‘We missed you’, said my good hearted close friends, when I returned to FB after a break.
My memory goes back.
The one person whose love for me was unquestionable, never uttered the words – ‘I missed you’
‘Where is the question of missing your absence ? You’re always with me’- she used to dismiss my concern.
Once, on office work I was away from home for two days . Soon after returning , I asked her, hoping for a reply which I longed for, ‘did you miss me?’
‘Did you miss me ?’, she asked. That was a mild electric shock for me. She never questioned me.
Hardly I had time to think about my family, when I was on work and I never told her a lie, never.
I changed the topic and enquired, ‘did you see my wallet ?There was a lot of cash in it’.
‘Your missed was your wallet! Yes, I found it under your pillow. There was Rs. 7and 30 paisa in it’
‘It is ok. keep it for your household expenses’.
As no reply came from her appreciating my generous monetary support, I looked at the window curtains, pretending to enjoy their curves.
‘Shall I change the curtains?’, she asked.
‘No need for another 20 years’, I was certain.
‘As you wish. Have your coffee’
While I was enjoying the hot decoction kaappy from a brass tumbler in the selected company of crisp pokkoda, she sat near me and said,
‘I have absolutely no complaint on your not remembering me while on tour. All husbands are like you, once they’re immersed in their work. Women, on the other hand, by nature, never forget their partners however busy they’re , especially while having their food or when they see a good sari’
‘When they see a good sari?’, I intervened, ‘ These days, wives do their own shopping’.
‘You won’t understand the feelings of a woman when her husband selects and buys a dress for her’.
A couple of years later, during our journey to Kerala, our train stopped at Erode junction for about 20 minutes.
‘Tirupur bedsheets and banians are sold in the stalls here’, she suggested. ‘Why don’t you buy half a dozen banians for you?’
I went and returned with a good cotton sari for her. She didn’t say a word, but her eyes turned moist.
Later, I have crossed the Erode station, alone, many times. Not once did I get down the train.