It was in the third year of marriage, around Diwali time that they debated whether they should buy a TV finally or not. TV would mean less time for conversation and more consumption of mindless stuff. But, then they had been watching many series online, so decided to buy it anyways. The same year, her mother fell sick had a heart attack and passed away after brief illness. He made sure that he pulled her out of depression. He assured her, that he will take care of her, will love her so much that she would not even remember her loss. He had made a promise to her dying mother, and to everyone in the family that he will be like a brother to her brother, and will love and protect her, always!
He took her after a few days for a holiday to Corbett and Nainital, and pampered her. Same year they bought a second- hand car. His office became more and more busy. He was feeling very frustrated at work. It was long hours, for less money, and work with no creativity. He wanted to write, so started his own blog. Working for a IT company, his experience helped him. She had started working for a university department, but left that job after eight nine months. Then, she joined another university, where she had to visit only once or twice a week for an hour or so, depending on the work. His working hours, blog, career trajectory was making him frustrated. She felt that his job was doing more harm than good. And, then finally one day, he called to say he had resigned from his job. They had enough arrangement of money which sustained them for three-four months without asking anybody for help. She had university holidays and went rarely, and whenever she went, he drove her there and back. She loved having him around the entire time, she wanted him to relax, take his time and then if he felt like working again then join a nice place (only problem was she did not earn enough to give him that confidence!). They went grocery shopping like they used to, even planned a trip to his hometown, for the first time, by train. She did the longest train journey with him. His family always loved having him around. Even now in their hard times, they splurged (cost of air tickets saved, had to be adjusted, but wisely). They came back, he again started searching and found a new tech start-up where hours were not brutal and actually gave holidays, and weekends off. He felt relieved, as it also gave him enough time to focus on his writing/blogging. He started writing food reviews as well, apart from travelogues, online delivery website reviews, etc. They bought an AC for their drawing room, and started sleeping in the drawing room in summers.
He kept himself busy, and she was content with work, academics and him. She joined another university which paid more for longer working hours, and also wrote some study materials for different universities.
It was nearly in the fifth year of their marriage that they had a burglary at their house. Most of her mother's gold jewelry and gifts she had received from his family were stolen. She felt insecure living in that house, apart from feeling depressed that she lost the important pieces given to her by her mother. But, assured herself the real thing was their relationship, their love and marriage. His parents and elder sister came to stay with them to help them get over the incident, and she hired a maid for housework for the first time. A few months later they left that first house of theirs. She cried buckets, it felt like end of that beautiful romantic life of terrace living, open air bar be-cues. He was not the nostalgic types, he loved the new house. This house was very beautiful, big, spacious more comfortable with a beautiful view of the park in the front, only problem was the parking space for the car. Soon after moving to this house, they left for the longest holiday to Kashmir, and were lucky to just come a day before the rains started (Kashmir experienced one of the worst floods of its history that year). Later that year in their own car, they went to Mussoorie.
She started teaching in another university now. The classes were mostly in the morning three days a week, and would always rush in the mornings with his help. He always took care of her meals, if she slept early, he would wake her up and feed her, made breakfast in the mornings on weekends, or on days she had her early morning classes. She usually got home by afternoon, would always call him and give him the report of how the different classes went, interaction with colleagues and students. They shared everything, his office goings- on to her university routines. University had long holiday breaks. As he kept getting busy with his writing, he felt she was not doing much, and was becoming too laid back in life. She felt he was getting too much drawn in his world of social media, as he joined various groups. She retreated into a shell as he became more and more outgoing. He got invites to various high-end restaurants and loved the high life. She felt disconnected with that kind of life, and felt uncomfortable in that kind of environment, as she neither drank, nor danced nor ate much of meat! He started going out alone more and more and enjoying himself without her. They still had their together time, but interrupted, as he would just be checking his feed for updates and notifications of Facebook and Twitter.
They still loved each other, but love in the times of social media, was a different thing altogether! In the new house, an extra room was reserved for guests. He had told her, he wanted all her attention always, he could ignore her, but never wanted her attention to go waver ever. Even guests coming over made him jealous. He wanted to see her when he woke up, have breakfast together, she should say his safety prayer with a bye-kiss when he left for work. During day, chat or message or call him. When he came back from office to make green tea or sharbat (depending on weather) with snacks and watch TV, while she pressed his forehead or gave him a head massage, and later they would cook the dinner together or sometimes cooked by turns, depending on the mood or on how tired the other person was. Home was a happy, content, peaceful place with all the comforts one could imagine or want in a house. He thought it was the best year for both of them. They were comfortable finally, his blog was also doing well, they traveled a lot that year.She felt it was the previous year to that.
To be continued...
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