THE LONGEST WAIT OF MY LIFE

No da…. I amn’t talking of our Semester results, which take an eternity to be published once the exams are done with….. This is something much, much longer….. Personally!!

I’ve been brought up in Al-ain…  and I’ve been fortunate enough to be alongside my parents and my brother throughput my schooling there. (Now, that might sound surprising, but trust me…. u might’ve heard about that onlu in books and moivies, but I personally know people who have sent their kids to boarding at a young age!!). Anyways, life was good. Dad, Mom, Bro….. Boy, I couldn’t ask for anything more….. I knew I was blessed. I’d a nearly perfect life. And nothing could change that. Even after destiny brought me to Chennai and separated me from my Dad, I wasn’t crestfallen. Maybe because, I was in a new world…. new people, new environment, new ways of living….. India was an altogether different experience for me. And I was loving it. 2 years later, I was in Thrissur, in college. It was worse this time….. no Mom, no Bro. But, hostel life was beckoning….. And I was excited. Plus, Palakkad, Chennai were all just around the corner, so I wasn’t really homesick. There was already a sense of deja-vu. I was enjoying my newly-acquired freedom, and there was never any genuine reason for worry. Till that wretched day came along……

2 years had passed…. I was into my Fifth Sem… this was sometime around November last year, I think. Bro called me from Chennai. Like he usually does. Mom wasn’t home then. Gone to school, I guess. We chitchatted as usual…. about everything under the sky. Towards the end of the phone call, he told me something I would not have expected to hear…… Something which made my heart skip a beat…… Something which made tears well up in my eyes…….. Something which made time stand still……. My mom was leaving for Dubai…… INDEFINITELY!!!!

It was not something that I had heard from someone even as a joke….. Nothing like that had ever crossed my mind earlier……. I was going to be in a situation I was totally unaccustomed to……. And absolutely unimaginable. My dad had been alone back in AL-AIN, and I knew how much relief that’d have meant to him. And to my Mom as well. She occasionally tells me and Bro, that she’d be better off being with Dad. True. But, I never expected this decision. Maybe, my dad would quit his job in another year or so, I thought. And he’d be back. I never expected Mom to go back……..

Though, like I mentioned, there was the initial worry and tears, I was never really perturbed about Mom going back. Its been 2 weeks now since Mom left. I dont know whether it was coming or whether it was just a coincidence of sorts.  I’m usually fit, cheerful, bubbly, but I had a bout of fever  and headache the day Mom left Chennai. I was ill for a couple of days, after which, I returned to Thrissur.

Its been a fortnight now since Mom’s left. I dont know whether its just her absence, or the fact that I have been in Chennai for the last 2 weeks (which’s a looooooong time), I’m feeling extremely homesick. Not just missing home. I’m longing to be with my family. As if they’ve been away for years. And I’ve been having absolutely horrible, terrifying thoughts and dreams. Absolutely horrifying ones. And they’re occurring so frequently. I was at Palakkad with grandparents for a couple of days.  Normally, the place is boring and I usually wish I could go back soon to college. This time, it was Heaven. The feeling can’t be described. Everything seemed more wonderful. I was rejoicing. But thats all short-lived. Just like those Oases I’ve seen in the middle of the large, booming deserts….

I cannot wait for December to arrive. Only then does a possibility of meeting Mom arise. Again, thats gonna depend on whether Bro’s free or not…. though he’s expected to be free. There’s a bigger problem. CALICUT UNIVERSITY!!!!! Absolutely unpredictable, I am certain of them causing a headache for me in January. That will mean, our stay in Dubai will be short. Which’ll be really bad. Better not having gone, considering the money and stuff……

Anyways, thats my situation now. INCONSOLABLE. I’ve embarked on the longest wait of my life. And trust me, its not moving. I cant see December coming….. and how I’m going to spend the next 6-7 months is anybody’s guess!