Tagged for life
Making tea for her in the morning has become the norm till this day.
Most people go through life tagged with a chore or activity which starts off as a one-time event but is impossible to shrug off throughout one’s existence. Still basking in the glow of newly married bliss I offered to make tea for my bride on the third day after we exchanged vows. It had nothing to do with romance. Having gone to school in Delhi where we had to be in class at an unearthly hour even in peak winter, I generally got up early compared to my wife’s leisurely lifestyle conditioned by living in Bangalore. Result? Making tea for her in the morning has become the norm till this day, 34 years on, though I am a staunch coffee addict. After I retired it was a natural progression for me to also make tea for her in the afternoon. To add insult to injury I am now committed to make extra quantity of the brew and put it in a flask, for whom else but our maid servant, too.
The other chore I was stuck with was locking up all the doors in my parent’s home in Mysore just before going to bed. Why I was the ‘chosen’ one I have no clue. Some of the rooms had tiled roofing which was considered a security risk. Thus every night it was my job to put padlocks on six doors, including the store room, dining hall and kitchen. The front and rear doors were bit of a challenge. Apart from the latches, I had to put in place a steel bar across the door and secure it with a padlock. At that time we had a dog which generally slept in my room. Everyday for years, at around 2.00 am Bunty would wake me up to be let out. In my groggy state I would go through the whole gamut of procedure to release it from the front door and lock up again. Just as I was about to doze off, the dog would scratch on the front door and I would have to let it in once more. The resultant dark circles under my eyes would be commented upon by my classmates in college.
Even today, by default as the head of the family, the last thing I have to do before going to bed is check the five balcony doors and the front door of our apartment. As a force of habit I even ended up checking the front door of my son’s place when I visited him in London recently. But what really gets my goat is when my wife and I are about to go out.
Even as I lock the front door and put the keys in my pocket the lady asks me if I have checked whether the gas has been switched off in the kitchen. Stoically, I reach in to my pocket…
