The Mute Theory

Last semester, exhausted from one uber busy day, I reached my room , flung open the door, kicked off my shoes and crawled into my untidy heap of clothes; my bed of course. I swear the schedule was so tedious that week, tidying the room seemed a far-fetched chore. Nevertheless, I had a crater of my own to lie down in and aimlessly stare at my fan. Or listen to some music. Yes, I had Adele lulling me to sleep that evening, I recall. I was almost halfway under the sleeping spell when something curious began to play on my phone. It wasn’t a song, just my mother’s voice playing after regular ‘mute’ intervals instead. I drew closer to my phone. A recording dated a week ago was playing on it. I had accidentally recorded my mother’s voice over the phone call; or, so should I call it. That, supposed to be, conversation, was merely my mother uttering a million words with almost visible gestures, followed by million mute seconds and a few ‘hmmm’. Seriously, most of my eloquence consisted in uttering ‘hmmm’. I barely was speaking anything, and I so wanted to go back in time and smack, my week younger self, in the face for being so inconsiderate. Alas! I lay there hopelessly whilst my mother’s voice continued to play on my phone.

I gathered myself and quickly dialed my mother’s number. Mostly, at that instant, time just seemed to tick away. Mostly, I was clueless for I had no conversation starter or an ice breaker in my mind. And mostly, I had an apology soliloquy playing in the back of my head. I had barely sketched the conversation when I suddenly heard “Hello” over the phone. And, in that instant, all of my trivial preparations seemed to have faded; for, then we were talking about anything and everything. This time, I was less ‘mute’ but always remembered to take pause and listen to her talk about the new mixer-grinder she purchased, remembered to take pause to hear her complaint about the children from our locality who broke our flower-pots, and what not! How much a voice can mean even over a distance of few decade kilometers?! Ask me.