Our Platinum Day of Love – at 3600 meters above sea level!

Ours was an arranged marriage. Having been married for quite some time now, I can say that surviving an arranged marriage is like preparing kheer – tastes best when cooked with patience on slow flame. Try rushing into things and you will get a kheer with burnt smell that just doesn’t go away. 

Love, has its own language. While some people go all mushy to express their feelings for their beloved, there are few like Mr. Hubby and I, who discover a new shade of love by sharing small joys and sorrows of our everyday life.

Shortly after our marriage, Mr. Hubby and I planned a trek to the valley of flowers in Uttarakhand. Mr. Hubby being a perfect fitness freak was oozing with enthusiasm that matched my fear for intense physical activities. For the lazy me who has grown up on aloo paranthas smeared with butter and never befriended a workout, any physical activity that makes me wake up early or get that sweat dripping is a complete no. So, workouts and I often prefer separate paths. But when Mr. Hubby proposed the trek, the excitement in his eyes prompted me to play the supportive wife in our newly started married life.

Everything was rosy till the time we reached the base camp. However, the moment we began the trek, the thorns began to surface from the rosy picture. Like a typical newly married lady, I was all style and vanity and preferred to carry a small sling bag rather than carrying a heavy rucksack with essential items. I was scared at the thought of trekking and thought it better to carry minimal weight; and in that effort, I even missed the bare essential – a bottle of water. We thought once we complete the trek, we would get some water. But few passersby told us there was no shop up there and we had been foolish enough to miss something as important as water!

For someone who had never even participated in a race in school, walking uphill on the high altitude (approx 3600 meters above the sea level) without food or water was becoming torturous. I would stop and start panting after every ten steps due to lack of Oxygen at high altitude. My knees and chest cried with pain and the heartbeat was like a high decibel drum thumping fast. For almost half the trek, Mr. Hubby was at his supportive best and even kept me busy in conversations to divert my mind. However, once he realised we were way behind our schedule, his patience began to give up. We could see many people on their way back after spotting some beautiful and exotic flowers the valley offers. To add fuel to the fire, they told we better hurry up as the park closes by 5.30pm and it was already noon.

My oh so patient hubby slowly began to lose patience. I tried my best to brace up, but the lungs wouldn’t just support. Finally I decided the trek was beyond me and I better give up. I asked Mr. Hubby to complete the trek and return while I would wait at the same place.

As if I had blown the whistle of a pressure cooker, Mr. Hubby became furious. “You have spoiled my holiday. If you didn’t have the stamina or the courage you should have told me!” I stood there stiff and silent with my eyes closed as he walked away.

Sometimes anger prompts us to do things that simple motivation cant. Mr. Hubby’s words pierced me and after sometime, I too decided I would complete the trek and would prove him wrong.

I had begun walking for five minutes when a man from the opposite side stopped me. “Are you Shaivi?” he asked. “Y..Yeah...” I said, surprised. “Your hubby met me on the way and has left a message for you. He has asked me to tell you the trek isn’t tough, you will be able to manage, just keep walking. He is waiting for you ahead. Come on”. He said with a smile and went away.

“Oh after all that drama, someone is pretending to be romantic and caring?” I said to myself.

As I walked, I was in for even more pleasant surprises. Apparently, Mr. Hubby had asked every person he met on the way to tell me not to give up; that he believed in me and was waiting for me ahead. So every person on his way back was smiling and passing on the message to me. Some girls even told me “how cute, he is so caring”.

My fatigue evaporated with every message I got and I continued to walk. With every person telling me I was just near completion and Mr. Hubby was waiting ahead, the trek no longer seemed like a tough task. The energy of Love kept me going. I was beginning to feel sorry for Mr. Hubby. I had disappointed him and here he was trying to motivate me by asking every single person he met to pass on the message to me.

After a kilometre, I found myself surrounded by a beautiful landscape filed with beautiful flowers. I could see Mr. Hubby waiting at a distance. As he saw me, his face brightened up with a smile and he stretched his arms true Bollywood style. My steps became faster and soon I was in his arms – a perfect scene from those Yash Chopra movies.

“I am sorry I got angry baby” he said. “No dear, I am sorry, you tried so much to motivate me, I should have stretched myself more.”, I said. “Hey, did you get my message? I asked few people” he said. “Few?” I interrupted him. “Every single person on his way back was like, are you Shaivi? Your hubby is waiting for you ahead. The trek isn’t tough and you are just there…” Mr. Hubby was now blushing. “Oh I wondered if they would pass on the message, so I told every person I met…I wanted to be together with you in this beauty. It would have been incomplete without me holding my wife’s hands” he said.

I was all melting now. I just blushed and hugged him tight as he whispered into my ears, “you make this all seem so perfect!”

Amidst the hesitation and the shyness of an arranged marriage, we had discovered our bond of love…for us, this day was our Platinum Day of Love!

With each sweet n sour moment we have shared in this togetherness called Love, I can say our Love is just like Platinum – precious, pure and everlasting!

This post has been written for the Platinum Day of Love contest by Indiblogger.