I caught myself checking the time on my BlackBerry for the first fifth time in an hour. Yes he should have landed, I thought. Maybe not, yet. Should I wait another ten minutes and call, perhaps he is still stuck in the long queues at immigration... Uh! Give it another few minutes then I'll call... Why has he not called yet? Damn! I reached for the phone; then stopped myself again.
I was going to see him after five entire months. The man in my life. Having left to write the biography of a very famous star of South Indian cinema - Note that I don't refer to Bollywood, but its first cousin Kollywood i.e. the movies produced in the South of the subcontinent - he was it seemed about to arrive back home. After having interviewed the star's entire extended family, friends, and the industry at large, he had managed to reach on the gates of God himself, who gave him the green signal to go ahead and write the book; thus so releasing him back to me.
"Five months... a bit much, isn't it?" asked my colleague as I rushed out of the office at five pm to get home and pretend to cook dinner that night. Hmmm was it? I wondered on the way home.
I did manage to meet him for a week in between when we managed to sneak off for a few days to Goa. It felt deliciously secretive, like we were snatching a few covert minutes for ourselves away from the eyes of the world.
And now my heart was racing as if it was a first date. Not bad, I thought to myself. If this is how I react to seeing him, after being married for nearly fourteen years... it can't be too bad, the occasional separation like this?
Selfish I am, as you have realised by now. For the space apart does afford me the time to focus on my writing too, as I try to cross the last mile to publishing my own book.
And if I can feel the sweet pain of separation followed by the intense joy of just being with my husband again, looking forward to the passionate first night together after so long.... well, no it can't be that bad now, can it?
Do you agree? Do reply to me @laxmi and let me know. I would love to hear from you.