It was eight thirty in the night and I was still sitting in
the office. I was trying to fix a bug in the file and send it to the client. No
matter what I did, the bug refused to get fixed.
I gave a bambi look to my manager hoping that he will let me
go and ask me to fix the issue the next day. But instead he offered to help me
and started to give me different options to resolve the issue, all which I had
already tried.
I was slowly losing my patience. One week prior, I had asked
permission to leave early that day since it was my nephew’s and my dad’s
birthday. Everyone at my home were waiting for me to start the celebration. My
sister had called me a million times to check if I had started from my
workplace. After a while she gave up. She asked me to come whenever I felt like
coming home.
The last few weeks has been really busy due to a deadline.
Every day I was slogging for 14 hours, including the weekends. Due to this, I
did not get time to buy gifts as well. Till last year I was the one who
organized birthday parties at home. But, since the day I joined my new company,
I hardly had any time for myself.
But today was a special day and I wanted to spend it with my
family. The worst thing was I hadn’t wished them yet as I left for work even
before they woke up, in the hopes of leaving early from office. Also, I had
plans of buying gifts on my way back home. Now that being ruined, I at least
wanted to reach home and wish them before the day got over.
After one more hour of fruitless efforts, my manager finally
gave up and asked me to leave for the day. I rushed out of office, caught an
auto for a totally unfair amount, and kept asking him to drive a little fast.
I tried calling my sister to know if the celebration was
over, but she did not pick. I was pretty sure that she was mad. I tried calling
my dad, but he also didn’t pick. On the way home I was looking out for a shop
where I could at least get a chocolate. But to my luck, every shop was closed.
I was almost in tears and started to dread myself.
After getting down near my home, I was little reluctant to
go in. I didn’t have any gifts and I had also missed the cake cutting. That’s
when I heard someone calling me. It was the panipuri guy near my house.
Earlier, every Friday, I used to buy panipuri for my entire family from this
guy. But it’s been ages since I bought from him. He was packing and leaving for
the day. He enquired why I haven’t been buying from him. He was worried that I found
a different panipuri guy. It did sound a little funny to me, but I told him
that if I have panipuri it will be only from his shop and to prove that I got
panipuri for the entire family.
Carrying four packets of panipuri and with a heavy heart, I knocked
on the door. I was ready to face the siren from my sister. But when she opened
the door, she was smiling at me. I stepped in and asked how the party was. I
noticed that the entire house was decorated with ribbons and balloons, in which
I didn’t play a role. I felt that the party must have been good. But as I
reached the dining room, I saw the cake still on the table, not yet touched.
I turned to my sister with a questioning face. That’s when
she told me that she wanted to celebrate with the family, and without me the
family was not complete. So they waited for me to come home and start the
celebrations. And now I was in tears. I didn’t expect them to wait for me and
they did. I felt like someone lifted a heavy rock from my heart.
My dad took the panipuri packet from me and served it along
with the food that was there on the table. I wished my nephew and my dad, we
chatted for hours together, and the celebration extended till the early hours
of the next day.
Though it started out to be a dreadful day, it ended on a
good note. No matter where you are and in what state, family always takes care
of you. Events like these not only makes you happy but also prepares you to
face whatever negativity that life throws at you, because at the end of the
day, you have people who like and support you for who you are and nothing more
or less.
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