Prof. Kalpana Mathur

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It was a balmy evening with oodles of cool breeze playing the trick on the best of emotions as human beings. In between “My Documents” I could not but avoid reminiscences of the festivities at Dubai over Xmas and New Year and of course, the much publicized inauguration of the Burj Khalifa in a perfect holiday mood with my daughter and son-in-law who had recently got married. 

Amidst loads of work, the 'flesh and blood’ emotion took hold of me. At the same time, priority work was looming in front of me and I knew it shall take a couple of hours to have a word with the loved ones. The learning from the recent workshop on ‘Work Life Balance” took care of what followed and I found myself logging on my g-talk to see if I could find her online and feel the connectivity.
 
The green light did the trick and there her smiley chat message popped up, “Mommiieee!!” and more was expressed than any lesson on communication skills could have taught. No sooner she came up with her worry over a tooth problem which had suddenly occurred. Her anguish got me reeling with anxiety and assuring her of good dental care being available at Dubai too and her better half would take care of everything.

I understood that the pain and apprehension had transformed her into that small baby who would stick to mom as panacea for all real and imaginary problems playing havoc. With that in mind, I sought to reassure her and wrote to her not to distress and we can get her to India for the treatment if so required. Unwittingly, the chord was struck at the most sensitive note.

The moment I pressed enter on my laptop, I felt the strong undercurrents of overwhelming emotions between us though we were both looking at our laptop screens with thousands of miles in between. Tears were rolling down my face uncontrollably and I was typing, “I miss you sweetheart” and in a flash I saw on my screen, “I also miss you a lot”. I knew for sure that she is crying too.

Time has made me appreciate all the screens that technology has provided- the facebook, the twitter and the g-talk which enable us live such touching moments and add that rainbow to our working days. Time has also made me get over the naïve notion that the role of parenthood would gradually be on the decline. I had never thought that I would now be concerned about two adorable children instead of only one.

But then, All is Well and God Bless!