The best moments in life

The best sunset that I ever shared with someone was my friend Ananth. Now he lives in Bangalore with his wife. We were over the Safdarjung flyover heading towards Lodhi Colony when he stopped the car and pointed towards the setting sun. It was beautiful.

The best rains of course I have shared with my wife, Alka. I remember one night (I have written about it previously) at 1 o’ clock when it was raining hard, we decided to go out and stand in the rain. It was totally dark. Small remnants of light fell on the glistening leaves that were mercilessly being bombarded with big raindrops create an overwhelming, rainy sound. We stood there quietly in close proximity, without uttering a single word.

The best awake nights, again I have spent with Alka, both working, fighting (they were not spiritually uplifting, but they were great things in terms of learning to understand each other). I remember when we had set up a new hosting business. The whole night we’d discuss various things, organize client list, design advertisements and formulate promotional messages. We shut down the business after incurring a loss, but those nights were really blessed and I’ll always cherish their memories.

The best mornings I have spent with my sister, Dolly. We developed this habit of watching cartoon films in the morning while having breakfast. Soon it’ll result in both of us bunking our classes — she her school and me my college. If it were not a cartoon film, we would put on some old children’s’ film and watch it. She loved making elaborate breakfast and we having it in front of the TV.

The best quiet moments, with my dog Suzy. She’s dead now. For hours we both would sit outside, in the back garden of our house. Occasionally she would snarl or bark at the passers-by or wag her tail at the birds, but otherwise we always had this tranquil atmosphere that we both didn’t like to disturb. Sometimes I whispered to her and she would roll her eyes towards me, with her entire body — from chin to tail — flat on the ground. I have never been able to talk to anybody the way I used to talk to her.

The best arrivals used to be that of my sister and her two bubbly kids. Since our father has been working abroad for more than 30 years, me, my two sisters, and our mother were very close to each other. So when my elder sister got married and left the house, all three of us used to miss her. Her arrivals were always long awaited. And then came her kids and they became a natural, integral part of our circle of warmth. They would arrive like tiny droplets of joy, ringing the doorbell excitedly, saying things to each other while waiting for the door to open, peering inside from over the main gate.

The best afternoons, so far, I guess were with my mother. No, not exactly with her; I have very fond memories of those silent summer afternoons when she slept while I read a book or browsed through a magazine, waiting for her to wake up. There were long periods when only the two of us were present in the house. The buzz of the fan, Suzy licking her emptied bowl, sparrows chirping outside, occasional automobile horns, white aura of the sunshine coming through the curtains and filling the room with a chimerical glow, it is all etched in my mind as fresh as yesterday’s memories.

The best drives were the ones when I used to go to see Alka before marriage. She used to live in NOIDA. She used to give home tuitions. For a whole month, almost everyday I used to pick her up from various places, or from her own rented apartment. The drive to NOIDA was full of anticipation, and from NOIDA, a sense of contended happiness that a person who loves you so much is right there with you and life ahead seems so joyful.

I’ll write more.