What are your plans for your ruby wedding anniversary?” It’s the 40th time someone has asked me the question.
“Oh, it’s like any other day. Maybe we’ll dine out,” is my nonchalant response.
After all, anniversaries are mere numbers. The philosophy will surely help you shoo away the blues, but with your children away, how do you celebrate them, ruby or silver? We can buy gifts for each other, of course — I have got him a T-shirt as usual and he has brought home a large picture of Sai baba. “Very apt. You at 60 and Appa at 60 plus, it is a very appropriate gift,” my daughter laughs over the phone all the way from the US first thing in the morning. “Tell me, what are your plans for the day?”
“We can go out in the evening, but then where we go doesn’t really matter to you, does it? Whether it’s Aryaas or Vivanta, all you are going to have is masala dosa. We might as well settle for a restaurant nearby,” my husband points out gruffly.
I know the reason why he doesn’t want to go anywhere far. Nowadays, he is wary of taking our car out at nights, but he won’t admit the truth. There is a new restaurant I would like to try, put my husband turns down the suggestion.
We decide to step out after 8. Our son had specifically told us not to stir out of the house until then. “A special gift for you will arrive between 6 and 8,” he has phoned from Bangalore.
Flowers, I assume. My kids believe in saying it with flowers. My spirits lift up somewhat. As we get ready, my ears remain tuned to the doorbell.
“Did somebody ring the bell…?”
My husband comes back empty handed.
“No,” he says.
“Then what took you five minutes?”
He throws up his hands. “Can’t fool you. Go and see. Flowers for us.”
I walk with a sigh into the drawing room. Now I have to put them in a vase. But an orange flash darts into the room.
“What the…?”
My gift comes towards me with outstretched arms. I stay speechless in the cocooned warmth of my son’s bear hug.
It was an impulsive decision, with the final push coming from his wife.
“Now, what are your plans for dinner?”
Sree drives us to the restaurant I wanted to go to. I have podi masala dosa and a tall glass of rose milk.
After all, anniversaries are meant to be celebrated, you know.