“Renu,” called out Maya. “Come here dear, and sit with your books. You know that we have to complete the portion this week.”

Renu’s exam was next week and Maya was more nervous than her daughter.

Renu refused to budge from where she was sitting on the living room sofa, her eyes glued to the TV. Tom was chasing Jerry around a farm when a ferocious bull jumped into the fray. She was taking a break after the gruelling five hours of non-stop study. Renu wasn’t going to give up her break for anything.

Maya stopped calling out to her daughter when she realised that she was doing it in vain. It was obvious that Renu was not going to stop watching the show for another – Maya looked at the clock – 25 minutes, when it would end. Maya went into the kitchen to get dinner ready. Theirs was a small family with Maya, her husband Shyam and their only daughter, Renu.

Maya was a double-graduate in Bio-chemistry. She had given up her research and job to coach her daughter since the past year. She had been tutoring Renu since then, neither trusting private tutors nor coaching classes.

Maya banged the pots and pans nervously. Renu was just too playful for words. How Maya wished that her daughter would take her approaching exam a little more seriously. And Shyam was absolutely no help. He took their daughter’s future too lightly. Were all men like this?

‘Kamal Mehta next door isn’t like that,’ Maya answered her own question. Lucky Sushi! Kamal had taken a month off from work to coach their son Aditya for the forthcoming exam.

‘But then,’ Maya’s sense of rightness asserted itself, ‘Sushi wasn’t highly educated. She was just a BA Economics. She couldn’t cope with Aditya’s lessons’.

Maya wielded the knife in anger and frustration as she chopped the poor potatoes into uneven pieces. It was obvious that her mind wasn’t on her job. Otherwise, she would have been shocked to see the mangled state of the potatoes. Her ears were tuned to the living room, waiting for a break in-between the cartoon show that Renu was watching. She was going to tell the young girl in no uncertain terms that her attitude would just not do. Can’t she see that her mother was so worried? Maya hadn’t slept well over the past three months. So apprehensive had she been about her daughter’s forthcoming exam.      

Then there was the VIVA to cross. The results would come a month later and after that would begin the admission process. Maya felt a nervous wreck already. A shuddering sigh shook her body as she imagined the next few weeks in her mind’s eye. Would she survive the period? Maya realised then that she would rather take a walk over a bed of hot coals.

How could Renu be so cool about all this? Maya shot an angry look towards the living room. She heard her daughter’s gurgling laughter as she continued to watch TV. A reluctant smile tugged at Maya’s lips as she squashed her anxiety and continued with her cooking. She had another 15 minutes to get dinner ready before the Tom & Jerry show got over.

Then she planned to catch hold of Renu and make her run through the names of state capitals; the Commonwealth countries; the names of rulers of India, US, UK, Australia, France and at least five other countries; to identify 50 plus places on the world map and more. All this besides knowing the colours of the rainbow; the inhabitants of the animal, bird and insect kingdoms; fish that belonged to both cold and warm waters – Maya paused to catch her breath while her mind ran a-mile-a-second.

Maya turned to see what had finally made Renu move from her place on the sofa and saw Shyam entering the flat. Renu ran to her father and hugged his knees before Shyam lifted her up in the air. Renu’s giggles grew louder as her father threw her up before catching her back in his strong arms.

Yeah, the 2 years, 11-month-old Renu was thrilled that her father was home – more so because he wouldn’t let Maya continue the demanding sessions while she got their daughter ready for her pre-school admission.