That Unique Pot

One fine day I picked up a nice, different looking small earthenware pot from a lady sitting by the road. It really stood out among the rest and on impulse I decided to take it home.

Very happy with my choice, I showed it off upon reaching home, to my mom. Imagine my disappointment with her reaction when she said that this kinda pot is generally used to carry a dead one's ashes...it was inauspicious! (I think she even feared for my dad who was away working in another land without his family by his side.)
Well, I still liked the pot! But, she with her beliefs couldn't let it stay eh?

So well, until that fateful day, it was just lying on edge outside the window, passing days watching the changing weather until my mom in the guise of Diwali cleaning picked it up again and started asking me what to do with it. I was on a call and observed a few deep cracks along the pot base. Before I could say anything, taking advantage of my diverted attention, she went on ahead and banged it (on purpose?) on the bathroom floor- Just enough for the cracks to widen and break it into pieces and very innocently she shows the broken pot to me saying without regret- It broke. Something else broke too.

She happily went and dumped the remains in the bin, glad that finally the bad omen that was 'causing all the trouble' has left. I could imagine all this while, a scene (for a future movie) where during her daily chores when she spots the pot each day, everything goes slow motion and dark with her mind conjuring all sorts of wicked trouble that it would cause while giving the poor pot menacing looks, who could never understand why this lady hated it so much.

I wish I could tell that lovely pot, it wasn't him; it was my mom and that he needn't take it on himself.
I wish I could tell him that she was the victim of her own thoughts and beliefs which had nothing to do with him personally.
I wish I would have disconnected the call and been more alert to the sense of urgency of that moment!
Alas! Guess it is for the best- At least now I know how important it is to be in the moment, alert and conscious; and that everything else distracting one from the immediate surroundings, can wait.