Work, Work

-Prabhu Shankar


Getting the milk in the morning……. keeping the things at their proper places at home…… taking his grandchildren to school…… buying the cheap vegetables from the market…………how many chores he had to attend to the whole day. He might have felt the pain but never expressed it.
Son got angry on mother. Daughter-in-law also her husband, ‘If daddy has retired, what has happened? Shall anybody exact work like this?’
‘This is not exacting work. This is exercise’, mother said. ‘So far he has saved himself from diabetics, blood pressure, etc. After retirement, if he spends time lying idle or sleeping or watching TV, what’ll happen to him? He has to be very careful now. If he keeps himself busy, he’ll be healthy. He’ll have no worry.’
‘It’s correct’, the daughter-in-law concurred with her mother-in-law.
‘Only in this matter, you’ll agree with her’, son said, looking at his wife. But the fear of future was lurking there in a corner of his heart.