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Two For Joy

My Mom and Dad were both born in 1985- with me. They were married to each other for two years before that. It was a late marriage. I also took my own sweet time to come along. I am nearly two generations removed from them. As a kid I never found my parents interesting. They were reasonably loving and careful towards my upbringing, very much like any other parent of a middle class Indian household. For work, Dad had a government job and Mom used to cook food for us and together they worried about my studies. We didn’t have any exciting family secret. After I grew up, I never really missed them until I had to leave home for college.

During my first visit back home on vacation some thing weird happened- I started finding them interesting. Never saw them being romantic or displaying their affection for each other in a direct manner. Maybe you could call it ‘subtle’ romance. I saw my dad being romantic by the way he used to share the household work and mom was romantic by the way she used to stay hungry till he too sat down for food. We belong to a city which youngsters must move out of in search of better job prospects. At an age parents require their children around the most, they must live away from them. Work keeps the children busy and get togethers are as rare as a week a year. It is a fact which old couples have accepted peacefully, becoming all in all for each other whether it is about managing their daily chores or even entertaining themselves. Frames from the lives of such an ordinary extraordinary couple- whom I love the most.