Between the lines Chapter 18

Hubert had flown into Singapore that weekend, and we had gone out on a hop on hop off tour of the city. I was in love again,  and we talked about our marriage. We all had ideas, mom hers, Hubert his, and I had my own grand ideas. The excitement had started to pack our lives to the brim, and my work had taken a backseat. I was working on a research project about entrepot trade and tripartisan, and I started to lag behind in my deliverables at work. Hubert flew back the next week, I was not sure what excuse he made at work, but he managed. I had taken most of my week off as well, and when I returned to work the following week, my boss was furious. We had missed sending a package to a government board, and she blamed it on me. "My boss is a nervous wreck", I explained to mom. I came home at ten that Monday. "No wonder she has no kids", mom replied. "Mom, that is too harsh", I corrected her. "But you told me she was forty and not yet married", mom asked perplexed. "Yes, I know, but that has nothing to do with her behavior issues. It is her success at work that has made her blind", I said. 

"Well she will retire in twenty years, and her work and her success at work will not count too much then", mom replied. "Who cares about sixty, mom?", I replied irritatingly. "I do", mom replied. "And half the world population does I believe. We are not dying at sixty anymore. Maybe eighty or ninety, who knows. What is she going to do in those thirty years, if work is all that matters to her", mom replied. "Mom she is a workaholic. People who are not successful at work to her are losers", I tried to explain to mom. "That is a funny word, everyone is a loser and a winner in life. I wish the world was full of losers. We would not have to worry about losing that much then. Losers create winners don't they?", mom said. I reflected on her words. There was indeed no looser or winner in life or for that matter in anything. It was the perspective that tempted a human to think of someone as a loser or winner. Mom had an ingenious way of reflecting on life sometimes.And our philosophical conversations could go on for endless hours at times. 

A few months later, Hubert and I got married in a small family event in California.It was a simple event, and both our families attended. There was no drama, no elaborate rituals, and no location photo shoots thankfully. I decided not to get stressed about the whole thing, Yes it was an important event in my life, but more than that, it was not the event that was most important to me. It was moving to the next chapter of my life that mattered most. We had relatives from India, our family friends in the US, some of my friends, Hubert's parents, and his friends and family friends, who attended. I had chosen to wear a simple peach-colored dress for the evening and a traditional red saree for the day. Some relatives were amazed at how simple our celebration was, especially since I was the only daughter of my parents. But I didn't care what they thought, and neither did my parents.I had to come back to Singapore, to work, and Hubert had to go back to his work. It was our way of life, and we had accepted it with open arms. 

I was more adaptive towards my short-sighted boss and had learned to cope with her changing moods. I had also learned a lot at work. And I enjoyed my work. Every three months, Hubert and I took a few days off to spend time with each other. Our marriage had changed our perception of our relationship to an extent.We had suddenly grown up. He was not the cute boy that I called Robocop, he was my husband. As for him, I was not this stunning brown damsel but his wife. We were bound in a contract much stronger than love, we had to love each other, care for each other, be faithful to each other, have kids one day maybe, but most of all we had built our family, a family of two, our own unit. We were a single unit, a single entity now onwards.