The Moving Experiences

Soon after my son was born in ’90, Jaya decided to get back to work and that was when she got a job with Mallya Apollo (now Mallya) hospital near Kanteerva stadium through an ex-employee of Holiday Inn.

After closing the restaurant and staying back for a cuppa tea and crossword which was completed at 1 am and the chat with Prakash that would invariably drag on, I would mount my steed and putter my way through the darkened streets of Bangalore, devoid of any vehicles but for an occasional two wheeler or the more frequently seen bicycles.

After parking the moped, I would step into the asleep home with nigh a noise only to have my son wake up. A wizz and a change later by a groggy mother and the house settled back into its deep breathing quietness.

She would leave at 6.00 am to reach the hospital for the 7 am shift while I slept through, I would leave at 10.30 am for my 11 am shift, my moped making the 10 km trip in 17 minutes which is I take today on my 150 cc bike 40 mins. I finish up at around 3.15 am and have to wait at the hotel till 4 pm, grab a quick coffee and make my way to the hospital to reach by 4.15 pm just in time to catch her end of shift. We used to reach home by 5.00 pm and have a cuppa and a power-nap till 6.15 pm and proceed for the second half of my shift at 7 pm till I returned at 1.30 am.

Our trip back to drop her home is when we used to see each other in a vertical state, all other times one of us is horizontal. We did not have same off-day too, Sundays for her and Wednesdays for me so that day also was a part meeting. Our ride would be used completely in catching up on each other’s day as well as the mundane information of bill payments, hospital visit for vaccination purposes, deadlines to meet, functions to attend, gas cylinder collection and so on.

In fact that the routine did not change when I changed into a motorbike or when she shifted to HOSMAT as her timings and my shift timings did not change or when our second son was born is witness to the mundane part of our life. One one side this was necessary to bring some regularity of a routineness so that we could grow as a family and plan our expenses. We did not know which way the future was going to go, but only thing we were sure was of was the definiteness of togetherness. There were times when I was spending more time with Prakash than with my wife and this has led to her quipping to refer to him as her “mistress” and could she have me back occasionally.

So thank you fate, for the “moving experiences” of our life.

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