Author: Vandana Oke
She emerged from her room and headed straight into the kitchen. Like every day, she methodically kept some potatoes for boiling and made ginger tea and started making preparations for Rohit’s lunch box. By then, mummy Ji and Rohit had lounged themselves on the living room sofa, with their faces buried in their mobile phones. “Seema, is the tea ready?” inquired mummy ji. Seema came by and provided a cup to both of them. Rohit looked up to hold the cup, glanced at her and jestingly specified,” Yes, yes, I will drink it quickly and will go to get ready on time.
“Don’t worry Seema, will not leave for office without having breakfast.” Seema chuckled in silence and while walking back to the kitchen, she gladly thanked her stars for having chosen Rohit as her life partner. She remembered the day when her father declared that Rohit and his mother were coming over to meet them, and the moment she saw him, without a doubt, it was love at first sight. She recalled how she stood there in a charming silence, with bowed head, eyes tightly shut and a wide smile adorning her sweet countenance when Papa asked her if she approves of Rohit. She just beamed in a silent approval!
Seema was always a girl of few words and happily married for a couple of years now. She was grateful that she had a loving husband who respected her feelings, understood her needs and desires without much-verbalized conversations. While peeling the potatoes, she reminisced how much she disliked cooking and kitchen work and had never tried to learn this skill before marriage. She recalled the day when she had just gotten back from her honeymoon, mummy ji asked her to prepare samosas. She simply stood in the kitchen in companionable silence, without saying a word, with her head tilted and eyes moistened. Mummy ji looked at her and understood the meaning of her silence. From that day onwards, mummyji taught her and helped her in kitchen work, just like her own mother would have, until Seema was all trained and confident.
Seema is delighted to live in this overwhelming euphoria of silence where her dear ones can understand her implied feelings, her unspoken emotions and her eloquent sound of silence.