From Kashmir to Chickmagalore...

I was sitting in front of our house in Chickmagalore, and I was with my better half sitting on a wooden swing  and we were talking.

“Are we running away from our day to day life??” she asks me sounding perplexed.

“Why do you think so… this is life, we are living it the way we want to, Life isn’t just going to work, coming back home, watching TV and sleeping and continuing the above process… right, we need to take breaks and live it the way we want to” I replied.

“Ok ok, you and your philosophies of life…Mein toh chup hi betungi”, she says.

“C’mon, how can we discover new things about each other, if you keep quiet, my dear!!” I wink at her.

“Ok, you are trying to say that we retire and settle here forever??”

“No, we have chosen jobs where we can’t retire. I’m a writer, you are doctor. I’m just saying we need these breaks, so we can know new things about each other”

“Ok, Mr.Rohan we have been married for the past 30 years and you still don’t know things about me… Tum kehna kya chahte ho?”

“Chill, there is always something to know. People change with time; I have changed a lot in these 30 years. Look at these things around you, the house, the library, the dogs… these are your dreams, or ideas you had in your mind… and you shared it with me and we are living in it. If I wouldn’t have met you, I don’t know, I had this very different idea on love, marriage etc…Thank you for giving me this life” I wink at her again.

“You are being too modest. These things would be just a dream, if it wasn’t for you. If you weren’t this dramatic, these things would be just in my mind. I must thank you… and by the way what kind of an idea, you had on love and marriage??”

“See like I said, there is always things to know. Even now I believe on this idea. I believe we don’t fall in love; it’s not a well to fall in. We are always in love. Friends, family, wife, children etc etc…we love them. The difference lies in the things we do for our love, or the way we express it. Love is the same; the difference is in the little things we do, to make them feel that love. The difference lies in microscopic scale and not in the macroscopic scale.”

She interrupts, “Wow that does make sense…kind of. Ya, I like it…its gada gada.”

“I get these pictures in my mind, the good times and the bad times, we’ve had in the past thirty years. The little things I have done to make you smile, the fights, growing with Aakansha… from the time I met you in the train, top proposing in front of the Taj and till today having this conversation with you, all these pictures roll in my head everyday… and everyday I think, what’s gonna be added in these set of pictures. Some part of it, I have shared with Aakansha, but there are some stories that are never told, just experienced and we are living that part of life”

“It’s so nice listening to you speak so dramatically, you make me feel as if I’m a part of a movie. Love you dear” she kisses me.

“You always tell me, I’m better than Darcy. You know one thing, I’ve seen the movie and TV series with you quite a few times, but have never read the book”

“What?? 30 years, I never knew this. There is a lot to know!!” she says shockingly.

“Hi, why don’t you read it to me every day for some time?”

“Ya exactly, I’ll get the book right away”, she goes into the library and gets a copy of Pride and Prejudice.

“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife” she reads the first paragraph…” Isn’t it so beautiful, the way she begins??……”

She is explaining the first paragraph, and I’m looking at her. Everyday knowing her a bit, a bit more…making her look more and more beautiful. In these past thirty years, she might have developed some wrinkles on her face, but the beauty within always shines on her face. I kiss on her forehead, the kiss she always told me was the sign of care, and she continued… “However little known the feelings or views of such a man…….”