Married in Love

7. The First Home

*Purely Fictional Story*

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Their train was late by an hour and the couple were tired from the long journey. The sun had set while the train was made to wait in the outer for the green signal. Ananth had already pulled out their luggage from under their berths and had arranged them near their door. He then sat down next to Sadhana and extracted a small diary from his handy bag. He was flipping its pages when he felt Sadhana peep over his arms and into the pages.

So he subtly shifted his angle so that the pages were more accessible to her.

The diary was filled with numbers and addresses and were categorised alphabet wise based on the tiny indications to the side of the diary. She patiently watched as Ananth navigated to a page containing the contact numbers of their community mess. "Keezha eranginadhum naa oru telephone booth la poi call pannitu varen. Ivanga namma area la oru mess nadatharaanga. Innaiku dinner apparam naalaiku full day ku ivanga kitta kuduka sollidaren maa. Unakku ivanga food pidichuruka paaru - namma veedu set pannara veraikum ingendhe vaangikalam. Illana vera mess try pannalam"

At the mention of dinner, Sadhana felt her stomach grumble. She was praying it was not loud enough for Ananth to hear, but given the otherwise silent coupe, it seemed that Ananth had heard it, for he forwarded a biscuit packet to Sadhana and continued flipping the diary.

He paused on another page of the diary and tilted it more towards her. "Idhu paaru, idhu dhan namma veetu odu address. Nethu staff supervisor ta evening pesinen la, appo kuduthaaru." Sadhana was munching on her biscuits and nodded her head, recollecting that Ananth had gone out to make a telephone call to understand their accommodation arrangements. She almost rested her head on his shoulder and read the address a couple of times, and just as Ananth was tempted to slightly move his shoulder towards her to establish that physical connection, she moved from that position to fetch the water bottle.

Pch he mumbled to himself and sat erect, disliking the gap between them and jealous of the air that had percolated between them.

But he relaxed again as soon as she put the bottle down, took another biscuit and leaned towards him in her earlier position. Time waste pannadhe da he lectured himself and quickly moved his shoulder to support her face. Unaware of his strategic moves, Sadhana continued munching once she adjusted the angle of her face on his shoulder.

Using a warm decibel, he flipped through the various pages and showed her some of the important contacts, and repeated some of the important STD codes for her to remember. His lecturer mode kicking in, he expected her to repeat them after her, alas, all he got were head nods and spray of biscuit crumbs in response. Sighing, he closed the diary and pocketed it Nagaradhe, nagandha ava biscuit thookitu andha pakkam window la saanjuruva, ellam efforts-um waste a pogum his mind voice counselled him.

Bumping his head with hers, he said "Unakkum anga poi indha maari oru diary vaangalaama?" She nodded her head enthusiastically though her sight was on her finger tracing the embossed border on the biscuits.

Envious of the biscuit, he again fought for her attention "Andha diary a nee eppovume un handbag la vechuko"

Again she nodded.

"Handbag iruka unkitta?" come to think of it, he had not seen her carry one since the wedding.

She shook her head in negative, while running her fingers inside the biscuit packet to see how many were left. Defeated, he let out a sigh and lay his head on the compartment wall behind him.

Fully aware of her husband's attempts and her actions, Sadhana let out a victorious chuckle. She turned torso towards him. "Ananthu, enakku handbag vaangi thareengala?" asking so, she fed him a couple of biscuits, which her husband gladly ate with a grin on his face.