September 29, 2007

I came back home from my internship, and my mom told me that some distant relatives were coming to stay at our place for two days so I should make sure that my room is clean. “What the heck?” I said to myself. I knew I’ll have to clear up all the mess, change my bed sheets, clean my drawers and closet. Arghh! How much I hate all this, nonetheless I had to do it, since it was mom’s order.

I went to bed that night with a hope that they would call up next day and say that they’re not coming. I really wasn’t that lucky though. I came home the next day and met the visitors. Oh My God! “So many!” I thought. There were seven of them — the auntie, uncle, and five nasty children. When I met them, I instantly realised that I was going to have a rocking time with them.

After lunch I saw that the fantastic five had finished ALL the ice cream! Never mind I said to myself. Mama said that I could go out for ice cream in the evening. Meanwhile I decided to log on the computer and check my email. But then I saw that the youngest of the five kids had switched on my computer and was going through my files. The auntie was proudly telling my mum that her four-year-old once broke the computer. Poor me, I could do absolutely nothing.

I thought of watching a movie on the television, but the very sweet uncle had already occupied the place. He was watching some boring news channel, but it would definitely look impolite to ask him to get up, so I thought of my iPod. I can listen to music, I thought and so went to my room. I still regret going there at that time, had I not gone I would have not faced the shock of my life; the girls were using my makeup! I don’t even let my mom use it, it’s MINE! One of them had spilled my perfume all over the place. The bottle, which I must add I had just bought, was empty now. I was about to die at the very moment, when I saw one of the children playing ball my iPod. I was lucky enough to catch it though. “Mama, mama,” I screamed. She came and I told her about all this, but she said: “Just two days darling, besides you should keep your things safe.”

She left, and I started crying; one of the boys saw me and shouted, “Auntie ro rahee hain” (auntie is crying). Oh my God! Since when do they call a school going teenager an auntie? I felt like crying and screaming more at this. I swear had I been blessed with one murder without punishment I would have killed that kid at the very moment.

In all this hassle, I didn’t even realise that it was 6:00pm, so I thought why not go out for ice cream, it would also be a good way to stay away from the unwanted guests. While I was talking to my mom about going out for ice cream, one of the kids heard us. All of them claimed they wanted to go with auntie (me).

It could not get worse I thought, but I was indeed wrong. We reached the ice cream parlour and the kids started ordering their favourite flavours of ice cream. When my turn came, the bill was already over my pocket. So I could not get myself even one scoop while the kids had four each!

We came home, and had dinner after some time. After dinner, I saw the computer was free so I switched it on, but to my utter surprise it asked for a password. I never had a password, I thought. I asked my brother and he had absolutely no idea about it too. I then asked the fantastic five and one of them said that he put in the password. A little relieved I was until he said “but I don’t remember it now.” Arghhhhhhhhhhhh!!!

The next morning, I found out that peanut butter was finished. Mom told me that the kids loved it and so ate it all. I was already getting late so I thought I should better skip breakfast. When I went outside I saw that my car and the driver weren’t there. After a little inquiry I came to know that the sweet and quite uncle had some work and so he took the car. I absolutely had no time to react, so I called a friend to pick me up.

That day, I didn’t want the working hours to end. They were a relief! However, they had to end and I had to go home. Needless to say what I went through that day at home, because you people can imagine it by now. I came to know that the unwanted guests loved our hospitality and they have prolonged their stay at our place. Rather than two days now they were going to stay for a week. What more could I expect from summer vacations?