Bring Back the Touch

Anand was feeling miserable. Every evening it was the same feeling from last many years. The same job, the same pressure of deadlines, the same terrorizing boss. Still, leaving the workplace after a long day's work made him miserable. It was the cold evening and the long night that was awaiting him at home.

Home.. A word that had all the affection and passion in the world associated with it. These were exactly the same things that were missing from his home. His home used to be beautiful, lovely and an oasis of his barren life. Those were times, times of pure love and romance, times of spurts of happiness and playfulness, times that were lost forever. Forever...? It was that word, the hopelessness of which that hurt him the most. Everybody who is anybody in their life had tried for a reconciliation. But nothing worked. Or, is it more correct to say that they never allowed these attempts to work?

Sthiti was once an epitome of everything that he revered. They were meant to be a couple from the first sight of each other during their college days. They were together during every day of their studies. In the evenings, they were always on a date- hanging around on beach, movies, cafes or theaters. On weekends they went for short trips on his old bike, returned back exhausted and crashed on his couch watching movies on TV. Then there was the wedding. A wedding that everyone of their friends and family could never forget. The color, the warmth, the enjoyment they radiated together, their parents feared of bad eyes. 

And bad eyes did cast their spell. Soon they were having issues within them. Every day, every night turned into a battle and their much envied home, into a battle field. Anand and Sthiti were on the verge of a divorce, a separation that only a miracle could prevent. But miracles do happen. Don't they?

So that day Anand reached home, carrying with him all the ills of a bored husband, ready for a fresh battle. He found the door not latched, as usual and strolled in. He threw his bag on the couch and walked towards kitchen for some cold water. He could sense an unusual brightness in kitchen. He sensed movement through the closed door. He quickly pushed it open. Flames were licking the switchboard above the refrigerator and were on the way towards gas stove. Sthiti was there armed with a blanket, trying to force down its path. Anand ran out towards main switch and threw it off. He ran into kitchen to find Sthiti beating the flames to a defeat. 

She was quivering and sweating profusely. He himself was terrified. She fell on him, tears gushing out of her eyes. Her touch made him forget the ordeal. He was remembering all that he was trying to suppress in his subconscious mind. He embraced her tight. "Damn faulty electricals", was all he could mutter, while he sensed a return of all the lost beautiful times. 

This post is made for the Happy Hour initiative of indiblogger.in in partnership with Parachute Advanced Body Lotion. Follow the hashtag #BringBackTheTouch. Check out the video were Nimrat and Parambrata #BringBackTheTouch

Relighting the Home...

"She doesn't eat anything."

My sister complained on phone. She was telling about her daughter, my niece. For a five year old my niece is quite intelligent, active, very playful and very very naughty. I used to tell my sister that it was good for kids to be naughty. I hate it when people try to suppress kids. Its like you are switching off a bright light in a beautifully set room and plunging the room into darkness.

At the same time I realise how hard it is on my sister, to balance the kid and her full time job. When she called me, my niece was sick. With proper treatment her fever came down, but health did not show much improvement. Doctor had advised sister to try stuffing her up and increasing her weight by next few days. If there is no progress she has to be hospitalized.

"The only way left to try is using a funnel to force feed her." My sister continued. "When I call her to the table she never turn up. She run away when I approach her with food. I know she needs her nutrients, but she doesn't like any thing that I prepare for her."

"You try to find out what she like."

"I tried it. She doesn't like anything!"

Then I remembered my childhood. I never used to like food then. Milk, rise, iddli, dosa, sambar, chutney... my hate list used to be endless. I remembered one day when my father tried to feed me rice with some daal curry.

"I cannot eat daal. I don't like it." I declared.

"You love Dhara Singh, don't you?"

Dhara Singh used to play Hanuman in Ramanand Sagar's Ramayana, which was running in Doordarshan at that time. Father had told me before that Singh used to be a wrestler who has won many fights.

"Do you know how they get such power?" Father cooked up a story. "By eating daal. They eat lot of it."

I was hooked and daal became my favorite from then, with rice, chapatti, in sambar or rasam- for close to 15 years, everyday I demanded it in my diet.

Now the time has come for payback. I asked sister, "What do you have right now with you?"

"Pomegranates."

"Ok, give phone to her." She handed over the phone to my niece.

"What did Doctor uncle do today?"

"He gave me an injection." Obviously she was not pleased by it.

"You know, there is one thing which if you eat, the next time when he does it, his needle will break."

"What's that?"

"Pomegranate. If you drink its juice everyday with milk, he cannot take an injection next time."

I disconnected the call after I heard her shouting to her mother to make her pomegranate juice immediately.

Months later when I saw her, her mother was serving her pomegranate juice and she seriously informed me, "Did you know, pomegranate juice can make injection needle break...!!!"

This post is part of Happy hours by indiblogger.in sponsored by Dabur based on the theme A happy child make a happy home. Go here for more information.