SHORT STORY

                        "HOW MY WIFE GIVES ME MIGRAIN"

“Its time 2 get up honey!!” shouted my wife from the kitchen.

This was my wakeup call no. 2 for the morning and I knew any more delay in leaving the cozy bed would make her uncomfortable. And believe me, you can afford to miss a flight, go unprepared for a meeting, forget to wish your boss on his birthday or his dog’s birthday, you can even afford to stop breathing for some time, but making your wife feel uncomfortable is one crime you can never afford. All other blunders seem so minuscule in front of this heinous crime. And the worst part is, even if you die knocking the doors of court to seek justice, don’t expect anything in your favor because all your fundamental rights- Right to Speech, Right to Expression etc. get seized from you, the day you accepted her as your bitter ( people say better..but somebody has to admit the truth ) half.

So, cursing the warm sunny day of 13th March 2011, the day I lost my freedom I got up from the bed. It took me another 45 mins. and I was sitting at the dining table.

“Today, I’ve made your favorite cheese toasts” she declared while walking out of the kitchen.

“Oh God!! Not again” I could feel the butterflies in my stomach, as I still very well remembered the unbearable stomach-ache when she had made me to eat those burnt cheese toasts last week, that too with a fake smile.

My wife, just like other girls of her age who are over–qualified with respect to stuffs like cooking and housekeeping, had never made a cup of tea before she came to live with me. It was not her fault, all these years of grueling studies and engagements into activities aimed at beating the males in the affairs, previously acclaimed as exclusively masculine never left her time to try her hands on feminine matters.

In fact, the day is not far enough, when a girl would know how to replace spark plugs of their bikes, how to repair an electric fuse, how to kick someone so hard that his guts come out of his mouth but when asked about cooking something, she would have no idea. I don’t know who is at fault for this. But one thing is for sure that all the guys are going to have a tough time ahead, especially those who still fancy a happy married life and dream of a girl who would come down from heaven, walk straight into your bedroom, with a cup of tea and tell you in her sweet voice that it’s time to wake up.

Now, before you draw any conclusion or file a case against me for promoting anti women empowerment in the society. I would like to make it very clear that I didn’t mention these things because i’m against women empowerment or I feel that girls should only do these stuffs. I totally believe in women’s power and I strongly support it. My only intention was to highlight that somewhere down the way, these things, which are also an important part of our life, are being neglected and which may also lead to a plethora of problems in the future ahead.

Anyways, let get back to the cheese toasts. Though, today they looked far better than the previous occasion, but I could hardly muster the strength to actually eat them. At first, I thought of giving an excuse to avoid being her guinea pig. But then I couldn’t ignore those expecting eyes, which desperately waited for some words of appreciation for her efforts. And once again, just like our first meeting, I fell for those lovely eyes and took the toast. I remembered the names of all the thousands of gods and goddesses we Hindus believe in and took my first bite.

Our eyes widened. Her out of anxiety and mine out of bewilderment. I couldn’t believe my taste buds. The toasts were really awesome.

“Good.” I declared.

“Just good??” She asked.

“No I mean. Very good. Excellent” I tried to sound more affirmative.

“No, you are lying. I know you didn’t liked it.” She was really disheartened.

Now, this is another problem with these wives. Unless you use so many adjectives, they never believe that you are actually appreciating her. I don’t know why it is so hard for them to realize that in real life husbands have real problems going on and cannot be as romantic all the time as the husbands in reel life act.

“No honey. It is really good. I’m serious. Can I’ve one more?” it was time to show my acting skills, which I hope did well as I could spot the smile back on her face.

“You know what, they threw Jagat out of their home” She said in excitement.

“What?? Who Jagat??” I didn’t know anybody by the name of Jagat, so I was really surprised.

“Cmon, Jagat is Anandi’s husband.”

The expressions on her face told me that I’d committed another outrageous blunder of forgetting the name of her cousin. Last time I’d committed the same mistake, it had cost me two days of continuous pampering before she regained her normal state. But one thing which still perplexed me, was her excitement  at the news of her cousin’s husband getting kicked out of his own home.

“Why??? What happened?? And why you sound so excited at the news of your cousin’s husband getting kicked out of his house??” I bombarded her with questions just to sound as if I was really curious to know about her cousin or her loser husband.

“Cousin?? Oh God!! I was talking about the character Anandi in the serial Balika Vadhu. How could you imagine something that worse happening to my cousin??” she yelled. Fuming with anger she turned around and started to leave.

“Cmon, who in hell would imagine her wife discussing the character of a sick daily soap so early in the morning?? I thought it must be something serious and your cousin might need help.” I also shouted back.

She stopped in the middle, turned around to face me. Instantly, I remembered that warning which I’d read on one of the petrol pumps: “Do not strike lights near petrol pump, can cause fire.” I knew that I’d pricked the balloon and its gonna blow any moment. And so it did.

“I know, I know. What you are pointing at?? First of all my cousin is very fortunate that she got married to a sensible person and secondly, even if she is into some trouble, then I’m there to help her out, you need not worry about it. All guys are same.”

“What?? What do you mean by all guys are same??” I was really pissed off.

This was outrageous; this is why I hate these daily soaps. They have besmirched the minds of all the females to such an extent that they don’t trust anyone, anymore. You get late from your office, they will keep staring at you, unless you justify the reason for getting late and no matter how logically you justify yourself, they have their own set of tests like checking your shirts for lipstick stains, frisking your wallet and checking your statements for any illegitimate cash flows and many more, courtesy these daily soaps. Even terror attacks don’t bring so much chaos into your life, as these emotional and verbal attacks from your spouses, which they learn from these crazy serials.

I knew there was no point in fighting over it anymore. I’d to rush for my office and she also had to leave for school, where she taught chemistry, a subject which I hated the most. God knows what went wrong with my friends, who used to say – “Your chemistry looks good”, whenever they spotted the two of us together. I don’t know about the chemistry, but yes my life was suddenly full of chemical reactions that too which are highly exothermic in nature. On that note only, I left for my office.

First half of the day went well, but I could feel carrying a heavy head above my shoulders. I would certainly develop migraine, if these daily headaches continue for a longer time. I thought of meeting the doctor after the office before going to home. Soon, it was lunch time. I stayed back in my cabin and tried to concentrate on the key points to be discussed in the next meeting. I was going through the slides of the presentation, when I heard my cell phone ringing. It was my wife. I didn’t felt like talking, so I didn’t picked it up and continued with my work. Then, came the second call. Again I didn’t answer the call and this time put the phone on silent mode and started making notes.

The meeting continued for another hour. Just as I returned to my cabin, I checked for my cell phone and was shocked to see five missed calls. Out of five, two were from my wife, but the thing which really surprised me was that the other three missed calls were from my mom, who never used to call me during office hours.

Instantly I dialed my mom’s no. but couldn’t connect. Then I dialed the landline no. of my parent’s house. It kept ringing, but nobody answered the call. This was something unusual. Worried, I again called my mom’s cell phone. This time my mom answered.

“Where are you son?” my mom asked. Her voice was trembling, as if she had cried.

“I was in the office only mom. Why?? What happened? Why are you sounding so low?” I wished everything was fine at home. But I was wrong.

“Your dad got a heart-attack. We are at Fortune Hospital, come fast.” She said and then started crying.

“What?? When??” I asked. It felt as if I was hit by an earthquake. I could feel my heartbeats rising.

“One hour back. We called you so many times, but you didn’t pick our call. Come here as soon as possible.”  She said.

“Don’t worry mom. I’ll be there.” I said and ran out of office. Within 20 mins. I was at the hospital. I checked at the reception desk. They told me that my dad was in the operation theatre.

I ran towards the operation theatre. Sitting there on that dilapidated bench I saw two figures, both crying and trying to hold each other, my mom and my wife. I could easily spot my wife trying to give strength to my mom, when she herself was feeling weak inside. I reached closer to them. Impulsively, they got up, hugged me and started crying.

“How is he now?” I asked my wife.

“Undergoing operation.” She said.

“Where were you my son? We tried your phone so many time.” My mom continued crying.

“I’m so sorry mom. I was in office only. I’d put my phone on silent, that’s why..” before I could complete my sentence, I also started crying.

“If today, she hadn’t reached there on time and took us to hospital…” she didn’t complete the sentence but I knew what she meant.

She kept looking at my wife. I was speechless at that moment. I knew what great help she had offered me today. And now I realized the reason for calling me in the afternoon.

“Don’t worry. He’ll get well. “She came forward and held my hand.

There was something in that touch, which told me that she really meant that. It was something, which you don’t feel just like that. A feeling which can be passed on to you only by a person who really cares for you.  My heart was full of guilt and shame. I wanted to apologize to her but couldn’t muster the strength. Somehow, she also sensed it, looked into my eyes, and then made me sit on that bench.

We kept praying to the almighty to shower his blessings on my dad. An hour later, the doctor came out of the operation theatre. The operation was successful and my dad was out of danger. We gave a sigh of relief. We went inside, he was still unconscious. Doctor informed us that, he will be shifted to ICU and if all went well he will be discharged tomorrow. Mom was really exhausted, though she didn’t mention that, but I could easily notice from her face.

“You two go back, I’ll stay here.” I said to them.

“No son, I’ll stay here.” Mom responded.

“It’s alright mom. You are already so tired, you need to take rest. I’ll stay here and take care of everything. Don’t worry.”

“Sneha, you please take mom to home and take care of her.” I said to my wife. She was also reluctant to leave, but seeing my mom’s condition she decided otherwise.

They both left and I continued sitting on that bench, wondering how unpredictable life was. Soon, I got tired of sitting on the bench, so I lied down. Just as I closed my eyes, I saw the face of my wife. I felt embarrassed. I was so wrong about her. All these days, I had been cribbing about her, behaved so badly with her, never considered how she would feel about all this. She never complained and continued fulfilling her duties. I didn’t even picked her call just because I was angry from the morning’s event, while she left everything aside and came to rescue my parents. I was such a big fool. I was so lost in cursing myself for everything, that I didn’t even realized when I fell asleep.

Suddenly at around 11 in the night I woke up and was surprised to see a nurse standing next to the bench.

“Is everything fine?” I asked her.

“Yes. Yes. Don’t worry. You take rest. We just need some medicines from the store. Your wife has gone for it.” She replied.

“My wife??” I was shocked.

“Yes. She asked me to let you sleep and herself went to fetch the medicines. Here she comes.” She said pointing in the direction of the lift.

I saw my wife walking in our direction, carrying a bag of medicines. She handed over the medicines to the nurse.

“Hey! What are you doing here?” I asked Sneha.

“I cooked the dinner for mom and then she slept. I thought you might need some help, so I returned.”

“When did you come?”

“About an hour back.”

“An hour!! Why didn’t you wake me then?” I was shocked.

“I thought of waking you up first. But then I thought, you must be tired and you also need some rest.”

“And what about you?? You made of steel or something?? You don’t need rest??” I asked

“No, I’m fine. I’ve brought dinner for you as well. Take it.” She said.

“And you??” I asked.

“I thought you might need some company. So..” she smiled. I just couldn’t imagine what stuff she was made of. How can she be so caring for me, when I was not? She was trying her best to make things easy for me, where as I did my best to make things tough for her.

After finishing the dinner, we continued sitting on the bench. Neither of us felt like sleeping, so we started talking. It started from random things to discussions on serious matters, then back to some childhood memories and then again to random events. We both were so engrossed talking to each other that we didn’t even realize that the sun had risen over our head. I checked for the doctor to know my dad’s condition. The nurse confirmed that the situation was perfectly fine and he’ll be discharged soon, once the doctor takes the final tests.

It took another hour and half to complete the final formalities and make the payments. I collected all the test reports from the doctor before leaving the hospital. We reached home and shifted dad from the stretcher on to his bed. Mom sat next to him, while we two kept standing near his feet. There was pin drop silence in the room. Nobody knew what to say and what to do. Just one thing was common; we all praised the almighty for showering his blessings on us.

“I’ll get water from the kitchen.” My wife said and moved out of the room.

Something inside me told me that I should acknowledge her efforts and should express my gratitude towards her. I also followed her to the kitchen. As I went closer, she turned around to face me. I held her hand and looked into her eyes. I wanted to say something, but words didn’t come out. And once again, she knew what I felt at that moment and what I wanted to say. We stood motionless, speechless looking into each other’s eyes and then suddenly she winked and gave a huge smile.

“I know. After all I’m your bitter half.” She said and we both started laughing.

“No. You are my better in fact, best half.” I said and gave a tight hug to her. Tears rolled out from our eyes.

“C’mon, now don’t take undue advantage of the situation. I know, all you guys are same.” She teased again and then left for the room with the glasses.

I stood back looking at her. Today, I’ve realized the great role wives play in our lives. They put all their energy and efforts just to make sure that the wheel of our life keeps rolling. They are the ones who add sugar and spice to our lives. Even if their some acts give us migraine, but they are also the best cure available to all our problems.

I’m fortunate that I realized this before it got too late. Now it’s time for you.

__END__

                                                                                                           SOURCE BY-ANUPAM

PUBLISHED BY-OURHELLO.COM