Almost Love (ON HOLD)

CHAPTER 12

PART - 2 GIRL MEETS BOY

(YEAR 2008)

"Meera, where is my tea?!" Pawan yelled from the bedroom.

I looked at the time and realised it was 8.55 am. Pawan had woken up five minutes earlier than usual today. After almost nine years of marriage, I had his entire routine stamped in my head. He would always be up at exactly 9 am and he wanted his tea as soon as he woke up, and by 10 am, he was off to his office.

"Coming!"

I quickly made him tea and served him. He came down to the verandah and sat on the garden chair and opened the newspaper to read while he sipped on his tea. I started preparing breakfast for him and decided to make parathas today.

After serving my husband, I quickly got his work bag ready and packed his lunch. He took almost half an hour to take a shower, and I placed his freshly ironed clothes on the bed for him to wear while he was still in the washroom.

"Here, your bag," I handed it to him after he got ready and bid him goodbye.

After closing the door behind him, I sighed and proceeded to have my breakfast. Nine years of marriage and not once had he asked me nicely to sit and have any meal with him. And now we had become too comfortable with this routine. I was partly to blame. Not once had I offered to sit and eat with him in the early days of marriage

I had taken extra pride in serving my family well. Every morning I fed Yuv and sent him to school, then i fed Pawan and he went to the office. I had always had my breakfast after everyone had finished with theirs.

Now, after nine years i felt annoyed yet i felt like I didn't have the right to be upset. Had i spoken up earlier, this wouldn't have been the case. Yet, a saying comes to my mind. In the beginning, everything seems rosy and hunky dory. Small things like having breakfast with your husband doesn't nag you much. You feel proud when he praises your cooking and that's it. It's always the little things we ignored in the initial phase of marriage start to irritate us later on. But by then it's almost too late to say what you want, and specially in my case when no one has ever listened to what i have ever wanted.

After my house help had cleaned the house and gone, i played some music and relaxed.

This was the only time in the day when i got some 'me-time' as Pawan was in office and Yuv was in school.

I lazily had my breakfast and read the newspaper in peace and then after finishing, I cleaned up the kitchen.

I didn't want to read a new book and i felt extremely bored so i decided to call up my cousin.

Yes, i know, I could've called up my friends but if I'm honest, I never really made any friends. I was still in college when i had been married off at nineteen, and at twenty i had my son Yuv. Sometimes i ended up thinking that if i didn't get married so early or didn't have my son, maybe I would've socialised with the people of my own age group. At twenty, when others used to go to clubs, parties and movies, I was busy changing Yuv's diapers and feeding him.

Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love my son, and I'm so proud of how I've brought him up, yet i do feel lonely sometimes and think of the what ifs.