‘Is it too much to ask, if, as your husband, I expect you to return a small percentage of love which I have given you?’
‘You love me because, you like me. Your love, in whole, I accept, absorb and it becomes a part of me. There is no question of returning in full or part of it.
It is another matter if I like you and shower my love on you. It is not giving. It is showering. Once I showered on you, I don’t expect you to collect a portion of it and give me back. Is it clear now, my loving husband?’
‘Confusing. Can’t grasp. Coming down to earth. Can you please give me a hundred rupees for my petty expenses, Ammalu dear?’
‘Why not? It is not too much to ask from your wife!’
How strong is your mom now financially, Ammalu?’
‘Not bad’
‘Can you borrow some money from her?’
‘Why not? How much?’
‘A lakh and one’
‘Here is one rupee. A lakh will be credited to my account’
‘To your account?’
‘Yes, you told her the other day that all your bank balance has been transferred to my account and your account is inoperative’
‘Ammalu, which fool will transfer his life’s savings to his wife?
‘But, that was what you told her’
‘Ammalu, for the heaven’s sake don’t believe a word your husband tell others especially women’
‘Really? So, all the stories they say about you are untrue, which means you are a perfect gentleman? . I will go and tell my mom immediately!
‘Yes, immediately. But don’t forget to ask her a loan for a perfect gentleman’
Saarinnu ezupatbu thekanjoo alley! Cooed Ammini. She thinks I’m seventy only. Poor girl’
‘There could be two reasons for the disappearance of ten years. Either the poor girl has lost her very lost tooth or the battery of your hear aid needs replacement’
‘Or Ammini’s memory battery might be leaking, Ammalu’
‘No way. The other day she leaked out your secret session with her on the day of your retirement’
‘That was ten years before Ammalu’
‘No, twenty. Now, I should take to the workshop to check the battery leak’
‘You see me in your dreams, Ammalu?’
‘From morning to evening, I see you behind me, wherever I go. Is that not enough?’
‘You have eyes at your back too, Ammalu?’
‘I have eyes all over my body. Otherwise, how did I manage all these years to keep you with me and for me?’
Ammalu, tell me frankly, do you love me now as much as you did on the first few days of our marriage?’
‘You want a frank reply?’
‘Yes, please’
‘My love lasted only for 45 minutes!’
’45 minutes! Not even an hour! Why Ammalu?’
‘You talked about me only for the first 45 minutes after our wedding. Afterwards, you were boasting about other girls’
‘I was a teenager then!’
‘That is why I said, ‘girls”
‘Why didn’t you accept as a true admission of a guilt, opened up by an innocent teenager to his wife in their first meet itself?’
‘If it was the revelation of a guilt, I would have accepted. It was a bluff’
‘Ok. If it was a bluff, why did you stop loving me?’
‘I hate bluff more than a wrong doing’
‘Ok. Did I stop bluffing as you didn’t love me?’
‘No. I have in fact, started loving your bluff’
‘So, now you love my bluff and not me?’
‘See, it is a difficult question. You and bluff have both joined as one and it has become difficult for me to distinguish your bluff from you’
‘Ammalu, you are bluffing’
‘Then I too have become an inseparable part of you’
‘Thank you, Ammalu. We are one in two bodies’
‘That is a true statement, not a bluff. Thank you’
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