We are like this only

Me : "Appa, I called to ask if you survived the World Cup debacle."

Appa : "I am stepping out for a walk, call me on my cell."

Round 2 :

Me : "Appa, I called to wish you happy Ugadi."

Appa : "I am watching West Indies vs Bangladesh, call me on my cell."

Round 3 :

Me : "Appa, called to check if you have the account number and all the details."

Appa : "Ok good, SMS on my cell in another hour with all the details."

Round 4 :

Me : "Appa, do you want me to forward you the email?"

Appa : "Ya, email it to me and SMS when you are done, I will check it."

Phew! And I am told my Mom SMS's my sister during work hours checking to see if she had her breakfast/lunch/snack, if she drank enough water and if she stopped by the ATM to withdraw cash.

When I visit home and I rub the jet lagged stupor from my eyes, its 7pm and the house is silent. I fix myself a drink, lounge on the couch watching mundane programs on the many channels that I *dont-miss* but definitely realize the absence and so on and so forth and I realize its 9pm and I hear clicking noises from the front door. My family members arrive each in his/her own time between 9pm and 10pm.

Routine questions ensue to each-Where have you been? Why are you late? What do we do for dinner?

A variety of answers later, I decide that night(since my jetlag is keeping me awake) to buy my family one of those small white boards. A cute board with an attached marker pen is intantly placed very conveniently(en route to the front door) so that residents find it easy to jot down how long they'd be gone.

48 hrs later, the scene repeats. I wake up at 7pm to find the house empty yet again! I walk up to the white board and see the only thing that was ever written on it-my mother's standard "Om" written neatly on top as soon as it was purchased. The rest of the board remained squeaky clean and bereft of any updates. I guess that means everyone just disappeared into thin air.

Sigh! Why do I even try?