Bade Acche Lagte Hain | MaNan

In the Mother's Lap

17th January, 1996.

Clasping both her palms together in a fist under her chin, Nandini was all smiles, capturing the riveting view of the highlands flecked with green and brown patches, in her gleaming eyes.

Nestled between those Trikuta mountains, the holy shrine of Maa Vaishno Devi appeared like precious white cubic stones stacked together in one area forming a breathtaking view of a temple, from the Darshani Darwaza (gate) they were currently standing at.

Collecting the duffle bag from the jeep that came to drop them off, the only luggage they were carrying other than a small handbag hung around Nandini's shoulder, Manik joined Nandini, treasuring the pulling sight of the magnanimous deity's temple he worshipped, in his revering eyes. The white and yellow lights bespangling around the temple during the dawn added stars to the mesmerizing view.

"It's a pleasing sight, isn't it?" he whispered in adulation, drawing in a lungful of the pure air that instantly made him feel at home and she nodded, speechlessly.

"Come," he said, holding out his hand to her. Beaming with a perky spirit, she took his proffered hand and they began their journey with devotion and hope in their hearts to complete their trek peacefully.

"These shoes are much more comfortable," she appreciated his suggestion of wearing sports shoes that they'd shopped in Lucknow itself, instead of her regular bally shoes with her peach chanderi chudidaar.

She'd argued over and denied insistently to not buy them as it won't be of much use to her later but Manik was stubbornly persistent as it was a necessity and walking just half a kilometre of the approx fifteen kilometres track that lay ahead of them, she realised he was right. He was more experienced about this place and journey than her. She'd only been here once when she was less than the age of ten and hardly remembered the details except being tired to her bones.

But she was more glad about bargaining and convincing him to buy one heavy jacket for himself for the trip or she wouldn't buy even a thread as far as their trip was concerned. Albeit in dilemma, her husband gave in with a scowl that deepened when she selected one jacket for him herself and it struck him that there was no going back from it for him.

She smiled remembering the light humoured wordplay they exchanged about it throughout the day. At such moments which were becoming usual, he seems more of a friend to her than her husband and the feeling warms her heart. Gradually, she was searching and getting all her relationships in him.

"You might need a stick too, when the path gets steeper and you feel tired," he said, teasingly estimating or underestimating her stamina. She raised her single eyebrow, sensing the hint of a challenge beneath his tone.

"And you won't?" she asked, irked.

"I'm habitual to the difficulties of this path. You aren't," he reasoned frankly.

"Someone told me that the track and the magical atmosphere itself blesses us with a divine determination to undertake the journey," she countered back recalling his very words, with a knowing smile and relinquishing his pretence of taunting her when he only wanted to encourage her he smiled pleasantly, realising she remembered his words he'd said while sharing his first experience to the shrine.

"And besides, I've your hand to hold if I'd need any support. Don't I?" she added charmingly, blinking her eyes at him.

"You know how to play with words, everytime," he complained in an accusatory tone as his plan to tease her misfired and she chuckled at the sulky undercurrent in his voice.

He can never ever win against his wife, be it in shopping or in words, and lately he was enjoying this defeat. She always won against him, for him. This was crazy!