swinging on her easy-chair in the terrace, she smiles and feels happy seeing the tulsi plant growing.. she has always derived immense pleasure seeing small and sweet things .. she walks back her memory lanes - she had planted two small plants , a "curry patta" one and a bonsai palm .. the plants were not growing and she was very sad as she was not being able to pay attention to them.. she started taking care - watering, putting tea bags , nurturing them with so many things ... in a matter of few days the plants started showing signs of growth ... she remembers, seeing the plants grow, the new buds coming, new leaves coming and new branches spreading out had been some of the best moments in her life ... she has always shared her happy moments with him .. he used to smile and kiss her cheeks .. married for not even two complete years ... happily married .. she remembers - actually happily married :))... after a lot of fuss in the family, finally they had won over the two families to put up the alliance .. :) .. n they were successful .. marriage was a dream come true for her .. she was pretty ambitious about her marriage as in getting married to a person she thought God had "custom made" for her .. funny enough, she was right ... he was absolutely the way she wanted him to be .. nice, humble, kind, smart, intelligent with fabulous looks ;) ... she again smiles as she sips on her cup of coffee .... she likes it with more of milk less of coffee and he likes bitter coffee ... this is after nearly 32 yrs of their marriage :) .. things havent changed .. she remembers ... it was a cold December morning , she was shivering in cold asking for a thicker jacket .. he laughed aloud - "u said u lived in Germany for quite some time, unbelievable ! 18 degrees cant be cold for you !!" .. annoyed at his mockery, she looks up and says firmly, "i need the jacket" ... yes, they had distinct differences .. as time passed by, she started realizing that he has got many other things which are not "exactly the same" way she thought .. haha..life starts here ... actually it took all these years to "find the differences".. she was not quite happy that she cant bear low temperature and he likes cold weather .. she likes sweet and milky coffee and he likes bitter coffe ... she remembers, playing with dogs on roads is not quite sophisticated and hygienic - but he was way too passionate about animals .. one of her qualities that attracted him as he said was the way she sings, she used to sing beautifully - soft romantic songs, ghazals and what not .. he "is" a hard rock person ... February , around 30 years back and her brother in law came to stay with them .. she was extremely happy to have family around and had been the best host she remembers .. surprisingly what she remembers more is her "orientation" to jamming as they called it !! - she had a sharp headache the next day !! ... it was difficult to cope with the differences ... but everytime the differences were absolutely wiped out by calls from her soul .. she could always feel a pull towards him - her heart has always cried for him even in short spans of them not being together .. even after the coldest longest fights his love for her has always won over and cuddled her emotions .. she had been composed, organized, planned, considerate, insightful - he is still a lot impulsive, immediate, disorganized n unpredictably moody, probably the last things she expected :)) ... another sip of coffee and she thanks her stars - she has surprisingly found her soul mate and got married to him :)) .. no difference could be significant as compared to their love, the bond of their souls ... every difference has in fact given them a scope to rediscover their love, the strength of their bond .. every fight has always made it tight :)) .. he has not understood and predicted her fully, but he has always given her the protection of love, he has always given her the space to breathe and grow .. he still leaves the hanger on the bed , he still puts up a grumpy face whenever he gets late, and he still makes her a cup of tea to make it up :)) .. another sip of coffee and she feels his hand on her shoulders ... both of them have developed silver hair and 'not so significant' wrinkles on their faces .. children have grown up .. she looks up and smiles - with a big grin he says "the coffee is good, but its too sweet and milky, i can make better coffee" ... she gets up gives him a hug and says "i m thankful to God that i am married to you honey - you are my soul-mate, the love of my life"... he kisses her forehead and whispers - "so am i, baby" ..
