Like everyday, I made myself a cup of tea and
came to my writing table. Just then, my wife Alka came with her soft, sobre
smile as ever. She peered at me and my heart started beating harder thinking
that a big demand was about to come. She said, "It's 26 June." I am a
historian yet forgetting dates has been part of my habit. I looked nervously
and soon remembered that it was our wedding anniversary. This day I have never
given her a gift, only the last year was an exception when I had knelt down to
offer her a rose, and at this, she had reacted with a charming, hesitating tinkling
laughter that is still fresh in my mind. Such a charming, hesitating tinkling laughter
she had given once before too. It was not long after our marriage when I had
gone to take her from my in-law's. At that time, I was studying Chinese and I
had told her two phrases as code words which we could use anywhere. These were
'wo ai ni' meaning 'I love you', and 'he cha pa' meaning 'Will you like to have
tea?'; the latter expression was meant as an enquiry if a visitor was to be
served tea. As I entered the large courtyard and went down to touch the feet of
my father-in-law, standing behind his cot Alka uttered, "He cha pa,"
and repeated it twice more. Evidently, she had confused the phrases, so I
smiled. And then she realized where she had gone wrong, and instead of uttering
the right phrase, ran inside the house with the same charming, hesitating tinkling
smile, which has remained fresh in my heart all these years. All this while I
was thinking, had she uttered 'Wo ai ni,' (which in Hindi can mean – 'Did he
not come?'), my father-in-law was sure to ask if someone else was to accompany
me. All these twenty-nine years of her company have been like God's gift to me;
she has stood by me like a rock – in happiness and in grief, in abundance and
in deficiency. She has worked with me shoulder-to-shoulder, and together we
have treaded the path from bicycle to car, from low-quality clothes to branded
ones, from cheap street foods to dining in big hotels, from small schools for
children to the most renowned educational institutions in the country. Love at
one time and confrontation at another have been regular features of our married
life, yet her sacrificing nature has always kept me fascinated to her. If ever
I wish to say a phrase to her, it would be – 'Wo ai ni'.
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