Paritosh was frustrated beyond words. Maya had been in tears that morning.

“I love your daughter, Paritosh. As much as a mother can. But is it my fault that she wouldn’t even spare a glance for me? Will we never have any time for each other?”

“What do you want me to do, Maya? She is my daughter!”

“That overpaid nanny of hers can take care of her for a few days, can’t she? You can pay her some more.”

“Just leave her behind while I am on a vacation?”

“On a vacation with me! You do leave her behind for your job. A job you don’t even need. A job you do just because you love teaching. So tell me this, do you love me? Or not? Do I mean even as much as this job to you?”

“What kind of an emotional blackmail is this, Maya?”

She had been furious at that and had stomped out of his office. Paritosh could not concentrate on making notes for his next class after that and left for home. On seeing Rupali, an idea had formed in his head.

But Rupali had frustrated all his plans. She hadn’t even pretended to think about it.

He was angry. At first with her. Then with himself. Why had he expected Rupali to come through for him? When his wife hadn’t done so? When Maya couldn’t do so?

He took a deep breath and looked at the clock. It was almost the time for Rupali to leave. He stepped out of his bedroom and went to Meenal’s. He relieved Rupali and sat down to play with his daughter.

—

Rupali usually slept for three hours after coming back from Paritosh’ house.  Then she made dinner and left for her night job. But that evening Sugata’s band was giving a paid performance for the first time. It was a meager payment. But it was big for them. He wanted her to come for it. She wasn’t sure if she would have her job with Paritosh for long. She wasn’t sure if she would be able to provide him the support he would need in future. The least she could do was to attend his show tonight and make him happy, even if only temporarily.

So she skipped her nap and made dinner while her brothers were still at their tuitions. She called Mihir and he readily agreed to attend the performance. After that he dropped her at the pharmacy. The next morning, the boy who was to relieve her got late and that ate up her morning nap time, the couple of hours she usually slept before starting her morning chores and then leaving for Paritosh’ home.

She was lethargic beyond measure as she walked home in the morning. She had no energy left for cooking breakfast and lunch. She decided that she would ask Soumitra to get some bread and toast them for breakfast. For lunch she would hand them some money so that they could buy something from the school canteen. That was a luxury she did not usually permit them or herself. But this morning, she was exceptionally tired.

She stepped into the house to the sound of pressure cooker. Soumitra and Sugata were ready for school and some toasted bread was waiting for her.

“You were late,” Soumitra announced, “So I bought some bread and toasted it. You can eat.”

“And what is in the pressure cooker?”

“Khichdi, for lunch.”

‘When did they learn to cook?’ she wondered. Tears threatened her and she closed her eyes for a moment to blink them back. Then she went forward and pulled both of them in a hug.

“Hey, hey!” Soumitra grinned, “It’s only khichdi. And you may want to taste it for salt.”

—

Rupali’s head was reeling and her eyes wouldn’t stay open. She hadn’t had a wink of sleep in over twenty-four hours and she was bone tired. When Meenal was taking her late-morning nap, she could not resist the temptation of taking a nap herself. She put an alarm for the time when Meenal usually woke and lied down next to the child.

But it wasn’t the alarm or Meenal that woke her up.

“Ms. Banerjee,” Partiosh’ voice thundered and echoed through the small room. Rupali woke up at once and jumped out of the bed. Her heart thumped in her chest. Her throat went dry at the sight of Paritosh’ red, angry eyes. “What do you think you were doing?”

“I… I… Sir. Meenal was asleep. I fell…”

“Meenal was asleep and she could have woken up any time. What is your job here, Ms. Banerjee? What do you think your job is?”

She gulped hard and stayed silent.

“You have only one job. To look after her. Sleeping on the job doesn’t help you do that.”

“I’m sorry, Sir. It won’t happen again.”

“No. It won’t. Because you won’t come here again. Leave. Leave right now.”

“Sir, please–”

“Didn’t you hear me, Ms. Banerjee? You are fired!”

Tears stung her still weary eyes. But she blinked them back. All her prepared speeches for the moment he fired her were useless. He wasn’t firing her because she refused to come with them for the vacation. He was firing her because she was sleeping on the job. No excuse was going to work here. She picked up her purse, slipped on her sandle and ran out.

—

For a while she was angry. Angry at herself, at Paritosh, at the world, and at her rotten luck. Then every other feeling floated away except the overwhelming need to sleep. To sleep for hours together. Why not, she decided. She had the entire day to herself. She would sleep like she hadn’t done in a long time. Apart from the two jobs on the weekdays,  even her weekends were occupied with chores. And now there was Mihir too. She also had to find time for him. Her sleep had been ignored and compromised for too long. Now she would catch up on it.  She will have to look for a new job because once Paritosh told them why he had fired her, the clinic would not want her back. But it was all for good. She would not start her job-search yet. She would take several days off and sleep well.

Before she knew it she had fallen asleep on the bed in the hall. This wasn’t her bed. The twins used it. She usually slept in the only room the house had. But nothing mattered right now. She had to sleep.

—

To be continued