Chapter 12: Cloth Work!
Geet
tried to turn around when something was stopping her. She tried again only to
be unsuccessful. She felt soft little hands cupping her face and shaking it.
Geet fluttered her eyes open to find Kritika sitting on top of her and trying
her best to wake her up by patting on her cheek.
"Amma,
ezhunduko! (Wake up)," Kritika said in between her attempts to wake Geet up.
Geet rubbed her eyes to clear her morning blurry vision and gave a huge smile
to Kritika. She was surprised to find her awake this early in the morning. She
pulled Kritika closer so that she was on top of her in a sleeping position and
her cheeks were near Geet's face. Geet gave her a huge kiss on her cheeks and
lifted her up so that she could sit up on the bed.
"Good
morning chellam, ivvalo cheekaram (this early) what are you doing?" Geet asked.
"Amma,
today you are really late, look at the time its already 8 in the morning,"
Kritika said reading the digital clock on the bed stand. Geet looked at the
clock and was shocked to find that she had overslept. She quickly slipped out
of the bed to get herself and Kritika ready so that they wouldn't be late. She
got herself ready before bathing and dressing Kritika to school. After combing
Kritika's hair, she gave her a final touch up and kissed her cheeks, her angel
looked beautiful. Geet had thanked God every single day for giving her a chance
to survive for giving her Kritika.
Kritika
went and sat on the dining table for her morning pop tarts while Geet changed
her clothes and came down. Geet gave her daily dose of orange juice and pop
tarts and drank a cup of coffee herself. After the quick meal, both grabbed
their respective bags hurried to the elevator locking the door behind.
Reaching
Kritika's school, Geet and Kritika exchanged their routine kisses and Geet
waved her a bye while Geet bid her good bye while shouting to behave in school.
Once Kritika was out of sight, Geet turned around and headed for her office.
She walked down to the subway train station and opened her bag to get out her
MTA pass (train ticket) when she noticed the annual conference paper. Yesterday's
events came rushing back to her and she paused deep in thought. The person
standing behind her was annoyed by the delay and asked her to move if she was
simply going to stand. She excused herself and let the other person pass by
while she found her pass, swiped it, and went in.
Geet's
actions were mechanical while her thoughts trailed back to the conference. She
got into the train, got out, and walked to her office all the while thinking
hard to find a reason to not attend it. She had made up her mind to keep away
but her heart secretly yearned to go and get a glimpse of the man who had
changed her life. She entered her cabin, dropped her coat on her chair, and
slid her bag into the shelf nearby. She had resolved to return the booklet but
decided to give it back the end of the day as though hoping that keeping the
booklet would be equal to keeping him near her. She busied herself with her
work to keep away her thoughts from breaking down like last night.
Geet was relieved that the day kept
her busy. The clients whom she had met with the previous day had affirmed in
the positive for the deal and she had spent the whole day arranging the
contract papers, finalizing the designs, and getting the final approval from
her boss, JP. By mid afternoon Geet was exhausted and was ready to go out to
lunch when she got a call from Mrs. Bowden, principal of Rainbow academics,
Kritika's school. Geet was not surprised, as she knew Kritika was in trouble
again. What could she do with a girl whose middle name was Trouble! She picked up the call with a heavy sigh as she would
again get a big lecture from Mrs. Bowden on how to raise a child. Children are
meant to have fun in their young age, that's how they learn; trying to drill
all the rules and regulation would not help a child's intellectual groW*H. But
that woman, with her orthodox views on bring up a child would never understand.
"Hello, Ms Handa," said the grim
solemn voice on the other end.
"Yes, Mrs. Bowden, how are you?"
Geet asked in the sweetest tone possible.
"Well, Ms. Handa I am afraid that I
am not very well, and thanks to your daughter who wants to make my day hell,"
Mrs. Bowden clucked.
This woman had the nerves to talk
ill of her angel, Geet thought with anger rising in her insides. "I am sorry to
hear that Mrs. Bowden, what did Kritika do?" she asked with her clenched teeth.
"She has got a time out for a
wonderful job so you can come down and ask her yourself," she said with
sarcasm.
Geet was had a lot in her mind and
Mrs. Bowden's taunting made her more agitated. She was frustrated and snapped
she would come down to pick up her daughter. She gave a message to JP that she
had to step out early because of personal work. She picked up her jacket and
bag and headed to the subway station angry that Kritika was in trouble again.
More than the fact the she was in trouble Geet was annoyed that Mrs. Bowden
doesn't leave a chance to belittle her little angel. She arrived in the
pre-school and entered Mrs. Bowden's cabin.
Geet saw a woman in her late
fifties, smirking evilly with her cruel blue eyes. Her blonde hair was combed
into a tight bun and her crooked nose pointing high towards the ceiling. She took
a seat opposite to Mrs. Bowden with a forlorn expression, getting ready to hear
her lecture on how to raise a child. In the corner of the room Kritika stood
with her eyes cast down and fidgeting with her fingers.
"My dear darling, would you like to
tell your dear mother what you were upto in class today?" Mrs. Bowden said
looking at Kritika gleefully. Kritika shot her head up and looked towards Mrs.
Bowden making the most innocent face possible but not replying to her question.
Hearing no answer from Kritika, Mrs. Bowden shook her head ruefully and mumbled
incomprehensively.
"I guess your daughter is not going
to open her mouth again so let me do the honors of revealing what she did," she
said taking out a piece of construction paper from the end of her desk and gave
it to Geet. Geet looked at the construction paper that was filled with neatly
cut cloth like material in various designs in a beautifully coordinated
fashion. She looked questioningly back at Mrs. Bowden wondering what could
possibly wrong with the sheet of paper that was beautifully and neatly
decorated.
"What you see is a sheet of paper
with designs made of cloth like material, well the cloth was not provided by us
could you please ask where she got the material from?" Mrs. Bowden asked.
Geet could not take it anymore, she
was primarily angry that Mrs. Bowden was wasting her time and unnecessarily
punishing her daughter for what seemed a beautiful piece of artwork. Unable to
vent her anger on the principal, she shouted, "Kritika! Can you please explain
what is happening here? Engerthu pannadi ithe (where did you do this from),"
pointing to the construction sheet. "Solli tholaiyendi (tell me!)," she said
clenching her teeth and looking menacingly at Kritika.
Kritika looked at her mother, red
with anger, she was taken aback by Geet's anger. Her mother never shouted at
her at for anything. And today she looked like she would hit Kritika any
minute. Fearing her mother's wrath Kritika stuttered, "That, athu (that) vanthu
(that)," with her eyes brimming with tears threatening to fall any minute. She
struggled to choose the right words to explain herself when Mrs. Bowden
interrupted by recalling the day's events in the preschool.
"Okay everyone, today as promised
you all shall use construction paper to cut out designs and glue them on the
sheet here," Mrs. McKenna said handing out scissors, construction paper, and
glue to each table in the class. The students were all excited that they
finally got to do their favorite activity and hurried to get their share of
construction paper and a pair of scissor. Kritika also took a pair of scissors
but not finding the construction paper of her choice she looked around other
tables hoping to find what she wanted. Unfortunately, she found none; she again
looked around the room, this time not at the construction paper but at
something else and her eyes gleamed mischief.
Kritika finally finished the
desired product and showed to her teacher, proudly smiling at her achievement. The
teacher was impressed at the little Kritika's work and appreciated her
immensely for the job done. While the teacher examined her work more closely
she found that the designs pasted on the sheet were not made of construction
paper but of something else. She felt the sheet once again when she was called
to the attention of a small hole in one of the girl's dress in the corner of
the room. Dismissing the thought, she looked back at the sheet in front of her
hand when her attention was again diverted to a boy walking to the other side
of the class room had another hole on his thin shirt on the backside. Puzzled
by the random cut holes in the attire she looked around the room to find
similar patterns around. Children around the room had random cuts and holes in
their attires and they shockingly resembled the pieces pasted on Kritika's
sheet. She touched the pasted materials once again to confirm her suspicions
and looked at Kritika questioningly. Seeing no other response than her angelic
smile she asked, "Kritika, may I ask where your got these colors from?"
scanning the room for the respective colored construction paper.
Kritika knew she was caught, but
she couldn't give herself off so soon. She tried pacifying the teacher that she
did manage to get the colored construction paper and the rest color it on her
own. She tried explaining herself as sweetly as possible only but in vain as
Mrs. McKenna soon dragged Kritika to the principal's office for her alarming
act. And that was how she ended up in Mrs. Bowden's office in deep trouble for
cutting out pieces of clothing for her artwork. Mrs. Bowden finished the
narration and looked at Kritika in utter disgust for her work.
Geet was upset at Kritika's act and
shouted at Kritika again for her irresponsible behavior to the delight of Mrs.
Bowden. She went near her and shook Kritika asking her reasoning for doing such
a thing as Kritika cried incessantly pleading she wouldn't repeat the act
again. Geet apologies profusely to Mrs. Bowden and promised that Kritika would
never repeat such an act and walked out of the principal's room.
As soon as they were out of the
building, she picked up Kritika who was sobbing, and kissed her all over the
face. Geet had never raised her voice against Kritika and today she went
overboard but she couldn't help it. Mrs. Bowden would disprove of Kritika's
actions and insult her. Geet could never digest Mrs. Bowden's insults against
her little angel so she took the initiative to scold her in front of Mrs.
Bowden and decided to apologize to Kritika later.
"I am so sorry da chellam
(sweetheart) Amma romba thittitenla? (Amma scoled a lot right?) But what could
I do, Mrs. Bowden would have started her lecture on how to raise a child and
would go on insulting you further. That's why I had to scold you. Very sorry
da, I promise I shall never scold you again. It was just chumma (simply) I
pretended to scold you, romba sorry da thangam (very sorry, honey)," Geet said
continuously kissing Kritika's whose sobs turned into sniffles. "I shall take
you to Central Park this weekend for making you cry now, and that's a promise,"
she said hoping Kritika would cheer up.
"Really Amma, you'll take me
there?" she asked wiping away her tears with her tiny little hands. "Actually
you know Ma, even I pretended like I was crying in front of Mrs. Bowden," she
said smiling mischievously at Geet.
"Vaalu! (Naughty)," Geet said with
her eyes wide. "Iru appo (wait then) I shall really scold you now, you know
what you did was not something I would approve of," she said letting Kritika
down and with her hands on her hips.
"I am sorry ma," Kritika said with
her hands on her ears asking for a sorry. "But main kya karoon, all those
people had the exact colors that I wanted, and I was easily able to cut them
without them noticing."
"But promise never to repeat such a
thing again. Do you understand Kritika," Geet said softly yet with an edge in
her voice. Kritika nodded in the affirmative and hugged her mother. Geet got
down, hugged Kritika and kissed her before walking hand in hand to their
apartment.
They reached home and as she had left
early from work, she caught up on some of the pending work while Kritika made
her way to her play room and engaged herself in her toys. In the evening Geet
prepared dinner and fed Kritika and herself before winding down for the day.
She cleaned the kitchen and walked into the living room to catch up on current
happenings around the world on TV while Kritika seated herself on Geet's lap
and hugged her.
Few hours passed, Kritika
had fallen asleep on Geet's lap while Geet was still watching the TV. She was
switching the channel when the doorbell rang. She placed Kritika carefully on
the couch without disturbing her and walked towards the door wondering who
would visit her at this time of the night. She opened the door to find a person
with his arms folded and a smirk on his face leaning against the wall near the
door. He rushed into the house much to the displeasure of Geet and hugged her
tightly before whispering, "Missed me?"
OK EVERYONE HERE IS THE NEXT PART! as per the votes the present won and the people wanted to get a glimpse of Kritika so here u go!
PLEASE NOTE: from now one i am going to go back and forth so the past will have a red coded italics font while the present will be in blue color font.
GUYS PLEASE PLEASE DO COMMENT (criticism is welcome too!). TAKING ALL THE PAINS TO UPLOAD SO I WOULD APPRECIATE IF YOU WOULD COMMENT OR ATLEAST HIT THE LIKE BUTTON.
Edited by Maaneet_09 - 13 years ago
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