A Conversation With Mother

My mother and I don’t ask each other
Deep Questions.

How are you?
Did you have lunch?
Did your client pay you?
How’s the weather?
Did you exercise today?
Dad asked about you.
Stay Safe.

This is the gamut of our
Relationship. It’s basic. But it works.
Other friends have mothers
Who ask them about life
And its bigger answers
Bigger questions
Like, are you happy?
What happened to your music dreams?
Does your best friend from school
Still call you?
Do you still love him?
Is Bombay where you see yourself
Ten years from now?
Are you doing okay? Like REALLY.

I always wanted to have that mother
Yearned to have long, winding conversations
About everything and nothing.
But now I’m glad I have A mother.
She, who asks me what I made for breakfast
Instead of What I Plan to Do with My Life.

Small things are all we have now.
No plans for the future.
I live with her today, in today’s conversation.
And that’s enough.

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Pooja Sarkar

Pooja Das Sarkar is a writer and filmmaker based in Mumbai. After completing her master’s in English Literature from Jadavpur University, Pooja trained to be a documentary filmmaker at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. In 2018, she studied narrative filmmaking at Prague Film School and runs her own creative agency and production house. She is also currently working on her first book of poems called ‘Reflective Surfaces.’