The Perfect Gift

Diwali was fast approaching and everyone nearby was busy in cleaning their houses, preparing festive dishes, planning a holiday out with family and friends and myself… I was just sitting in my balcony wiping my spectacles trying to read a newspaper. My daughter had got married fourteen years back and my son was staying in America. Four years had passed he had not come to India to meet us. We just had a chance to see him and my little grandson over a video call.

Memories are too strange, sometimes you smile remembering the times you cried together and sometimes you cry remembering the times you laughed together. My eyes were moist with tears so no matter how hard I tried to wipe my spectacles clean, I could not read. Rather I never wanted to read but just to kill the time I was trying to read something and divert my mind. Yes, today I was missing my kids and wanted them to be by side.

My husband, Sunil would often console me saying that it’s their age to earn money and enjoy life. So what if they are away from us, we can still call them and feel loved. But I knew that deep down he was also broken. Every single morning he used to see the news update to see if there is some risk of cyclone or anything like that in America and would immediately call our son, Avi -in case he saw something in news trying to make sure that he was safe. As a protective father, he always cared for our children no matter where they were. He would not speak to me regarding this but when he went with his friends he would often say that he was worried about me. What would happen to me after his demise, how would I live alone? Will my son come here at least for the last rites or will he just send a condolence message over an email?  All this things bothered him and I knew it even though he never expressed it before me.

Today was not different at all, and when Sunil returned from the morning walk he found me sitting the balcony wiping tears. He understood that I was missing our kids too much. He understood every word which I didn’t speak. He said nothing at all and went inside the room as if he had not noticed me crying.

Then suddenly he called up my son. It must be around 2 A.M there in America and he yelled at the top of his voice that “for 28 years I have been tolerating tantrums of your mom and it is difficult for me to live with her anymore. She isn’t practical in her approach towards life and so I have decided that we will get divorced” My son, Avi was literally taken aback, he just thought that my husband who always pretended to be so loving, caring and protective, how he could behave like this. Or was it that this attitude was there just for their upbringing, just a ‘ drama’? Whatever the case was, Avi was worried and immediately called up my daughter mentioning all this. He always felt that daughters know how to handle their fathers better than the sons.

The very next moment my daughter called up Sunil asking him the reasons for his behaviour. But I was just sitting there seeing all this happen not knowing what would happen next. I thought that due to my emotional nature Sunil was fed up and I was now speechless. For 28 years we were together and now he wanted to live alone….

I was trying to listen to the conversation and my daughter said “ wait for a week, both us- myself and Avi  will come there  in Diwali vacation and sort out the things, let me ask him to book tickets to India. WAIT TILL WE COME AND PLEASE DONT DO ANYTHING IN HASTE”

Saying this she hung up the phone. My husband, Sunil later came into the balcony with a cup of tea and biscuits for me and said “See, you wanted them to come here for Diwali isn’t it? Now let’s begin celebrations EVERYONE is coming…our children are coming…” This was a perfect Diwali gift from my husband which I never expected to come to me in an UNEXPECTED WAY….The news of our separation had worked like atom bombs on the minds of our children and they were coming back to India to visit us. I simply couldn’t stop myself and wept keeping my head on his shoulders for his caring nature.

Thanks Sunil for being my loving, caring, protective and understanding life partner – A multi tasker who knows how to get things done in most unexpected ways..

Eagerly waiting for your valuable comments.

Archana Prabhune.