7 Things My Better Half Taught Me

Being in a relationship [Married or not married] is a lot of hard work? Yes and No.

I initially thought I would not write a post about my better half, too personal..too private..too many emotions and may be words may not be enough to describe what I feel about him, what I have learned from him but if I don’t write about it I would miss writing on one of the biggest lessons of my growing up, of my life, of who I am. Hence I am going to give it a try, though I will try and not make it too emotional or sappy.

Before I write about him, let me share a few details about him and how we met. We have been together for almost 12 years now. We met through some common friends and as they say sparks flew [May be sparks didn’t fly...I just like to say that J ]

I think I literally grew up with him because the most have changed, I have adopted, I have grown up, I have progressed, I have seen the world..is in last 12 years. When we met I was in my early 20s and he was in his late 20s [Okay Okay may be not..he is 3 years older..so he was bang in the middle of 20ss you can say] but we were as naive as school children. Never been out of the house, never lived on our own. We came out of our shells together, we learned together; in process we taught each other a lot.

I am glad where we are today. He is a good friend, may be not my best friend because I don’t want him to be. I like not sharing everything with him and vice versa.

I have tried to summarise a few things I believe being with him has taught me:

1) Love thy neighbour: No not literally but he is very sociable , talks a lot, mingles a lot so as his better half I also have to. Though I am more sociable now but I was very moody initially and would talk when I would want to talk but since he talks always....with everyone, I have learnt to atleast be polite, smile, nod and sometimes be a more vocal part of the discussions.

2) Patience: He is the epitome of patience and I am opposite. He is one of those guys who would never honk when stuck in a traffic jam even though the passenger seat lady is fuming and verbally cursing everyone in their wayJ. But it rubs off and I am glad I picked up patience from him before he could pick up being impatient from me.

3) Smile: We are a smiley family and he and my son lead it. He smiles a lot, laughs a lot and I accept I frown a lot rather I use to. But more or less I have become like them. We always smile..ear to ear..big flashy smiles

4) Dirty is not uncool: I still can’t say dirty is cool because in all fairness it is not cool but I have learnt from him that sometimes just sitting and having chai is also okay, even when you can see a huge mess around you. You can ignore unclean sometimes and that is cool [But unclean is not cool!! Period!!]

5) Say no: He doesn’t say no to anything, to anyone. And because he doesn’t I have learnt to do it. And now I am not even hesitant to say it...I say no when I can’t do it. Simple.

6) Earn respect: Well he doesn’t respect anyone basis their age, caste, creed, gender, color etc etc. This use to annoy me initially because we are taught to always always give respect to elders, certain gender, certain animals etc even when the other person or animal doesn’t behave in a civilized way but my better half has a simple logic, you got to earn respect. Don’t do anything disrespectful I will not disrespect you. This simple logic has really simplified my thinking and my life

7) Cricket: I hate cricket..hate it. Infact hate is a very small word. If I could I would kill cricket. Like any other Indian I use to like it a lot before I met my husband. He is fascinated by the game..we have watched every cricket game possibly played on earth. From college to county, national to international, blind cricket, women’s world cup...we have watched everything and he still watches everything. I don’t. I just can’t. In our home love and hate for cricket co-exist happily.

These were some of the things I learnt from my better half. What about you? Anything you would like to share with me about your someone special?

I am taking part in The Write Tribe Festival of Words 1st - 7th September 2013. This is my sixth post written for it..