Four weeks of stay at home can be quite challenging! And especially when you have never been used to it .
I have been out of home and on the tours for most parts of my life . At age 16 I went out to college and got into a hostel in a remote campus in Rajasthan ( BITS, Pilani ) . After 7 years, I went straight for a job that made me tour all around India 3-4 times a month. And it has been the same ever since then for the past 40 years !
The last 5 years have been even more hectic with alternate weeks to Delhi and sometime even more frequently.
So when I took a 4 week vacation and decided to ‘stay put’ at home all throughout, it was a real challenge – to say the least.
You see, me and my wife are not accustomed to seeing each other for such long periods of time . And relationships can get strained and pretty tense most times .
It appears that when I am away, our home is peaceful, well organized and beautifully maintained . The sofa set covers remain neat and wrinklefree. The beds are well smoothened throughout the day and the pillows are straightened and properly placed. The kitchen is clean with absolutely zero traces of cookie crumbs, juice stains, food wrappers, tea & milk spills . And apparently the kitchen sink is clean and dry most parts of the day instead it being piled with used plates, mugs and sticky spoons !!
Appears that when I am travelling, the newspaper is always correctly folded , with all the supplementary sections properly tucked within the main paper and neatly stacked up on the right hand side of the book case. And all books & the dictionary are in the proper place with the sliding glass doors properly closed.
And it can go on … the lights in all the rooms are switched off , the fan is not running, the curtains & windows are closed except between 7.30 AM to 12 noon, the TV main switch is off and the two remotes are placed on top of the VCR under the TV. The shoe closet is always closed, All soxes inside the closet or in the washing machine & definitely NOT on top of the PC monitor ! The bathroom is always dry, the faucet never dripping, exhaust fan off and NO brown foot prints on the tiled floor !!
You want to hear more ?? the cell phone charger always in the left draw, the scissors and glue stick and scotch tape and rubber bands and tie wires all well tucked away into the lower draw of our mirrored closet ! The wife could not locate the scissors today morning and to top it all she had to discover the leaking fevicol tube on my side to the bed partially hidden under the pillow. So we had a minor volcanic eruption to start off our day !!
How can one be so perfect, I wonder ?? How can anyone always remember to properly close the book wirh a book mark and walk all the way across the room and slide it on the shelf before turning off the side lamp for a mid afternoon snooze ???
But now, I have learnt quite a bit. After returning from my morning walk, I always take off my shoes before entering the main hall, dust it first and then stack it into the shoe cupboard, peel off my sox and dump it straight into the washing machine, carefully wind up the earphone cord on my iPod and push it inside the pouch and finally into the draw. I also upturn my jacket and track pants and hang it outside to air !!
And I can decipher all the 4 keys that it takes to lock/unlock our main door and the gate ! I can carefully water all the 3 money plants in our house without flooding our book shelf, our centre table and our vintage granddaddy gramophone !!
But what I have never been able to resist is my frequent inspection of our fridge . While there is really nothing much nowadays , I am a chronic optimist . There is always some hope that our neighbors have shared a small cup of sheera ( a traditional sweet offering in any Pooja ) or an experimental gulab-jamun coming from my mom-in-law from the next block ! and I have been lucky quite a few times ! and make do with carrots , cucumbers and sawdust flavored crackers most other times.
And next week I come back to office !! and even better , I go on a trip to Delhi !!
Yippeee !!!
Krish..
