures onto the table.
“I’d like an explanation for this, mum.”
Deborah’s face paled. She had not foreseen this.
“The couple in the picture are my grandparents and the baby is me, I figured that out. But what I don’t understand is why were they looking at me with detest. Am I missing something, mum?”
“Its nothing dear, now tell me how was school today?”
“Its Saturday today, mum. We don’t have school on Saturdays. Now tell me mum, what am I missing?”
“I said its nothing. Leave the topic, Nora.”
“But mum-”
“I said no, Nora. Don’t you understand that?”
“I don’t understand it mum. I don’t. Now tell me, what made them dislike me? What made you to be this defensive about my birth?”
“I am not being defensive about anything. Please go to your room and forget this.”
“How can I forget it when the letter was addressed to me, mum?”
“I don’t know, burn the letter. Throw it in the dust bin. Just get rid of the letter Nora.”
“But mum-”
Deborah lost her temper. She slapped Nora and shouted at her to go to her room. But Nora was stubborn. It was at these times Deborah wished Nora wasn’t as stubborn as her.
“Fine”, Deborah spat, “You want to know what it is? Do you want to know why your grandparents disliked you? It is because you were not planned! You were an accident. I was nineteen when I gave birth to you. You were a mistake. This is why your grandparents hate you. Is it enough or do you want to know more?”
Nora was shocked. She was an accident, a mistake. Her grandparents hated her. And, from the looks of it, her mum hated her
Sleepless nights followed in the household. The daughter spent her nights unconsciously lowering her self-esteem and the mother spent her nights regretting the way the secret came out. She did not mean to be rude to her daughter. She did not intend to call Nora an accident, a mistake.
A few weeks later, Nora went to visit her grandparents. She followed the address written on the letter and reached a quaint little house, with a well-kept garden. Nora rang the doorbell twice and the door opened to reveal an old lady whom Nora would have thought to be her grandma, if she was not too mistaken.
Grandma Claudia was surprised when she saw Nora at her doorstep. She smiled and let Nora in. Nora looked at her surroundings before she sat on the very comfortable couch. The house was quite an old fashioned one as she had suspected. It was warm and cosy, too. Grandma Claudia entered the room with two cups of tea and few biscuits on a plate.
Nora got down straight to the point just like Deborah usually does, Claudia thought.
“Your mother got pregnant at the age of nineteen. We were not happy with what she had done, but decided to take care of her until she gave birth to you. We made her promise that she would leave you as soon as you were born. She accepted it, but when you were born she decided to take care of you, leave her education to be a mother for you. We didn’t approve of it and asked her to leave the house. Her boyfriend- your father- left you mother as soon as he realised that she was pregnant with you,” Claudia said wistfully.
“Why did you tell her to go when she decided not to leave me?” Nora questioned.
“I-I don’t know. I don’t know why I did that. I guess I was too angry to even realise what I was doing. And when I finally did, it was too late. She was gone. I wish I had not kicked my daughter out. I wish things turned out in a better way,” Claudia was in tears. Nora had to be strong. She still didn’t approve of what Claudia did to her mother.
“Why did you send me the pictures?” Nora asked, still suspicious of her grandmother.
“When we came to know that Deborah and you were in the town, living quite near to us, we were happy. We wanted to see you both but didn’t have enough courage to do so. So we decided to send you this letter so that you would come to meet us,” Claudia quietly explained.
Nora shook her head. She would not get angry, she told herself. She closed her eyes and counted till ten to let her anger subside. It
“Do you even know what your letter has done to me and my mother? It caused a rift between us, all thanks to you. My mother called mean accident, a mistake, because of it. We haven’t even seen each other until now. You did it wrong, grandmother. You did it so wrong. You might not have bad intentions, but the letter says otherwise. If you did not have the courage to talk to your daughter, you would have gathered some and talked to her later, not send some shady letter to your granddaughter.”
Nora saw the guilt in her grandmother’s eyes. But, it wasn’t she who had to forgive her, it was her mother. Claudia required Deborah’s forgiveness.
By the time Nora reached home, Deborah was baking Nora’s favourite cookies – the chocolate chipped one – and humming a tune to herself. Nora watched her mother sing off-key and joined her.
Deborah was shocked at first, but as she watched Nora sing with a smile on her face, she continued to sing as well. They prepared another batch of cookies together and spent the evening eating them, watching sit-coms on the television.
Nora and Deborah decided to go to sleep when the clock struck 10:00. But before she could go to sleep, Nora walked towards her mother and hugged her tight. Deborah did the same, although she had tears in her eyes. With that Deborah knew that her daughter knew the
fact that she did not intend to be so harsh while letting the facts out.
“You are a hero, mum. My hero,” Nora whispered as she hugged
Deborah might not spend much time with her; or take care of her as any average mother would do – because she was always working, but she had done something which an average nineteen year old girl would do. She left her family and faced hardships only to raise Nora,even when she had the chance to leave her at the hospital.
Nora wasn’t the daughter of an average mother; she was the daughter of a super mom.
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