The odd couple...
The odd couple....
They were an odd sort of couple.. Been watching them for quite sometime in the JNU campus.. .. it's been almost 7 years to be precise .... They have been in my watch list for quite sometime now..Never met them formally...never been introduced too... But there was something peculiar about them...which somehow made me notice them everyday....perhaps they were my"morning walk comrades".. Infact it would be more appropriate to say that they were more like my "morning walk muses"...I simply loved watching them.. Just observing them from a distance....there was so much of odd sort of peculiarity around them which never use to fail to raise my curiosity.. They seemed to belong to a lower ladder of middle income strata.. Husband seemed to be closing up to sixty and wife was around mid fifties.. They used to walk out everyday from the area where residential colony for university staff was....at dot 6.30 am.. In pin drop silence and with bowed heads they used to march every day..another thing which used to draw my attention to them was the way they always used to walk at least 4 steps away from each other... Husband used to be like a thumb rule around 4 steps ahead of her with the wife in tow few steps behind with a bowed head.. They never ever used to talk or look at each other during the walk... Almost like ghosts they used to keep walking with that white Vibhuti religiously standing out on their foreheads ...indications of their South Indian origins quite clearly obvious ....but what Intrigued me was the fact that how they managed to walk without smiling or talking to each other or at anyone else for full one hr.. When he stopped ..like a robot she used to stop too.. But always maintaining a respectful gap of few steps between them.. Found it hilarious that if the gentleman used to sit on one bench the lady will sit on the next adjacent bench but never on same one and as soon as he starts moving again she like a zombie will be after him again.. Couldn't help smiling to myself on this " odd and queer kind of couple".. Often I used to devilishly chuckle imagining the scenario in their home ...they eating or watching TV or even worse sleeping together in thier bedroom ... My God my imagination ran wild thinking of most absurd situations between them .. I also assumed by his apparent detachment and sense of superiority that' their marriage must be lacking in equity and togetherness .. I often wondered how lonely the lady might be .. Anyway from last few months suddenly they stopped their walks .. I kept on wondering where my muses disappeared but they just vanished in thin air...I sort of gave up assuming they probably retired and moved out of the campus and the queer couple started fading out from my memory.. And then behold there they were yesterday .. I was sitting on a bench for a breather in between my morning walk.. I suddenly noticed some commotion on the bench next to mine.. There was a bend almost crippled lady trying to get up and walk with difficulty and her partner was holding her hand and helping her in all the way he can to make her walk like she used to with minimum strain.. Then he gently scooped up her frail body in his arms down into the waiting wheelchair and as she looked up at him with eyes full of emotion and confidence ..her eyes spoke so much that I couldn't even decipher.. And he looked down at her with such care and tenderness ... ... It suddenly hit me like a jolt when I recognized my muses .. Yes ...They were my " odd couple".. The wife looked severely crippled and now he was walking her around in a wheelchair.. And as the two of them walked off from where I was sitting into the foggy oblivion of the morning.. I smiled to myself and whispered " appearances can be so misleading ... Here goes " my dukh sukh ka humsafar couple"...and walked back home with a perpetual smile playing on my face....
They were an odd sort of couple.. Been watching them for quite sometime in the JNU campus.. .. it's been almost 7 years to be precise .... They have been in my watch list for quite sometime now..Never met them formally...never been introduced too... But there was something peculiar about them...which somehow made me notice them everyday....perhaps they were my"morning walk comrades".. Infact it would be more appropriate to say that they were more like my "morning walk muses"...I simply loved watching them.. Just observing them from a distance....there was so much of odd sort of peculiarity around them which never use to fail to raise my curiosity.. They seemed to belong to a lower ladder of middle income strata.. Husband seemed to be closing up to sixty and wife was around mid fifties.. They used to walk out everyday from the area where residential colony for university staff was....at dot 6.30 am.. In pin drop silence and with bowed heads they used to march every day..another thing which used to draw my attention to them was the way they always used to walk at least 4 steps away from each other... Husband used to be like a thumb rule around 4 steps ahead of her with the wife in tow few steps behind with a bowed head.. They never ever used to talk or look at each other during the walk... Almost like ghosts they used to keep walking with that white Vibhuti religiously standing out on their foreheads ...indications of their South Indian origins quite clearly obvious ....but what Intrigued me was the fact that how they managed to walk without smiling or talking to each other or at anyone else for full one hr.. When he stopped ..like a robot she used to stop too.. But always maintaining a respectful gap of few steps between them.. Found it hilarious that if the gentleman used to sit on one bench the lady will sit on the next adjacent bench but never on same one and as soon as he starts moving again she like a zombie will be after him again.. Couldn't help smiling to myself on this " odd and queer kind of couple".. Often I used to devilishly chuckle imagining the scenario in their home ...they eating or watching TV or even worse sleeping together in thier bedroom ... My God my imagination ran wild thinking of most absurd situations between them .. I also assumed by his apparent detachment and sense of superiority that' their marriage must be lacking in equity and togetherness .. I often wondered how lonely the lady might be .. Anyway from last few months suddenly they stopped their walks .. I kept on wondering where my muses disappeared but they just vanished in thin air...I sort of gave up assuming they probably retired and moved out of the campus and the queer couple started fading out from my memory.. And then behold there they were yesterday .. I was sitting on a bench for a breather in between my morning walk.. I suddenly noticed some commotion on the bench next to mine.. There was a bend almost crippled lady trying to get up and walk with difficulty and her partner was holding her hand and helping her in all the way he can to make her walk like she used to with minimum strain.. Then he gently scooped up her frail body in his arms down into the waiting wheelchair and as she looked up at him with eyes full of emotion and confidence ..her eyes spoke so much that I couldn't even decipher.. And he looked down at her with such care and tenderness ... ... It suddenly hit me like a jolt when I recognized my muses .. Yes ...They were my " odd couple".. The wife looked severely crippled and now he was walking her around in a wheelchair.. And as the two of them walked off from where I was sitting into the foggy oblivion of the morning.. I smiled to myself and whispered " appearances can be so misleading ... Here goes " my dukh sukh ka humsafar couple"...and walked back home with a perpetual smile playing on my face....
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