Valentine Day's Gift and My Husband

Yesterday was Valentine’s day. The town was painted red by love’s messengers. Everything around us suddenly turned heart-shaped, from wall decorations to cakes, from cushions to gift boxes, from wall paints to fabric prints…..everything adorned cupid’s favorite shape. Even social media pages were filled with odes of lovelorn hearts.

Wait!! I have no intention of making a pun at these warm and loving gestures. I have no hard feelings against the innocent and petite love-birds. With my hand on heart, I can vow that I have no disrespect against the age old traditions of roses, cards, chocolates and perfumes.

It’s only that in last seven years of my happily married life, I have ceased to expect the above to be a reality of my life. My loving, caring, understanding, supportive and otherwise perfect husband sees the world through his own glasses. You are getting me wrong if you think he is of the brooding types, who finds expressions of love superficial, and believes in deeper meanings of life. On the contrary he goes out of his way to plan, design and create gifts for me. Just to give you an example, on my last birthday, as the mid-night bells rang, I was woken up and presented with a small, sufficient-for-two sized chocolate cake. After the regular singing of songs and blowing of candles, as soon as I tried to cut a small bite of the delicious looking cake, the knife hit something hard. On scouring deeper I found a small jewelry box inside, covered in chocolate sauce. It had the mark of a renowned jewelry store on top.

I am sure by now, like me, you also have phrases like ‘how sweet’, ‘how romantic’, ‘so loving’, on the tip of your tongue. But when I opened the box it didn’t have any shining sparkling piece of metal inside. Instead there was a small note, with the following written in his neat handwriting – “Sorry babes, after paying for the house and the mortgage, didn’t have any money to buy you a gift. Hopefully next year.”

Coming to back to valentine’s day…..my gift this year was a glass tea-pot, the one which allows you to see the color rising in hot water, as you drop in those dried aromatic leaves. It was meant to compliment my wish of enjoying new flavors of tea (please refer to my previous post – My Wish List).

Thanks a lot Mr Husband. I surely look forward to the refreshing morning tea. With you.