02.

"Amma, it's only 7 a.m., and it's my vocational holiday. Let me sleep, please!" I pull my blanket over my head. "Yes, I know it's a holiday, but we need to go to the market, get up, and get ready." I don't want to go. I pull the blanket tighter over my head.

It's a lucky day today that my mom is not very angry, or I would not have listened to the end of it. And now I know I'm never getting my sleep back, so I get up and go about my morning routine.

I see my dodda sitting on the wooden bench, sipping tea. "Hello, my queen!", adding just a little dramatic flair. My dodda lifts her eyes and nods in my direction. We don't speak to each other, and it's not an awkward silence. My dodda and I are the type of couple who enjoy gossiping about everyone and everything. But we dare not do that in front of her daughter and my mother. She gets too angry, and we are both scared of her anger.

"Kriti, go have your breakfast."

After a pause, she goes, "You don't want to hear anything, do you?" in a stern voice.

"Oh God, Amma, calm down, I'm going." As I walk into the kitchen, the spicy aroma of chicken curry hits my nostrils. Of course, we have dosa. I’m so hungry right now.

After breakfast, my mom and I get ready to go to the market. It's so hot, so humid, but so much fun! We buy a lot of stuff, starting with all the necessary items for the household, then go to clothing stores to buy a Kurti for both of us. It's almost a ritual for us to go to the cream parlour for ice cream under the chilled air conditioning whenever we go out to the market. So, we go there for a sweet treat.

It is now noon, and both of us are thoroughly exhausted. We take an autorickshaw from the market and reach home after 15 minutes. Neither of us spoke the entire time. When we entered the house, my eager brother was waiting to see what we had brought for him.

"Stop it! You behave as if I don't feed you enough!" and my brother zooms out of the room. My mother just glares at him, walking to the kitchen to sort out the items brought. I let myself to my room, exhausted and sticky from the heat, and sat on the bed under the fan.

"Akka, did you bring anything for me?" I look at him and say, "We brought you clothes for daily wear," and he looks at me with disappointment in his eyes and says, "And...?" with big, innocent eyes.

"Ask amma", He goes to the room but comes out quickly. "What?" He looks a bit scared.

"Amma is angry about something, and it's not because of us." Well, shit! I expected no scoldings or indirect taunts today, but as usual, something had to happen.

For the rest of the day, I try to avoid speaking to her, as sensitive Amma is very scary to speak with. There is this one trait that runs in our family, specifically on my mother's side of the family, and that is anger management issues. Not the type of anger where you beat the shit out of someone, but enough that your tone and volume increase to the max with no filter whatsoever. So, avoiding someone is also an untaught trait for us siblings.

I have no bad thoughts about my family, people. But tell me I'm not the only one with a weird family.