“UFF!” mum said, taking off the kitchen apron. “All I see when I come back from the office is piles of dirty dishes! My goodness! I’m afraid we, women, will perish one day, but the dirty dishes will keep coming forever! It’s so exhausting!”

“You are so right, darling,” dad immediately agreed. “I wish some super self-washing crockery were invented! What on earth the scientists with all their modern technologies are doing these days!” saying this, he sympathetically sighed and stretched on the sofa.

“Ah, spare me from fake empathy!” said mum, as dad hid behind the sports pages of the paper. “And no need to blame the scientists, either! I give both of you the deadline till dinnertime to think up a way to help me with the dishes, and in case you don’t come with anything productive, I’ll simply stop cooking for you! Stay hungry! And by ‘you’ I mean you too, Farhan! Mark my words well!”

Without much ado I climbed the window-sill, reclined the head upon my hands and started to think. First I became anxious that mum would really stop cooking and I would starve to death; and then the idea of inventing something useful hit me. I sat there pondering and, at the same time, checking on dad with the corner of my eyes to see what he was doing. But he apparently had no intentions of doing any thinking.

After finishing with the newspaper, dad shaved, put on a clean shirt, attended a couple of calls, chatted with uncle Hamza who lived next door, and then nonchalantly turned on the TV to watch the latest news.

“Think faster!” I told myself.

Two hours passed fruitless, when suddenly I remembered a programme about conveyers that I’d watched on Discovery channel some days ago, and a brilliant idea flashed in my mind.

When we gathered at the dinner table, I asked: “So, dad, what’s your solution?”

“For what?”

“The dishwashing issue, or else mum will stop cooking for us.”

“She was joking,” said dad. “How can she let only son and dear husband starve?” and he laughed heartily.

“It was not a joke!” mum frowned. “How many times I told you I am sick and tired of doing the dishes every day. And how nice of you to completely ignore it, chat on the phone and watch TV while I squander away my life washing your endless cups and plates.”

“Mum! If dad didn’t come up with the solution, it is okay, I’ve got one! Please, don’t worry, and let’s have dinner now.”

“What is that?” asked mum.

“How many bowls, plates, spoons, cups and glasses do you wash each time?”

“Three of each.”

“Then relax! From now on you’ll have to wash one of each.”

“Shoot away!” said dad.

“Let’s eat first,” I offered. “I’ll explain during the meal, as I feel I can eat an elephant now.”

“Well?” dad asked when the dinner was over.

“You’d love its simplicity, mum!” I said. “Now listen, as soon as the meal is ready, you set the table only for one person. You serve yourself soup and when you finish your soup tell dad to come and fill the same bowl with soup and you have your main dish on the dinner plate. When dad finishes the soup and you are over with the main dish, dad calls me; so I take soup in the same bowl while dad takes the main dish in the same dinner plate and you can unhurriedly savour your sweet dish on the dessert plate.

“So this way we will take our turns in the same plate and bowl and you, instead of washing three plates or bowls, will have only one set to wash! Cheers for me!”

“Seems a really clever idea,” said dad. “But still, it’s much more fun to have dinner together at one table, rather than doing it in three shifts.”

“But it’s easy on mum, as now she’ll have fewer dishes to wash.”

“You know,” said dad thoughtfully. “I think I’ve got an idea too. It’s not as brilliant as yours, but still…”

“Let’s hear it,” mum said.

He got up, rolled his sleeves put on the apron and started to stack up the plates.

“It’s very simple, and that is that from now on we — you and I — are going to do the dishes!”

We carried the dishes to the sink and washed them all. Well, not all actually, as I accidentally broke a bowl and glass, because I was too preoccupied with the great solution dad came up with. Ah, how come it never occurred to me!

But after seeing her broken dishes, I wonder if mum too will find the idea as appealing….