April 2015 A to Z Blogging Challenge- Chapter 2- Bag of nerves

I'll Be There Beside You  

Chapter 2

Today’s Idiom – Bag of nerves.

Meaning- This idiom is used for someone who is worried or nervous.

My eyes turned towards the door as a tall girl clad in a crème silk sari walked up to us. She was accompanied by another young girl in her early 20's, who was smiling mischievously at me.

“Come Lalitha, sit here”, Bala uncle gestured to a chair next to my mother and the tall girl slid into it before bowing slightly and touching my mother’s feet.

“Our Lalitha is an expert at preparing all kinds of dishes in the kitchen and though she has a degree in Management and works in a MNC firm, she helps me in the household chores”, Asha aunty, Lalitha’s mother, started singing praises about her daughter’s domestic skills.

My mother smiled benignly and nodded her head periodically as if appreciating the sense of responsibility with which Asha aunty had raised her daughter. I knew for a fact that my mother did not care much about how competent a girl is in completing the household duties. There were many times in the past when my mother was so tired after coming home from work that she just fed us curd rice or on rare occasion we went out and had a meal in a restaurant. But my mother had raised her kids to be independent, self-sufficient and contented adults.

“Where do you work Lalitha?” my mother asked.

“In the nearby RoboSoft Technologies. I work in the HR department aunty”, Lalitha replied in a soft, mellifluous tone. She had a slender frame but she hunched her shoulders a little, almost as if she was trying to dwarf her height. When she lifted her arms to push back the errant strand of hair that kept falling in her eyes, the dozen bangles on her hands jangled. I noticed that her eyes were almost hazel and the big round eyes looked too large when compared to the dainty features of her face.

She kept fidgeting with her bangles and sari and I realized suddenly that Lalitha was probably more nervous than me. As her mother got another tray of sweet dishes from the kitchen, Lalitha bolted out of her chair and went to give her a hand. She was a bag of nerves. I felt sorry for putting her through this situation and wished that I could say something to soothe her frayed nerves.

There was a fragile quality attached to Lalitha, something that made her seem like a porcelain doll. As if she came with a “Handle With Care” label. 

My mind relaxed because I knew that Lalitha was not a suitable life partner for me. I wanted a modern woman who could hold her own forte in any conversation. I wanted a girl who was independent, open-minded and took pleasure in living life in the moment, someone who would share my desire to explore the world. And I was sure that whatever qualities Lalitha possessed were extremely opposite of what I had in mind.

You can read the previous chapters here-

Chapter 1