Thursday, August 6

1 Cup Tea by 2 ...

It is monsoon , and it was raining almost everyday the past 1 week . The people who know me also know that I have a close bond with cold and flu , and a even stronger one with tonsillitis. It rains and my friends arrive to pull me down, the sun shines bright and still they don't budge. Its almost like I am a good host to my crazy annoying friends here.

And today was just the same.

I woke up with a blocked nose and heavy head yet again. Its 3 days in a row and I am still counting days when finally I will get over them. I woke up only when my house-maid came in the morning for the daily chores , and trust me its not that I am super rich or something , in India its easy and affordable and yes it gives some sense of luxury in my everyday middle class lifestyle.

I am definitely not a morning person, and that makes it even more difficult for me to pull me out of the warm and cozy bed. The look of the sky outside is still gloomy and for sure it does not add any extra spirit for me to go and get going with the day.

Just out of bed and I get a ping from my cousin , checking up on me and how I am doing. Its sweet. Living alone is fun most days but not when you are sick. I am still lazing and brooding over the cold, not caring what my maid is doing for the day. While chatting with my cousin and mopping all over the bed trying to gather the courage to get up , she suggests me , 'go make some tulsi-ginger-pepper-clove-honey-tea' , and believe me it actually gave me some hope that someone sitting somewhere kms away cares for me and wants me to get well soon enough.

I pull myself out of the bed, drape a warm shawl around me, put on my comfy slippers and coyly slip out to face the world.

I put the biggest cup measure of water to boil with all the herbs and spices in it. Slightly awake now and getting a hold of my surrounding i see my maid is almost done with her tasks and i do notice she is not feeling good herself , coughing and sneezing with those watery eyes...

I just see her , just as she sees me. We can't really talk as we do not speak any common language. Sign language, some more action and few words here and there of English is all our conversation contains. I can't even ask her how she is feeling or can't even say her to take a day off to take rest if she needs to.

So shall I just leave her and let her suffer in her world and let me suffer in mine ?

Recovering myself from my thoughts I realize my tea looks ready. I pulled one more cup from the counter and poured the tea equally for the tow of us.

Not sure what to say, I just slide the 2nd cup towards her and picked my own; took a long wiff of the steaming tea and sipped with a surrrrd. And then I looked at her and gestured the same. This time we both took a long sip of the tea and let a sigh out almost in unison. I see she liked it. We both sip the rest of the tea in complete silence. No sound other than the blocked noses trying to breathe and the long sighs in between the sips.

Who says words are needed to communicate , we just talked in the complete silence and wished each other 'get well soon' and gathered enough courage to get started with the day.