At the twilight

For some reasons, I find old couples very very adorable. Just the site of them holding each others hand comes at par to any dove pair in an Archies gallery. And why do I find them so fascinating? Well… for several reasons – for me, they show that love actually exists, else why would they have spent so many years together and still stand with each other. Even if the faces are all wrinkles and waist size has gone out of proportion and the scalp is bald and the skin of palm has become so dry that it doesn’t even hold the sensation any more.. but still, the hands are intertwined together. What else could it be, if not love?

After all, they too would have faced those periodic cycles, when the face of the person sleeping beside them sometimes appears to the most lovable and sometimes the most miserable. And they too would have lived up to those moments when one of them feels that they are not genuinely loved or understood or respected. When the wives would have caught their husbands drooling over some other lady… or when the husbands would have felt that so much time has gone in vain and yet the lady never understood his true self. They too would have faced all of it.. but the best part is they lived through it!

Its not that all elderly couples excite me… especially, when you are an Indian… it doesn’t even more so. Since, we do not believe in breaking marriages even if somewhere we strongly believe that the person we are with is not the one, we should be with. Still. Families, society and largely our own self keeps pulling ourselves away from the thought of separation… and you keep telling yourself that everyone is good, you just need to adjust. And eventually, the two people get so much used to of each others presence that things become manageable. But I would not call it love… because in loads and loads of these couples, I do not see that spark I was talking about in the beginning of this post.

Wives generally get busy with the upbringing of kids and husbands get busy with the arrangement of resources for the family. The two become three-four-five etc etc and the life becomes a journey of accomplishing responsibilities. I am not talking about those elderly couples, who did not even realize the charm of getting old together. The ones, who take separate rooms and separate beds and separate ways to keep themselves busy after they are 45 or 50. The ones, who are always indulged in the competition of proving who’s been a better spouse or who should have been given more credit of running their still ongoing married life.

I am talking about the ones, who even at the twilight of their lives share some giggles and jokes and pull each others legs. Where the wives are never too old to be complimented about their beauty and the husbands are never too sober to be decked up well, when the two go out for an evening walk. The couples, who still want to spend time together alone.. and who do not shy away in telling each other how their life is incomplete without their counterpart… the couples with grey hair but red heart…the couples, who could not go to bed without each other… irrespective of just anything in the world.

May be my imagination is too flowery.. but I am sure, there will be such people.. even if they could be counted on fingertips. There will be people who succeed in saving their lives from getting sacrificed in the daily boredom… who never get enough of each others company… who still relish each others touch and who irrespective of what their age is or how many years they have been together.. still feel fresh and rejuvenated with the sight or the voice of their husband or the wife.