Last night, something unusual happened. Around 3:00 A.M., I suddenly woke up because I heard a notification sound. For a moment, I thought it was my Pappa who had messaged me. But when I checked my phone, it wasn’t her. After that, I couldn’t sleep properly, so I sent my Pappa a message saying that I wasn’t able to sleep well. I kept my phone aside, and thankfully, within five minutes, I fell asleep again.
In the morning, I woke up and went downstairs as usual to speak with my Pappa. Yesterday, I had been searching for video calling apps with lower latency because both of us were getting frustrated with WhatsApp and Google Meet lagging frequently. After trying different options, I found that Zoom looked promising, so I activated the Zoom Pro free trial and asked my Pappa to join a meeting.
We started talking through Zoom, and honestly, it was much better than I expected. The background noise cancellation worked really well, and the audio quality was much clearer than before. We spoke happily until she reached her office. Today’s morning conversation was smooth, peaceful, and full of fun.
After ending the call with my Pappa, I called my grandma and spoke with her for a few more minutes. Once that call ended, I returned to my room, took a bath, and got ready for work. Initially, I planned to stay in my room itself because there were proper charging points there, unlike my usual working place downstairs.
But suddenly, one of my colleagues called me regarding a doubt after I texted him. Since it was easier to attend the call outside, I stepped out, and the discussion lasted around 10–20 minutes. After finishing the call, I decided it would be better to work downstairs itself for the rest of the day. So I carried my laptop and settled into my usual workspace.
Meanwhile, I texted my Pappa to ask what she was doing. She replied that she was busy working, and I continued with my own tasks as well. I completed my meeting notes and worked on the pending items. By lunchtime, I noticed it was already late, so I asked whether she had gone for lunch.
She replied that she hadn’t even noticed the time yet. I immediately asked her to stop working for a while and have lunch first. After some time, around 2:30 P.M. India time, she called me. Since she had gone for lunch late, we got around 10–15 minutes to talk, and as always, the conversation was filled with fun topics and laughter before she returned to work.
After the call, I started thinking about ordering food. Initially, I planned to order both Chicken Biryani and Schezwan Chicken Fried Rice so I could eat one for lunch and save the other for dinner while also getting an offer. But after thinking about it, I realized it would be a waste because the fried rice wouldn’t taste fresh by evening. So I dropped that idea and simply ordered my favorite Fattoush Salad instead.
The delivery took almost an hour to arrive. Meanwhile, my Pappa and I created a Spotify Jam and started listening to songs together. Once the food arrived, I collected it, went back to my room, and enjoyed my Fattoush. While I was eating, my Pappa texted that she was going for a short break and would message me once she returned to the office.
Even though I hadn’t done much work today, I felt strangely tired. I don’t know why, but today I kept thinking about home. Sometimes staying in the same place, seeing the same walls and the same surroundings every day makes life feel repetitive. I simply wanted to go back home for a while.
After finishing my lunch, I came downstairs again and occupied one of the meeting rooms. I wanted a quiet place so that when my Pappa left the office, we could speak comfortably without disturbing anyone. So I continued working there while waiting for the evening.
About 30 minutes before she usually leaves the office, I texted her asking her to leave around 6:30 P.M. to avoid traffic. She didn’t reply immediately, so I started wondering whether everything was okay. Around 10–15 minutes later, she replied saying that there had been an issue with one of the tasks at work. Although the mistake wasn’t hers, she had to work on resolving it first.
I asked whether everything was okay now, and she said everything was fine and that she was leaving the office. I waited eagerly in the meeting room for her call because I wanted to know what had happened. Finally, she called, and we started speaking.
Unfortunately, the same network issue happened again. In the morning, Zoom had worked perfectly, but in the evening, the audio and video kept freezing. Sometimes I couldn’t hear her, sometimes her video got stuck, and sometimes neither of us could understand what the other person was saying. Nearly 30 minutes were wasted just trying to reconnect.
Finally, I suggested switching back to WhatsApp using VPN, and thankfully it worked much better. We continued our conversation there, and I even asked her to share her screen to see whether there was any setting causing the issue. Everything looked normal.
While sharing her screen, she showed me a collage that one of her friends had made for her in the morning. After that, she accidentally opened WhatsApp, and I noticed the chat with the senior I had mentioned earlier. That senior had been asking questions like, “Why don’t you come?”, “Don’t you like me?”, and similar messages.
What made me smile was my Pappa’s replies.
She simply replied with “.” (a full stop) to almost every message. Finally, when he said he wouldn’t text her anymore, she replied, “Okay.” Honestly, that gave me a huge sense of relief. It made me feel secure because she wasn’t encouraging someone who clearly had different intentions. That moment made me really happy.
Soon she reached near her home, so I asked her to call her brother to pick her up. During the conversation, she mentioned that tomorrow is her brother’s birthday. I asked whether I could buy him something as a gift, but she said it might create unnecessary problems, so I left it. Instead, we discussed some perfume ideas that she could buy for him.
After ending the call, I returned to my room and continued working on my pending tasks. My Pappa reached home safely and texted me saying that she was tired. She also said she would message me later before sleeping, and I asked her to take some rest first.
Later in the evening, I ordered a few groceries because I’ve been skipping breakfast regularly. I bought bread, peanut butter, fresh cream, Nutella, and six eggs. I also watched a few videos showing how to boil eggs using an electric kettle, so I’m planning to try it tomorrow. If it works, I’ll probably continue having a simple breakfast every morning.
Now I’m continuing my work while planning to order dinner. I also want to finish the remaining part of the movie Parimala & Co., which I started watching yesterday. These few days are a little relaxed because my senior team has gone to Oman for work, so I’m taking advantage of the free time to get proper sleep.
Once I finish today’s tasks, I’ll say good night to my Pappa as usual and then head to bed. Overall, today was a simple day. Nothing extraordinary happened, nothing went wrong either. It was just one of those peaceful days that quietly reminds me how much happiness I find in the small conversations I have with my Pappa every single day.