“What is this Alia? How many times have I told you not to throw things around, see everything is scattered, nothing is in its place but you never listen!” said Alia’s mum as she entered her daughter’s room and saw mess all around.

“Oh mum! Why should I do it when you are there?” asked Alia carelessly.

“You are not a kid anymore. Show some responsibility now, instead of helping me with the household chores, you are putting more burden on me!” her mother said and began picking up the things.

Alia was the only child of her parents, therefore she was pampered and this made her irresponsible, careless and lazy.

For quite some days now, Alia’s mother had not been feeling too well; she often had fever, headaches and fatigue due to no rest and excess work. Then one day, Alia’s mother fell so sick that she couldn’t get up in the morning and as Alia’s father was out of town, so he didn’t know all about this.

When Alia woke up at the sound of the alarm, she was shocked to see her mother still in bed and there was no breakfast on the table. She knew that her mother was very responsible and she would never do any such thing. So Alia walked up to her mum and asked if she was okay.

Her mother was sleeping, Alia saw some medicines on the side table and then touched her mother’s forehead. She was having high temperature. Alia felt sorry as she walked slowly to the kitchen, remembering the day when she carelessly refused to help her mum.

Alia hardly knew anything about cooking. She reluctantly took an egg to make an omelette. She beat it as she has seen her mother quickly doing it, but Alia was no expert so quite a lot of it fell on the ground. And when she poured the mixture into the pan, she didn’t realise that the oil was too hot so some drops of oil splashed out and burnt her skin.

Alia ended up with was an almost burnt omelette because the flame was so high. She made tea for herself but while pouring it into the cup, she burnt her hand again and this time she shouted in pain. She had her breakfast quietly and after that, she made a similar breakfast for her mother and walked into her room, put it on the side table and covered it so that when mum woke up, she would find something to eat.

Alia came back to the kitchen and saw how much mess she had created and remembered how neat and clean it was when her mother was the in-charge.

She started cleaning the kitchen and suddenly realised that she was getting late for her school, so ran to her room to get ready. She had barely time to get ready when she heard the horn of her school van.

When Alia came back from the school that day, she found her mother still lying in bed, which meant she was not yet fine. Alia went to her and asked if she needed anything, but her mum said she did not need anything.

Deep in her thoughts, Alia went to her room. When she changed her uniform and took off her shoes, for the first time she put them all in their right places, for Alia knew that her mother was not going to come in and clean up after her.

Alia became worried for lunch because nothing was cooked and she didn’t know how to cook. She took some fruits and ate them.

When the evening approached, she went to her mum to discuss what she could make easily for them to eat. Her mum told her an easy recipe that could also be made quickly.

After doing her homework and washing her school uniform, Alia made tea for herself and her mum and then started making dinner.

That night Alia and her mum had dinner in her mum’s room. All this time, Alia felt ashamed of her behaviour and sorry for her mother. On the other hand, her mum felt sorry for her poor daughter who didn’t know anything about cooking or any other chore, but had to do it that day.

After the dinner, Alia washed the dishes and cleaned the kitchen. Just then, the door bell rang. She ran and opened the door to find her father standing in front of her. Alia was so happy to see him that she immediately hugged him. She then told him about her mum’s health. Her father immediately went out and brought a doctor with him who, after checking-up, gave a few medicines and asked them to take care of her and not to let her work for a few days as she needed rest.

That night, when Alia felt tired after doing the work at home, she understood what her mum felt after doing all the work from morning till night, that too without any complains. Tears came into Alia’s eyes when she realised that instead of helping her mother, she always increased the work. This realisation made her feel guilty and she went to her parents’ room.

Seeing her daughter coming in, her mum said in a frail voice, “I am sorry, dear, you had to do all the work today. I know you must be very tired!”

“No mum, I came here to apologise to you. Today, I have realised how tired you get after working all day. But I have never been humble and caring towards you. But I promise mum, that from now on, I will help you in doing everything you want me to do.”

Her father smiled while her mum had tears of joy on seeing such a big change in her daughter and she hugged Alia.

Published in Dawn, Young World, December 16th, 2017