On the same page
Retirement can be funny. All of a sudden, you find yourself having too much time and so little to do. Also, the veneer of relevance begins to wear off. You keep wondering whether you’re utterly useless or it’s just another natural progression. On top of it, even age isn’t on your side anymore. You were engulfed with responsibilities for so long that you didn’t teach yourself the art of handling inertia.
This is the part where i introduce you to my dad (if you haven’t read my much older posts). I reckon i’ve referred to my ma several times, here, of late, so no need to remind you that she’s adorable.
My brother shared this picture on our WhatsApp family group. He caught both of them reading. Not a big news for my ma because she’s a voracious reader. Along with possessing gorgeous handwriting, she can finish fat novels as well as thin magazines in record time. But my dad, despite being able to read/write in Kannada and Marathi, wasn’t known for his love for literature. However, times have obviously changed. The patron had finally taken to books—all in Kannada, belonging to his wife — and remains engrossed in them for a major part of the day. As far as i know him, his home interest lies in whiskey, cricket, tennis and NGC/Discovery/Etc—in that particular order — and this development makes the rest of us guess how long he’ll continue reading.
Nevertheless, to see that they are sharing quiet instead of squabbling over stuff that happened in 1989 is a huge relief. These two aren’t up for relationship goals anyway. As Dilip Kumar reminded us recently, what matters in the end are the moments we share, not the expectations we carry.
