THE wise man who once said, ‘grass always looks greener on the other side,’ must have chuckled as he spoke those words, as he looked out one night and saw this young couple: It was Valentine’s Day and they had been invited to the home of another friend and his wife who were actually their neighbours.
They were quiet as they came back from their friend’s house with their little one fast asleep on his father’s shoulder; they’d had a great dinner, but the husband had noticed his wife growing quiet as the evening progressed. He’d wondered what the problem was; had their child been too naughty, or had their conversation disturbed her. But as he reflected, he couldn’t really figure what had been the cause of her change in mood. “What’s the problem?” he asked her as they let themselves into their own house.
“Nothing!” said his wife Leila quietly, and he knew there was huge trouble ahead. “Come on, out with it,” he said gruffly. “What’s the use, you’ll never change,” sniffed his wife. “You want me to change?” asked her husband. “Did you see how Rohan looked at his wife Shobha throughout the evening?” “How did Rohan look at his wife?” he asked simply.
“With love!” wept his wife, “There was adoration dripping from his eyes, all the time, and then when I looked at you….” “You didn’t see any I guess in me?” he said sadly. “No I didn’t!” she said. The couple silently got into bed.
One day, a few days later, she met Shobha her neighbour and was shocked by what she said, “Oh that’s how he acts when visitors are around! But I watched your husband carrying your toddler home that night. How caring he was. I also watched him being so patient with your child that evening, while we were all talking and I wished I had such a patient, caring, loving man like that. I see him playing ball with him so nicely too. How I wish Rohan, my husband, would do the same thing! He never wants our children in the way”
That evening when her husband came home, he was startled to see her with a big smile on her face and shook his head wonderingly as she gave him a hug, “What’s this for?” he asked. “I like you just be the way you are,” she said, “I don’t need a picture perfect husband!” And that night they went to bed happy accepting the other the way they were, not wanting to change each other into what they thought was the perfect spouse! So very often the perfection we see in someone else may be put on like a Facebook pic..!
—(bobsbanter@gmail.com)
