Rama Rama Kya Hai Dramaaa

You’d think after a gap of two weeks the humans would throw their inhibitions to the winds and play tonsil hockey as soon as they laid eyes on each other at the airport.

In her defense, mom did go to the airport to receive dad with good intentions.

She imagined herself running in slow motion through the terminal to the strains of a guitar strumming in the background and throwing herself in dad’s outstretched arms.

After a week of burying her face in his laundered shirts hanging in the closet, she yearned to nuzzle his neck and feel his rough stubble scratch her cheek. She was even ready to overlook the bird-cage breath that usually accompanies 28 hours of flying half-way across the world.

It was not for nothing that mom had spent the last hour before dad was scheduled to arrive shouting at her kids.

“We’re not going to the airport if you don’t hurry up and eat your vegetables,” she threatened. Even flying debris on the freeway in the form of an errant washing machine didn’t slow her down as she pulled up to the curb a good 20 minutes after dad’s flight was supposed to land.

“See, if you had finished your dinner quickly, we could’ve parked the car and gone inside,” she told her kids, pulling up under the “No Parking” sign and scanning the crowd for dad.

It seemed as though the whole world walked out of the automatic doors, save dad, and after 10 minutes of listening to “Where’s Appa?” and keeping a wary eye out for the cops, the fuzzy feeling she had felt since morning started to slowly dissipate.

“Why isn't he answering his cell phone?” she mumbled irritably, cruising the terminal and driving around for another 10 minutes.

Nature calls from the kids finally forced her to park, and once inside the airport, mom found to her immense annoyance, that the flight had only taken off at about the same time she had left home.

With nothing left to do but wait, mom settled into one of the chairs, thankful she had changed out of her pajamas before leaving home.

She spent the next hour cradling a sleeping child and watching the passionate embraces of couples around her, some of whom greeted each other as though they had returned from an expedition to Mars.

Dad finally emerged through the security gates to find mom tapping her foot impatiently.

“You could’ve called to let me know the flight’s been delayed,” she blurted, even before she said hello.

“You should’ve checked before leaving home,” said dad gently. “That’s why I sent you my flight details.”

“If I had that much free time at home, I would’ve had dinner and peed,” retorted mom hopping on one foot.

She thrust a half-asleep Kuki at dad, whose shoulders were already weighed down with bags and a backpack, and made her way to the parking lot.

Apparently that filmi reunion she had planned would have to wait until his next trip.