It was a night from a mild winter, many years ago. The children were young, the girl was far from nubile and the boy - mischievous in every sense. Mother had been away for three weeks. That is a lot of days. And nights. Father stayed home on most days, with infrequent bouts of help from neighboring aunties, cooked dinners, packed lunches and assembled breakfasts, washed clothes and wrung them dry, and did everything else that was needed to keep the little household running. Everybody missed mother. To add to this pain of separation, there was no instant gratification of talking on the phone. Mother would make her daily call between eight thirty to nine at night. Everyone abandoned everything they were upto. Even the television was turned off. The children would narrate their days quickly since those calls were expensive in those days. Mother would tell them how much she missed them and that would be all. The boy's smile would turn into a frown the moment the call disconnected. Father would quickly try to distract them with something else, unsuccessfully.
Mother was away at a distant university, taking a mandated refresher course in some of the subjects she taught. She was a teacher. Father worked in an office, nobody knew what he did, but there were lots of files and pens. The girl was eight, the boy was five. Or so. Difficult ages. Fun ages.
Somehow, the three weeks went by and the trio - father and the children packed a small bag with a few clothes and such and travelled to mother's university to bring her back home. The children were absolutely elated. The daughter was a bit worried if she would vomit in the bus, like she usually did. Father reassured her that they were carrying enough lemons to keep nausea away. It was their first overnight bus journey. An auto rickshaw dropped them at the bus station. Since they were already running late, they had packed a small dinner which was quickly polished off as soon as they boarded the bus. Even before the bus reached the city's outskirts, the children were fast asleep.
They reached mother's university town before day break. The children were forcibly woken up, wrapped in blankets and mufflers, they were so warm and cushy, they had not the slightest intention to. All the town had was an enormous university campus. Outside it, there wasn't much to see although some people would call it a tourist destination as well because of the hills. There was a medical school and some business communities had settled in and around, running shops in clusters. But the campus, its verdant trees, clean streets, walking professors and cycling students were definitely the highlights.
Mother was waiting behind the huge gates of the ladies hostel where she had been staying. As soon as the little feet of the children showed up in the gap at the bottom of the gate, mother pushed it open and hugged the sleepy children, really really tight. The boy had to free himself up and announced he had to go potty.
Soon they moved to a guest house atop a hill. The room was airy, with glass windows, filled with early sunshine. The balcony had a good view of the university. But they all fell asleep and woke up at mid morning. It felt like a holiday. They went down to the garden where a table had been laid out for the sole guests in the entire building. The cook served steaming masala omelets, toasts and tea.
They booked a taxi and went about the town, to temples and museums, whatever was worth seeing, they wanted it seen. The taxi driver took them to the outskirts where they crossed a precarious bridge on a waterfall and visited a goddess who was adorned with thousands of bells.
In the evening, they walked around in the campus. Faint lights escaped from the kitchen windows of brooding professors. Street lights were also there, but some didn't work and whichever worked was covered with buzzing insects. Dew settled on leaves, it made them feel as if it had been a rainy day. But it hadn't.
Following a bread-seller's cart, they reached a tiny market place of sorts, in the middle of the campus. There were a few food carts serving hot fast food. The children got very excited and wanted to eat everything.
Mother noticed a shop that she had often wanted to go to but couldn't because she wanted to go there with the children. The cook was famous for his chowmein. He added lots of cabbage and peas and bell peppers. But mostly lots of cabbage. The children squeezed their noses when they heard cabbage. But father persuaded them to give it a chance.
The four of them were served the best chowmein of their lives that day.