Maa

When I was a child, I would watch my maa flip roti on the hot pan with her bare hands

I would stand there, spatula in hand, stunned. ‘Doesn’t that burn your hands?’

She would always laugh. ‘It used to, but I don’t feel it anymore.’

Now I wonder how many hot pans

She has encountered in her life,

And how much she has endured.

When did she realize it no longer hurt? Or is that something one decides one day?

I question if I will ever be half the woman she is, or if I will always rely on the spatula. 

Was I meant to endure the heat of hot pans?

 

Reetika Yadav

Grade XII

Pentagon International College