Skip to main content

An Ode to Them

It starts in the morning.

"Hasn't she woke up. Its already 7? She s going to be late again. Why can't she be more responsible?"

"Hurry up. You dad is waiting. Drink the juice first". 
"But it tastes like crap".

"Whats for breakfast?".
"Cereal".
"Again? Its the weekend!"
"Then you come to the kitchen and cook".

Complaints. Arguments. Mockery. It was part and puzzle of the package. Put any two people under the same roof and they will find a reason to argue about something. As such, imagine putting five. The modern, globalist single would brand it an outdated institution, one that would limit his freedom and career and replace it with responsibilities and chores. Why bind oneself to one partner? Why have children? Why not just cohabit-ate? Why not just get a pet?

Why go through all that trouble?

Yes it is chaotic. Yes, it does not always work out the way one wants. Yes I wished he would stop telling me what step to take at every point in my life. Yes the fights are often mean and hurtful. Yes I could have had more freedom in my actions if they weren't there.

But at the end of the day, after the harsh world chews you, exhausts you and spits you out, it is strangely comforting to come back to a place called home where the very people who argue with you and make fun of you are willing to stand by your side and let you know that in this journey, they are going to be by your side.

Yes we fight. Yes we complain. Because we know we can and still be loved and accepted despite all our flaws.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

A Fool's Pride

I was rolling up the sleeve of my uniform, preparing for a call up that might never come, when I realised that somehow I was overcome by a strange sense of pride, a pride that wanted the length of my sleeve to be precise as I have always pictured in my mind. Any longer, I would look shabby. Any shorter, I would look amateur. Then I donned the green, tightened the velcro around my waist and looked in the mirror. It was just like before and the memories started flooding me. I never really liked it when I donned it for 2 years in a row. Then I was in a place where I detested the culture, the harsh discipline, the unreasonable demands and the lack of purpose in everything I did. But now that it was over, when I look back, it was perhaps the greatest time of my life. The suffering, the digging, the starving, the cold, the banter, the rowdiness, the jungle, the marches,the mountains, the food, the stories, the friendships, it was all worth the 2 years. A girl friend of mine once asked...

Marriage and All That : Part 2

"How about I get married?" "Are you serious?" "Yea" "No really. If you are serious, I can start looking for one" "Uhh....Nah. I was just kidding" After a while, she stopped asking me if I were serious. Instead, she would laugh it off every time I suggested it, which was the original intention of my question. For me it was just comic relief, this idea of marriage that parents back in India would pester their children with once they reached just about where I was right now; young, working with a steady income and of totally no use at home. Though when she did ask me if I was serious, I do remember feeling a palpitation in my heart, the kind one gets when having to make a yuge decision (#trump2016 #makeamericagreatagain), knowing very well that she, along with an army of aunts, waited for my green light to start searching for a bride for the most promising of their nephews. A NRI (non residential Indian used to refer to the ...

6:15 on Hardy Toll

My left hand lies curled in a tight fist between my thighs, while the right presses stiffly against the coarse leather of the steering wheel, bearing the burden of the task. Though to call it a burden would be an overstatement of an activity that once gave me a sleepless 23 hour flight but now bordered on mindlessness. Now, being on the that road, at that time, when even the sun was too lazy to rise from its sleep, was second nature to me. Thoughts raced through my mind, thoughts about the destination I was headed to. The bulk of them recollected old frustrations and the remainder imagined new ones. My left fist curl tighter as I sped ahead in the air conditioned cocoon. I try to keep to the right of the two lanes as I drove, quasi subconsciously,  at 60 miles per hour on a a 65 mile per hour lane, which still had an additional legally tolerable 10 mile per hour buffer. Lost in my unending imaginings, I stay at that speed until an even slower traveler in front jerk me i...