"Audi alterampartem"
"What does that mean?" I asked little confused.
"It means 'Hear the other side' its latin baby. Its a legal maxim." She explained.
"I am all ears.Tell me the other side."
She smirked a little and said "There isn't any other side to it. Me and her just don't go well together."
"Truth be told. I find this rather unusual.
Maybe because I haven't seen any mother and daughter duo, who don't jell well. Allow me to say its little unorthodox."
"Maybe that's how I am. Unorthodox. Some may say paradox or whatever. I don't give a rat's ass." She explained.
"I am sold." I whispered to myself. Floored by her brazen and rebelliously brimming credence.
There was silence on the table. Except for the sound of the fork touching the china plates, in which we're having fried eggs with sunny side up, as ordered by her.
I was staring into nothingness thinking about my mother and her affection and endless love, which I always takes for granted. And it got me thinking I can never be like her, or to put it lucidly I don't wanna be like her. Yet the clarity in her thoughts is drawing me towards her.
And she put her fork down and adjusted her hair into a bun. Took a sip of her filter coffee, leaving the marks of her lip color on the white mug.
The song in background changed to
"All You Need Is Love."
I started humming and asked her "You like The Beatles?"
"Yes. They are more than a band they are an institution."
"Who is favorite among them? Mine is Paul." I asked excitedly since its The Beatles.
"Ringo... Ringo Starr." She declared with a pause in her voice.
"But nobody likes Ringo Starr."
"That's why I like him." She said with a broad smile.
I smiled too at her unusual choice and conviction which was working like a kryptonite for me.
She took a big bite of her chocolate donut, which left chocolate marks on the corner of her lips, and she licked it. Which made me want to kiss her. But I didn't.
I eat my croissant and washed it down by big gulp of masala tea.
"What's your equation with your mother?" She asked.
And I lyrically replied with a couplet
"Sakht Raho Pe Bhi Asan Ye Safar Lagta Hai,
Ye Mujhe Meri Maa Ki Duaaon Ka Asar Lagta Hai."
"I wish I too could say such fancy words, about mine." She said with a sad smile.
I waited for a minute for the moment to pass and inquisitiveness kicked in, I asked her for little background for such gloom.
"Its long story." She said trying to eschew the topic, but I insisted her to share the story and told her,
"Sadness shared is halved. Happiness shared is doubled."
"Okay! Here it is.She left me and my father when I was 16 and married some other guy and came back to us two years later.
Because the guy she married left her, for someone else.
And my father readily accepted her again, as if nothing has happened between them."
"I am sorry to hear that. But if I may ask. Do you blame your father for that?"
"I don't. He is a good man, I think he did it for me. And partly for himself maybe."
"What do think made your father accept her again.Do you think physical needs sometimes overpower the emotional needs?" I asked
She sat quietly blowing the smoke in the wind from her cigarette and taking long drags contemplating the different notions in her mind before speaking up.
"First of all you should know sometimes, the commonality between two people is more important than love. Love can make you adore someone, but spending your whole life, is a different ballgame all together.
And I think my father and mother have a lot in common.
And second of all, physical needs can never be greater than emotional needs."
And she took a deep breath and chain smoked.
While I sat across, thanking God for giving me simpler problems in life.
