48/100. After a wakeful night spent checking my son’s temperature every two hours and then sending him off to school because he had his exams, i was wracked with both worry and guilt. I needed a pick-me-up to get out of the (rare for me) ‘why-me’ mode I was in.

What better than a new saree which had become mine by accident? About three months back, a friend had asked me to send her a cotton Bengal Batik saree in blue. The hundred other specifications my friend had were all satisfied by this budget beauty, and she was soon packed in a bag along with two other sarees, but those are for later posts. But, before I could courier the saree to her, my friend whizzed off to Switzerland on a sudden assignment, date of return not known. And so, the saree was mine to wear.

Meetings, work, deadlines and a special session with officers of the civil services on gender sensitization and the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act later, I was quite wrecked by early evening. I came back home early and was rewarded by the way my son’s tired face lit up on seeing me back before time.

A quiet half hour together on the terrace watching the birds fly home to roost was what we both needed. I had forgotten to take a photograph that day – my son rectified that by taking a snap just before we lost the light.

When I looked at the photo after he was asleep, it seemed to speak volumes. About the exhausting days all of us women spend doing a thousand different things, every single 24-hour cycle, captured against the failing light of evening… Eve…