Today my parent-in-laws celebrated 45 years of wedded bliss, of togetherness, of tiffs and romance, of mouthing grumbles and sweet nothings, of hard times and easy ones, all in one pot.
I’m always at awe when I meet this couple. 45 years they have loved each other and also tolerated each others idiosyncrasies that, today, they find life intolerable without those very idiosyncrasies of their spouse that had irked them. The very quirks that had bothered them, about their better half..earlier in their marriage, are so dear to them today, that they start to recount them, with such fondness.
They have spent so many more years together, than, they were single. Almost makes the part of life when they had not met, insignificant!
If today, they would meet themselves that they were 45 years earlier…without their children…and grandchildren and all the struggles they have gone through raising their children, to see that they are settled well in life, it wouldn’t be a surprise at how overwhelmed they must feel at the things they have achieved.
Love birds! That’s what all the relatives refer to them as. My FiL would start to talk of how proud he is, of his wife at the drop of a pin. Even though I’ve heard those stories a 1000 times ( might not be an exaggeration!). How athletic she had been, how persevering she had been in getting a masters in spite of the obstacles she had faced, how giving she had been. To be honest, I don’t get bored at all having to listen to all this again and again, atleast, for the first 20mins, sometimes even for 40 mins 
He recounts with such pleasure how they had been neighbors all their lives, living in the same lane, before marriage but, hadn’t even glanced at each other. He does agree that its unbelievable, but,
“Those days were such!” , he says retrospectively.
He has no bitterness for today’s generation. He merely refers to today’s generation as
“The times are different now..people are different, they are bold and confident and know what they want! A boy today wouldn’t hesitate to steal a glance of an attractive girl, how ever decent he might consider himself.”
So, today after I wished them..and they were wished by all their grandchildren…I spent some part of today…listening to
“Tales of Mr and Mrs Palle senior”
which included a few cute confessions where he teases his wife saying…that even though they didn’t know each other before their wedding, their’s is a love marriage in some technical sense that only he can comprehend and the rest of us will never be able to!
My MiL although very proud to hear all that from her husbands mouth..doesn’t forget to remind him that he should stop talking as he’s boring me to dogs…
Their eldest grandchild demanded that after five years…their grandpa would have to host a grand party. He happily agreed to host it although he couldn’t understand the reason at first…
“That would be the golden jubliee celebrations of your wedding grandpa!”, said Yashwant, his eldest grandchild.
Most of the times..we find them..grumbling at each other but, if there was love in anger…these were the moments one could get a glimpse of it.
That was one of the thing that Hubby dear had promised to be when we got married. To love me like his father loves his mom!
So profuse and absolutely!
Although I do realize, it would be very juvenile at the current stage of our marriage (its like comparing apples to oranges…45 years of marriage to 14 years !) but, to this day he does try that sincerely…how ever difficult I get!
