Shrugged off the worries...and I thought to myself I need to be strong. A lot of damage has been done ...but then it could have been worse! With God's grace the fire was not catastrophic..things were still under control. Just as my friend had explained..it was a warning that "I needed to be more careful !!!"
All that was required now, was some planning followed by swift execution of the plan ,after all I didn't have much time. All that I had done in the past two months had been ruined ...if on a scale of 1 to 10 the house was say at a scale of 1 when I started working on it two months back,with my efforts I had scaled it up to 8 , but now it had downgraded to "-10"....needed a lot of work, I started planning, what all needed to be done :
- Get the broken glasses removed from the house.
- Painting the house ..which involved major reshuffling of each and everything in the house.
- Curtains , bed sheets, furniture cover everything needed to be washed again
- Deep cleaning of everything that had a coating of soot.
- Glass in the window replaced.
- The burn't idol of god replaced with new one.
- Arrange the rest of the things in place , dispose off all obsolete things accumulated in the house
- And above all cover up all that had happened from everyone in the family.
Day 1 : Just went passed calling and chasing people over the phone to get things done. Managed to get the curtains down from the rods...never ever did I feel that I had to be dependent on people for such trivial jobs as getting the curtains down....Curtains looked ok after 3 rounds of washing....thanks to the good old machine! The glass had been removed from the house. The black look had lessened.
I cleaned the silver idols.... kept brushing them with all the home remedies I knew of..but they still looked burn't.
Day 2: Things moved , the painter turned up and started the painting work , the window glass person came to take the measurements.Other issues crept up...a drainage blockage in the kitchen causing water to spilling all over the place.The geyser in one of the bathrooms had stopped working. The maid had to work very hard and was somewhat getting tired of my demands and instructions.
Day 3: Painting still in progress...maid decided to ditch...which meant no home made food.My sweet cousin decided to take up the cooking and cook some delicious Bengali cuisine that I had been salivating for...night time we decided to go out , which in turn meant I started driving again after 3 years when I was almost 9 months heavily pregnant.
The glass of the window had been replaced. I had manged to dispose of a lot of junk with my cousin's help... and some domestic help that I had arranged.
Interview of maids in progress..no suitable found yet!
My friend came to see me at night, I had sorted out the old technical books and some sound tracks for his library ..he was surprised at how the house looked and commented that doesn't look like the fire had done that much harm that I had narrated over the phone. My efforts had paid off..but only I knew the emotional drainage I went through to bring the house back to that stage.
Day 4: Painting was over..the house looked neat and clean no one could tell there was a fire in the house..except for the window. A heap of clothes that no longer fitted me and neither had the remote chances that I would ever fit into them some day, made its way into the wardrobes of the domestic help I had hired. Old books , papers, old shoes ...I had disposed most of the stuff. I had manged to get the curtains back with the help of an electrician who had come to fix the geyser.
All the people who had come to work in the house ,kind of pitied me .... a pregnant women living all by herself...trying to get things in place.They were all very kind to me..and each took an extra effort to help me. Many thanks to all those people, I shall always remember their faces..be it the security guard, the electrician , the errand boy or the maid who ditched me ..but still stood by me and did her part when I needed her....but most of all my cousin who was staying with me!
Thanks to all these people, the house looked much better...one could comfortably live in it now.It was ready for my parents who were coming after a week. I had even manged to decorate it with some artifacts..now, only if I could find a suitable maid.
But all this work,stress and tiring phase of the last month of pregnancy had turned me into a grumpy old nag...me and my dear cousin had a row...reminded me of our childhood days when we would keep fighting over all things small and silly... some harsh words vented out from both ends.
She was to cook a lovely chicken meal that I was yearning for days...but in my anger I asked her not to trouble herself and ordered some pizza online instead.
By night I was too drained...I felt unwanted and lonely ! I had reached my wit's end now ... couldn't take it anymore....no one wants such a dramatic pregnancy..certainly it was nowhere close to what I had imagined to be...I had only dream't of being loved and pampered to no end...being fed all kind of delicacies I had craving for... I needed my parents and hubby so much.It was already Thursday and hubby was flying in on Sunday.. phew...almost there. Thankfully my sweet baby was cooperating well with mommy , so far I didn't get any false labour pain...smiling to myself .. I dozed off to sleep!!!
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