People who have made a Difference... 2

‘Wife’ is a ‘Four’-letter word; so is ‘Life’. They both rhyme and there will be a wonderful harmony in ‘Life’ if the ‘Wife’ and ‘Hus-band’ are in tune!

There are millions of ‘Wife’ jokes. Many are funny and mild. Some are mean and wild and some others downright offensive. I too have shared and forwarded some of them. But to be honest, I don’t really subscribe to any of them. I respect women too much to generalize about womanhood.

I have mentioned about my admiration for “Womanity”! Well, I don’t know if anyone has coined this word before. If I am the first, then let me be firm, this isn’t a ‘typo’. ‘Womanity’ is ‘Humanity’ with a Feminine touch!

This rather weird introduction is necessary because I am writing about a ‘Woman’ who has made a huge difference in my life over the past dozen years. That is my wife. We first met as a part of our arranged match at her home on 9 June 1997. When I asked her opinion about me; she told me, I was ‘no problem’! I wonder if she still thinks so.

We had a rather short courtship and were married on 3 September 1997. It was a culture shock for me. I had grown up being pampered by my sisters. But this was different. She knew very little about the world outside her circle. My short temper had to cause a few problems. During a journey to Ponkunnam from Kochi, I had to shout at her because she was walking on the road without noticing a speeding bus, which certainly would have knocked her down. Through the entire 3-hour journey, she was sobbing and the see of humanity was staring at me as if I were some kind of a villain who had committed a sin!

Then it was a learning process for both of us. For her, everything from cooking to cope up with a temperamental husband. For me it was about learning to teach. Teaching her how to cook what I liked. Teaching her to manage our time, money and so many other things. 12 years down the line, she now manages all our money matters, banking and shopping single-handed. She has an Orkut profile that has a burgeoning list of visitors. When we went on our first date, she didn’t know what was a ‘soup’. Today, she manages to bail me out of it whenever I need her. For a girl who didn’t know how to walk on the road without her mother, she is now taking care of both her parents and mine!

We aren’t without our share of quarrels, disagreements and follies. But we are together at the end of the day because, we have become used to each other. I can’t wake up without her and she can’t sleep without me. When we do a balance sheet of our life together, she has had to change much more than I have. She does more work than I do and she keeps the home tidy in spite of my laziness.

Her weight is a heavy-duty issue and I have always managed to remain below the BMI mark for my height. My anger is the danger our relationship faces constantly though I never raise my voice and she can’t keep her volume down even during the times of peace. She forgets what I had told just about 3 minutes ago but reminds me to wish my cousin on his wedding anniversary. She also remembers every single birthday, wedding anniversary and such things in our circle. I am happy that I somehow manage to remember our own wedding anniversary and her birthday. She doesn’t think much about those comedies of Malayalam actor Sreenivasan that I love. She loves spicy food and I just can’t stand them. I remove all kind of Chillies and spices from my food and she gorges on them. I can laugh any time and most of the times and she finds it hard to understand why I am laughing.

So many differences and yet we stick to each other. Why? Simply because I need her and can’t do a thing without her. She has stood by me through some of the most difficult times of my life. It is no exaggeration if I say she is an addiction. She is not fond of reading except those scraps on her Orkut page. But I hope she reads this and understands how important she is to me. Love you and need you to be with me till I live!

I have only one message to her:
Live [For Me], Love [Me] and Laugh [With Me], because I Live [Thanks to You], Love [You] and [Love to see You] Laugh!