Mom and Rishi

Mom was all excited to go for her debate . This was her second debate. To be honest she is not cut out for it. But she wanted to try her hands on it. Dad was out of station. She had been preparing for the debate for the past four five days . Dad insisted that she prepared herself before blurting out some nonsense in front of a bunch of people. She thought, after almost thirty years she had sat down and written on a paper and prepared something. All these years her preparation was Sambhar, kootu , poriyal etc etc. This experience seemed to be new for her. She made Rishi sit and listen to her speech. Though Rishi didn't understand word by word he did understand the gist of it. First ,mom felt shy to speak in front of Rishi. She, who had taught both her kids how to be fearless on stage now felt her heart thumping. She started off with a smile and somehow managed to finish it off. Rishi pretended that he listened to her attentively all ten minutes

Then,


Mom: Rishi , how was my speech?
Rishi: ya you did a good job. Just make sure you are not going so fast and that you are not using the stage so much like you did now. Stop walking and moving . make your movements minimal. You pause now and then while you speak.

Mom understood the truth "What you give, comes back to you", is true.

Mom: Ok Rishi thanks. Did you understand what I spoke?
Rishi: Ya to some extent. But to correct your mistakes I need not know the meaning of what you spoke word by word. I concentrated on the presentation . The content does seem funny.

Mom was happy that she got some feedback. She had prepared so much that she wanted to spit it out as soon as possible. But she had to wait the whole day . The program was only at 5pm . Around 3pm mom started feeling kind of nervous. She felt it would be nice if Rishi accompanied her.

Mom: Rishi do you want to come with me to watch me speak in the debate?
Rishi: I already heard you speak.
Mom: Why don't you come and see how I do it there on stage?
Rishi: My Math pre board is this week.
Mom: It will be a change for you if you come with me.
Rishi: I am planning to do well in my pre-boards.
Mom: It will take just two hours.
Rishi: Library is a very good place to concentrate .
Mom: I have to go alone Rishi that's why I am asking you.
Rishi: If I do well in pre board 1 I am pretty sure I can do well in pre board 2 too.
Mom: You mean to say you can't come?
Rishi: My friend is coming to the library to study with me.

Mom twisted the question"Can you come with me?" in as many ways as possible. Never did she get the  DIRECT answer 'NO' from Rishi's mouth. He also played with his words but made mom understand that for sure how much ever she convinced he wouldn't go with her. Finally she gave up on her son.She didn't want to compel him to go with her. In case he doesn't do well in his exams then he would easily point his fingers at her.

This reminded mom of what her Tamil teacher had taught her in school.
Customer: Do you have rice?
Shopkeeper:We have dal.
The shopkeeper never said a no to a customer but implied the meaning.

I believe this is what being positive  meant .May be Rishi is one of that kind...... .

But Mom being old fashioned and also one who believes in direct speech more than indirect speech just needs a clear Yes or No for an answer from ,be it her husband or her son.........