And then came the Saturday. The only day I get to sleep till 11 AM without someone reminding me "early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy wealthy and wise".
My Di was all dressed up. I woke up and my brain's operating system hadn't completely loaded. I looked at my Di and said, "Aaj kuch special hai kya? Tum itna saj kyon gayee ho. Cosmetic shop ki saleswoman lag nahi ho!!" (Why are you so dressed up? What's the occasion?)
"Tum wapas ja kar so jao. Tumhara kuch nahi ho sakta." (You go back to bed, you are useless!) Chided my sister.
And she left.
I went about my day as every other Saturday - wake up late - eat brunch - spend time checking mIRC ( to the uninitiated, this is the mother of all chat programs - before Google chat, Yahoo chat, WhatsApp became mainstream). Then I went to play cricket with the kids in my apartment block.
I would be playing with kids half my age - and would be designated as an umpire on the days when the cohort was made of kids under 15 and would be a team member when they thought they could bowl me out.
I am not sure if it was my day of umpiring or batting with bacchas (kids), but we had to stop the game as the rickshaw that brought my Ma and Di back home. It must have been dusk and the light would start fading. We would anyways stop the play for the fear of losing the tennis ball.
"Ghar chalo." (Get back home), instructed Di.
"Aata hun, four more balls." (I am coming in a moment, just one more over remaining), I grumbled.
My cricket team would also tease me by saying "Didi Mummy". They were aware that I have two mothers. A friendly mother and a motherly sister :)
That night over dinner, I somehow brought up the question about the trip to Manika's.
"How did it go?"
And pat came the reply, "Bahut achche log hain." (they are very nice people).