Category: Anniversary
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Navigating Marriage: Intentionality in the Later Years
The foot massager emits a comforting whine as it kneads and presses my aching soles. I let out an audible gasp of relief even as I mindlessly flit between the various social media pages I have open in front of me. It is a Saturday morning. Amma is on the phone spilling tea. Saathi is…
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Letting Go – Anniversary Edition
It is that time of the year when I reflect on what the many years of partnership and marriage mean to me. My relationship with Saathi is a work in progress, one that evolves with time and circumstances. As the both of us navigate middle age and its attendant problems, it is easy to take…
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Anniversary: Twenty Years
Nostalgia is part of who I am. I meticulously track birthdays, death days, wedding days, and anniversaries of all kinds. I used to be able to remember dates. I used to call, email, text until my forties hit me with a vengeance. At my last annual physical, I had trouble recalling words in order. I…
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Jaded, Faded.
Laddu was at her school desk painstakingly taping Dum-Dum pops to her dinosaur sticker valentine cards. She was excited. It is all she has been talking about this week. Today, when she is back home, she will bring with her a box full of valentine cards, an assortment of stickers, candy and, adorable handwritten notes…
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COVID-19 Diaries: Anniversary
Nineteen years is a long time. It is even when you factor in the first few years when you are getting to know the person, the next few years when you are struggling to build a family, the years after that are consumed by nurturing this hard-built family. We have both grown. We have both…
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Ten Years. Many Lessons.
This week marks ten years since we went from being a couple to parents of twins. Each year I struggle with marking the day. Obviously, it is of import to me. It also is of import to my children in ways I cannot measure or understand. I consciously stay away from anything celebratory. I…
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Building A Sonata
Earlier this week, a friend shared this letter (excerpt 3). Words that have stuck with me for over two decades now when I first discovered Bach and the Bridge Across Forever. There was even a time when I thought I could not get married to someone who cannot discuss stuff like this with me. Eighteen years…
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A Good Man
I am sending some emails when a new one downloads. Saathi the name reads and my face breaks into a smile. Reflexive, something I cannot control. The subject says, “Your PECO bill” and I almost laugh. In the ten days I have been away from home, I haven’t caught myself thinking about him or the…
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State Of The Union – Sixteen Years
I watch him squint in the twilight, his face looking bare without glasses. “Can you read this?” he holds a tiny molded toy (Tsum Tsum for the initiated). I look at it in turn and give it back. I can barely see anything. “Made in China,” he reads and looks at me expectantly. I stare…
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Paying Tributes Over Time and Space
I eye the phone longingly. My fingers itch to dial Amma’s cell phone number but I desist. I can picture my family this morning. All of my dad’s siblings and their spouses gathered to observe the yearly anniversary of my Thatha’s passing. I imagine the kitchen busy, bustling. I can almost see my aunts and…
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The Very Many Firsts
The window over my sink lets in a mottled mix of sun and clouds. A grey sky putting up a good resistance to the Sun. I stand there rooting for the Sun and smiling a goofy smile. I sip on my coffee and reach for my phone. I scroll through my pictures selecting randomly. Each…
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Tripping On Memories
I love looking back. I collect memories. I relive the years gone past. I look into old photographs and see past the people in the pictures. I am transported back to slivers of time preserved in my head. These memories, they swirl in my head like in a pensieve, dragging me along into corridors…
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Space in the middle
We savor each moment. We look at the horizon together, our hands linked by the little ones in between.
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Pebbles in the sands of time
I stand by the bathtub watching you massage our baby with oil. The sun streams in from the half-open blinds from the picture window over the tub. The greys in your hair glint as they catch the sun. Your brows are furrowed in concentration as you turn her over and rub gentle circles. A smile…
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Of old and new. Dads and daughters
I stood by the window over the sink looking out into the dull, drab day. The sky was overcast and grey. Cold rain drizzled and left shiny streaks along the bricks in the patio. My thoughts were back seven years remembering the final moments with my dad. Time ticked by as he drew his last.…
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Tis the time for thanks
I watch as Saathi cajoles and sweet talks the twins into posing for pictures. It is a regular Sunday. Toys are lined on the stairs leading to our upper level. Laughter reverberates around the home. I watch dad and daughters soak up each other and feel a pang. This time of the year reminds me…
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Just the journey. Never a destination.
I flip through the pictures in our wedding album. Loud. Vibrant. Chaotic. Happy. Each picture tells a story. Of expectations and dreams. Behind the powder caked face lies unexpressed fears and hopes. I watch my appa bend back as he holds my weight. As you tie the thaali around my neck, I notice my dad’s…
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Memories don’t fade
Yesterday was one of those days when I woke with a heaviness in my heart. The kind you keep to yourself. All day, it lay there subtly beneath the layers without rearing its head. Sitting across my amma, it finally popped out. The untold, unasked questions. Are you feeling sad I asked. Did not think…
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Ten Treasured Years!
Eager eyes, heart beating faster, I spy the rather large car filled with people come to a stop before the house. I suddenly feel nervous. I run upstairs before anyone has a chance to catch me at my most vulnerable moment. I slink back unseen, mustering courage, a smile firmly in place. I sit on…
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This Day That Year
For once when the alarm went off at 5:00 AM this morning I did not wake up with a startle wondering if it had to be morning already. You see, since yesterday evening my mind and emotions have been on overdrive rewinding the days, weeks and months back to this calendar date last year. My…
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One turn around the Sun
As the days close in on the end of January when my life as I knew it changed for ever last year, I am flooded with memories of the convoluted ways in which the heavens conspired to bring Kay and Cee into our lives. One year, 3000 odd photos and 500 plus videos later, we are…