Valentine’s Day Special

The alarm rings. I snooze it and go back to bed. The alarm rings again in ten minutes. This time, I stumble to the bathroom and splash water on my face mercilessly. It is a working day and no matter that the sky is still dark outside, we will all get late unless I start building up a storm in the kitchen soon!

In the kitchen, I measure out coffee and sugar as I put the milk and water to boil. Then I bring my phone to the kitchen and start Sri Venkatesa Suprabhatam on my music app. As the notes of Kausalya Supraja … fill the silence of the morning in M S Subbalakshmi’s melodious voice, I pour out coffee in two mugs – regular coffee, less sugar, for myself; and a black coffee, normal sugar, for the husband. Taking the coffee back to the bedroom (well, the husband needs the whiff of coffee to rouse him out of bed), I cannot help but think how lovely it must be for Lord Venkatesa to wake up to the melodious hymns sung in his praise, telling him it is time for him to wake up and start blessing all the people who wait patiently outside the temple for one glimpse of his wonderfully handsome face! While here we are, mere mortals, waking up to shrill alarms that keep getting shriller and shriller as we keep snoozing them!

Back in the kitchen, I spend the next hour in a blur – I only know that by the end of that hour, I have breakfast and lunch ready for three people – and about a quarter of an hour after that, with the husband and the little one gone to work and school respectively, I am alone at home, a second cup of coffee in hand, checking my phone for the latest news, from family, and the world at large.

And that is when it hits me – it is Valentine’s Day today!

Oops!

No wonder they were playing that romantic movie on TV last night! I can’t help but think about the people in these (English) movies, who wake each other up nuzzling and hugging and with that wonderfully delicious kiss right out of sleep! Mmmm! But of course, that is not practicable in real life, what with the irritation of having been woken up by the shrill alarm!

Morning! The coffee is getting cold. That is what I said to the husband in the morning, didn’t I? Had I known it was Valentine’s Day, maybe I would’ve woken him up with a bit more excitement…? 

Anyway, that ship has now sailed. And so I look forward to his call in a little while, when we both will have our breakfast – he in the office and me at home. I will mention something then. Is it possible to nuzzle on the phone? Who knows!

But the time of the phone call comes and goes and when I am about to call him to ask what’s up, a message pops up on my phone – on a call. Will ping later. Have breakfast. Have had.

So much for the nuzzling on the phone. Hmph! Sure! I write back. Will wait. Do ping later!

Thus the day begins; and we both get busy. By mid-day, when I am up for yet another cuppa, I look at the phone again. My social media timeline, by now, is overflowing with my friends wishing their spouses a happy Valentine’s Day on Facebook (seriously? Even they didn’t get time to wish each other at home, then?) There are also my older aunts and uncles – relatively new entrants to the world of social media – wishing everyone a happy Valentine’s Day. Then there are my younger cousins, forwarding jokes and memes for the occasion. And even Shashi Tharoor has said something about Valentine’s Day (which I know is about Valentine’s Day, only because he used those two words).

I feel bad that I haven’t yet wished the husband a happy Valentine’s Day and send him a text asking how things are going. (Come on, I am a woman, I am waiting for him to wish me first, of course!)

All good. Done with the call sometime back. Rushing for a meeting now. In cab. Did you have breakfast? Comes the reply to my message.

Yep! Had breakfast. Good luck with the meeting. Can chat around lunch! I shoot back.

By lunchtime, I am already engrossed in my work and when he calls, we end up chatting for a few minutes about our day and our deliverables. While I am still on the call, I get a client call, and I disconnect telling the husband I will call him right back. Of course, a few hours later, I have completely forgotten about it.

In due course, the little one returns from school and it is tea time. It is also time for me to start on dinner in a bit. And so I ping the husband – Chole good tonight?

Yep! He pings back with a thumbs up; and that settled, I get busy with dinner prep while the little one goes out to play and returns hungry, upset and cranky, a few hours later.

Finally after dinner, when the little one, half asleep, cuddles next to me while I read him a bedtime story – ‘I love you mummy,’ said the baby sheep. ‘I love you baby,’ said the mummy sheep – that I am reminded once again about today being Valentine’s Day!

Settling the little one in bed, I walk up to the husband in the study where he is hunched over his laptop.

Hey! I say, going to stand behind him and starting to rub his shoulders. Hey! He turns in his chair.

Suddenly I am reminded of the scene from the movie Pretty Woman, when Richard Gere sits playing the piano in the hotel and Julia Roberts walks up behind him and places her hands on his shoulder. Gere then turns and lifts her up, turning right back and seating her on the piano – the keys belting out a trrroooiiinnngg!

Of course, the husband does nothing like this (he is working on his laptop, remember? And those keys would get pressed and some weird email would get sent out to God knows who!)  So. Anyway.  

It was Valentine’s Day today. I say.

Oh! Is it? He says.

Happy Valentine’s Day. I smile.

Happy Valentine’s Day. He smiles.

As I look into his eyes, I remember the numerous times he has let me have the last bite of my favourite ice-cream, when he has let me drive his car and not said a word when I have almost nicked it, when he has stayed up late just so he could give me company when I am working late, when he has watched my favourite movie a hundred times, just because every time he asks me to put on a movie we can both watch, that is the only one I put on! Over the years, we have forgotten so many birthdays and anniversaries and Valentine’s Days; but I still remember the one time he gifted me a bouquet of 23 bright red roses – the only time – and I had gone to college, blushing as red as those roses, not knowing where to hide the bouquet, and at the same time, wanting to display it proudly to the world!

What? He asks.

Nothing. I shake my head.  

Mummy!!!! The little one shrieks from his room.

The husband’s phone pings at that moment with an incoming email.

We look at each other. We smile. I go to the little one. He checks the email.