It had been a few days since Punit had left the house. There was a storm brewing for many days but it's effect was felt today as Mummy and Daddy were having an intense conversation or should I say fight?

"Even I want to do a job! The day I had an interview for it, your family came to see me. When I finally worked for three months, the marriage date and venue were fixed; I was forcefully made to leave the job. Now I want to help you, you're telling me that I shouldn't go anywhere?"

"Where will you leave her? There are no vacancies for your job as a medical transcriptionist nearby, you must travel to Dadar, CST or Matunga. Basically, all the job locations will involve travelling of around two hours."

"What are you trying to imply?"

"How will you travel?"

"Trains!"

"Airoli doesn't have any train station; neither does Mulund. People in my office were telling me that plans have been proposed for building stations but it will take time. According to what I know, the nearest station would be Thane or Khopar Khairane."

Mummy put her hand on her waist and asked, "What's your point?"

"How will you travel to your office? Who will drop you till the stations?"

"We can buy a scooter. I can travel."

Daddy laughed, "For a woman who can't travel from Bangalore to Hosur by sitting in a bus, alone, you want to travel all over Mumbai?"

"If I want to, I can and I will," she said with a determined look on her face.

"Okay, so let's assume you will. For sake of round figures, you have to travel for four hours, you propose to put Anu in a day-care. For how long will they take care of her?"

"Meaning?"

"The day cares would be open for 5 p.m. After that, what will you do if you're late?"

"Your company is nearby. In fact, nearer than Airoli is to Mulund. If there is any case of emergency, you should-"

"I can't come."

"What?"

"You heard me. I can't come leaving everything."

"Why can't you?"

"When I said I can't, it means I can't."

"Okay," Mummy sighed. "Answer this one question to me, even though Anu is your daughter, you don't want to leave everything behind, for her?"

"No, I can't."

"But you expect me to do-"

"That's because you're a woman and I'm a man. That's how things function."

Mummy nodded her head and said, "I want to give this a try before I decide whether I should quit everything permanently or not. I will visit that day-care centre for enquiry. If everything works well, I will take up a job."

"That's your wish but then Anu will be your responsibility. How you manage is up to you."

"Of course!" she waved her hand and went.

After a few hours, I felt a splash of water on my face after which my hair was combed, face was powdered and Mummy put a small liquid dot in between my eyebrows.

"Don't touch your bhindi until it is dry," she warned.

What's a bindi? Who cares? But the liquid part was making me feel funny so I decided to interrogate it myself. I stood in front of the mirror and touched the black spot. I found some of the black spot was stuck on the finger with which I had touched it. I decided to put the finger back on the black spot. It so happened that I pressed my finger too hard for it to move, making a line on my brow.

"Anu! I told you not to touch the bhindi!"

Ah! That black spot is called bhindi! I was taken to the wash basin, water was splashed on my face, face was powdered and the bhindi was put again. She held both my hands and warned, "Don't touch it. If you touch again, I will leave you alone in the house."

I am shit scared of being in the room alone. I don't know really what I will do if I am left all alone in the house. Maybe I will cry to myself until someone arrives.

"No touch bhindi. No leave me house alone. I'm scared."

"Now that's my girl! Anu is a good girl!"

Here's the thing which I'm trying to understand – the concept of good girl and bad girl. From all my past experiences and facial expressions of Mummy and Daddy, I have come to a conclusion. Good girl is when you do things that make Mummy and Daddy happy; they don't scold me. Bad girl is when they scold me.

We then locked the house, went outside and boarded an auto. From there he took us to another building like ours. This time we didn't ascend any stairs but walked to a house with colourful doors. Mummy knocked the door gently and one woman opened it. She welcomed us. The house was a colourful one which had various types of dolls, toys and bags.

I ran to pick some toys and started playing with them.

"Anu!"

I heard Mummy warning me.

"It's okay, ma'am. Let her play, she's a kid," coaxed the lady.

Mummy nodded. This gave me more confidence to assert my decision of playing. I declared, "Me play with toys. It's okay."

Mummy and the lady laughed. Mummy chuckled, "Okay Anu, play with them!"

I saw other kids trying to snatch the toys from me. I took the weird looking grey toy and placed it under my armpit. The other kid tried to snatch it from me but he couldn't. I gave a victorious smirk. No wonder Mummy keeps her purse under the armpit when she is buying something.

"I wanted to talk about a day-care facility; I wish to resume going to the office soon," Mummy started. The boy started poking me on my arm. I slowly rested my arm, under which weird grey thing was present, on the floor. Surprisingly the floor wasn't as hard as I had expected it to be.

"Of course, ma'am. Once your daughter starts going to pre-school, you must give the autowallah address of this day-care. After you finish your work, you can pick her from here. The fees will be charged on a monthly basis which will be one fifty rupees only."

"One fifty rupees! For a month! That's way too costly."

The boy was poking me this time but this time it was on my stomach. I rolled on the floor so that my back was exposed to him. I was able to protect myself! But then he started poking me on my back.

"Madam! It's not costly, we are the affordable ones. You can go and ask in aakha Airoli and even Mulund East."

"Why not Mulund West?"

"Madam, everyone knows it's a posh area. There they charge like around seven hundred to thousand rupees!"

"What!"

"Yes madam. Those Gujrati and Marwari women don't even go to work. They just want to sit at home simply and enjoy their kitty parties."

"I see. But the rate is still high."

"Madam, what I have told you is for this year. From next year, we are planning to keep two hundred per month."

"Your day-care fees are more than school fees!" Mummy gasped.

The continuous poking was unbearable. What's with him! Why can't he play with some other toys? Wait a minute! I will go pick some other toy. He will leave me then! I stood up at once and gave him the weird grey thing. He took it from me. Then I took hold of a weird yellow thing and started playing with it. I didn't understand why he gave me suspicious looks.

"Madam how long will school look after your child? Two hours? Rest of the seven to eight hours it's we who look after your child."

Suddenly, he ran to me to snatch my doll. I hid it behind my back but he rushed there and started pulling it. I left the weird yellow thing and grabbed the grey one. He again gave me suspicious looks. What's wrong with him?

"Suppose due to any emergencies, if I come late-"

"No problem, madam, we will have your husband's number and photo too."

"Even my husband works far. So, I will be the one returning early from work. Suppose I am late, till what time can you take care of my child?"

"Around half an hour more madam. Rest of the things must be taken care of by you."

"How can you say like that? How can I take care like that? You know how it rains in Mumbai. If God forbid there is any congestion in train lines, what will I do?"

"Madam, that's your responsibility. You must entrust a neighbour or friend who is willing to take care of your child."

"But when we are sending them to you, you should act responsibly-"

"Madam! Even we have families and children. If it is worrying you so much, admit your daughter to a preschool near your office and look for a day-care there only."

He again pestered me to give the grey one while holding onto the yellow one. I was angry. I ordered him, "Give me."

He vehemently shook his head. He advanced to pull the grey toy from me. This time, I did what could when I got irritated. I cried. Mummy came and took me in her arms. The boy looked scared and the doorbell rang.

Another lady came in and smiled at him, "Shekhar, come putta, we need to go back home."

He nodded. He threw the yellow toy on the floor. I slid from Mummy's lap and grabbed that toy. He turned towards the lady Mummy was talking to and said, "Bye Amma."

Then he looked at the lady and said, "Come Aunty."

Mummy looked at them with enquiring eyes, "Who was that lady? That boy's neighbours?"

The lady explained, "No madam. That boy is Shekhar Shetty. That woman is his mother. He calls me Amma and his mother as Aunty. What a silly fellow!"

Mummy looked at her aghast. I sensed that we might have to leave. As I had expected, she got up and ordered, "Anu, come we have to go home."

I nodded while holding the grey and yellow toys tightly. She eyed at them and ordered, "Anu, drop the toys."

I assured her, "It's okay."

She started yelling, "It's not okay, Anu. Drop that elephant and giraffe toys! Do you want to be a bad girl?"

Here's the thing: I don't like being 'bad girl'. So, I dropped them. Not wasting anymore time, she picked me up and walked out. As soon as she came out of the society gate, she muttered, "I don't want to go to a job if my own child will call me 'aunty'."

***

Hope you all are doing well and staying safe at home. This bad time shall pass too! Happy reading and wattpading!

Thank you for reading.