Herstory

"Ricky, stop jumping on the bed you cheeky little monkey," Nora yelled at her son. Her 6-year-old son came back from school, and without changing the uniform, he started to jump on the bed. Nora finally stopped him and sent him to the bathroom to take a shower. While Ricky was taking a bath, Nora looked at the bed, and so many old memories raced in her mind. Nora was a kid of 80s, and she used to jump on this same bed with her cousins when she was a kid. It was, in fact, Nora's father's bed and was being used for three generations. Nora had a special attachment for the bed because the bed always remind her of the wonderful olden times. However, Ricky finished taking a bath and came out of the bathroom. With him, Nora also came out from the reminiscence.

Ricky had been a very imaginative boy. Most of his games were very creative. Nora never stopped her child being imaginative because she was the same in her childhood; even more, he was one step ahead. However, Nora went to the kitchen and prepared lunch for Ricky. Meanwhile, Ricky was watching youtube on his tab. Nora brought the food on the dining table and called out, "Ricky come to the table, your lunch is ready." Ricky replied, yelling, "Okay, ma, I'm coming." Nora waited for a few minutes and again called him out. Ricky again responded back positively, but eventually, he took a long time to appear to the dining table, and when he arrived, he brought the tab with him. Nora, with a sharp tone, said, "I told you several times not to bring your tablet on the dining table, but you never listen. I'm very upset, Ricky. You never listen to me." After saying this, Nora sat on a chair and looked at Ricky with a sad face. Ricky instantly replied, "Sorry, ma I'll listen to you from the night, but please allow me to watch the tab for now please ma I request." After much pleading, Nora allowed his most loving son to watch tab.

While Ricky was taking his lunch, Nora sat beside him and again started swimming in the sea of memories of olden days. When she was at Ricky's age, she didn't have anything like tab, and in her house during breakfast, lunch or dinner watching TV was not allowed. Nora became thoughtful about realizing time changed so much from her childhood to Ricky's childhood. Maybe her mother's childhood was different from her’s too. Perhaps the time is constant, flowing like a river but people who sail on the river change generation after generation. While one generation sails on the paddle boat, the next generation uses engine boats. Now if someone tells the engine boat user to use a paddle instead, will he accept that? The possibility would be zero. No one would take past customs forsaking his modern, comfortable present. Nora, after a while, came out from her thoughts when Ricky told her that he finished his lunch.

It was afternoon, Ricky was watching a cartoon on TV. After a while, Ricky came to his mother and said, "Ma, will you play with me?" Nora replied, "Ya sure, what you want to play?”

"It's a pretend game. I'll give you a capsule and after swallowing that you will be in the future, okay?" After saying this, Ricky gave her mom a plastic shirt button. Nora seeing this, laughed out loud. Ricky got annoyed with the sight of his mother laughing at him and shouted, "Don't laugh ma, it's not funny. I'm serious."

"Okay okay... I'll not laugh anymore. Now I'll go to the future. Give me the capsule." After that, Nora acted to swallow the capsule and reached in the future. In their futuristic drama, Nora said, "where am I? Is this future?" Ricky said, "Yes, it is future, and my name is Lexilam” Nora again couldn’t stop laughing on hearing her son’s futuristic name.

After some time Ricky again started watching his tab. When he was busy watching his tab Nora jumped to her stream of consciousness. She went back to her glorious past again. She remembered in her childhood she used to play tag or hide and seek with her friends. She had some real friends in her childhood and never thought of the future being a kid. Nora, with her friends, always lived the moment they were in. They used to make a house with sofa pillows and invited each other to visit home in their childhood, but now those games are gone. Nora felt a bit sad thinking of her childhood. Nora realized she has so many precious memories of her childhood, but what about her child? What memories Ricky will hold when he will grow up? Maybe they will be so much busy in creating their future that remembering the past will be out of fashion in their time. Nora smiled silently and went to her office room.

However, meanwhile, Ricky did some study, and Nora too worked on her computer. At night both mother and son sat for dinner on the table, and this time Ricky kept his promise. He didn't bring the tab on the dining table. They both took dinner and afterward watched TV for a while and then went to bed. Ricky was very tired and fell in a deep sleep quickly, but she couldn't sleep as her thoughts, and incomplete pressing needs were bothering her. She felt that time changed her too. There was a time when a wife didn't leave her husband despite being tortured. She endured all the pain for her family and children, but in her time, she did the opposite. Nora never tolerated injustice from her childhood until the present. She traded her married life with her mental peace and accepted loneliness above a spending life with a wicked husband. This was her choice and her son's choice, too, as he was very little at that time. He never asked for his daddy. Perhaps children of this generation are much more mature than the earlier age. However, Nora couldn't sleep the whole night as so many thoughts raced in her mind, and eventually, the night ended with the hope of a new day.