Monday, March 03, 2014

Megha's Desk


Sunday is my favorite day of the week. It's badminton day. Every Sunday morning at 8:30, Sona and I head out to her 3 hour badminton camp. Sona gets a workout. And I get an audience that is forced to relive, in painful detail, my glorious badminton days, as I persistently, and unsolicitedly, remind them how insignificant their effort is compared to what I had to do when I was a kid. But destiny played a cruel trick on me last Sunday. I overslept. Sona woke up at 6 .. and let me sleep. Megha woke up at 7 .. and let me sleep. And the unkindest cut of all .. Sonu woke up at 7:30 .. and let me sleep. Just to save a few kids she doesn't even know very well .. in a badminton camp far far away. I woke up at 9 .. sprang out of bed with all the enthusiasm of a voluntary coach .. saw the time .. and and gave out a yell of shock and sorrow.

Sona and Megha blew into the room. "Get ready Papa, we're cleaning the house today". Double blow to the solar plexus. I looked around groggily. To my untrained eye, the house looked pretty clean. In my early years of marriage I might even have mentioned that. But I'm a fast learner. I dint have it in me. "Down in a min, I yelled while sprinting down the stairs to gain more brownie points".

Cleanup at home is fairly simple. Sona and Megha go first picking up the small stuff and Sonu follows with the vacuum. I add the muscle .. to move the big stuff that Sona and Megha cannot handle. Usually I manage to talk Pratibha out of moving the big stuff so I do .. umm .. nothing. But I am a good motivational speaker while they work. Once Vacuuming is done Sonu goes around rearranging every item in the house. If left to ourselves, Sona, Megha and I would utilize this time to pick up all the small stuff and bring them back out. Unfortunately, Sonu is enlightened. So she usually sends us out on trivial pursuits like getting groceries, or washing the car. By the time we come back inside, the house is spotless and glistening. All in all, except for the fact that I'll have to massage Sonu's back at the end of the day, Clean up isn't really that much of a big deal. Honestly, I don't understand why Sonu finds it so difficult. I could do this everyday.

Sona Megha and I spent a happy morning idling around the master bedroom. Just as cleanup was done, I heard 'that' tone outside our bedroom door.

Sonu "Are you going to do something about that desk?"
Me   "What desk?"
Sonu "The desk you bought for Megha last November?"
Me  "What about the desk?"
Sonu "It's sitting in the garage .. it needs to be assembled"

There's a reason that desk was still in the garage. The instruction manual for assembly was bigger than some of my engineering textbooks. Moreover, if memory served me right, it had taken all my physical strength to slide that box off my car to the garage wall. How in the world was I going to get it upstairs and into Megha's room, not to mention assemble it. I looked at Pratibha. Behind every successful man is an angry woman. One look at her face and I knew I was capable of doing it. I broke open the box and moved the pieces upstairs in batches. Then I opened the instruction manual and started weeping. 50 pages of instructions. Each one more complicated than the other. Sonu, bless her, is a much kinder soul than I am. She offered to help. Two hours later, I was done. Four hours later the desk was done. I did do some of the heavy lifting and putting things in place OK. It wasn't all her. Anyway .. I think I owe her a dinner.