Just nestles down in the middle of Sharmila’s art and then endlessly stares outside. It is like he contemplates on that old Henry Davies poem:
“What is this world, if so full of care
We have no time to stand and stare”
Occasionally he will get excited upon seeing other dogs and start barking at them, rather unremittingly.
It was the final leg of my trip to two cities while not being able to talk. I sat myself in my airplane seat and started checking all the emails from the day on my phone as the rest of the passengers kept boarding. I had already flashed my note to the lady sitting next to me that I am unable to speak. She had nonchalantly gone back to her knitting after reading the note.
A bit later, somewhat errr… chalantly, she tapped on my shoulder. I looked up to see that she was pointing my finger to somebody standing next to us. There was Hunt Jackson – smiling at me. We have worked together not once, but twice beore!! He was aware I could not talk. We had exchanged messages a few days back on his birthday. I smiled back, waved at him and mouthed “I did not know you were in this flight.” Soon, he had move with the queue as he went to his seat.
Back to emails it was. A few minutes later, a message notification came thru “Are you on a Delta flight from Denver to Atlanta right now?” My first reaction was to guess that Hunt’s message was delayed in reaching me. He must have texted me before he asked my next neighbor to call me.
Something struck me as odd – the sender’s name was rather small. In my contacts, Hunt’s name is written as “Charles Huntington Hunt Jackson”. Went back to the message. It was from “Amy Smith”!!! I know her from the place we had worked together before! And recently, we had talked at length during her birthday. (I was still talking then).
I furiously started messaging her back. “Why, yes! Are you too?”
She was. She had seen me. But was not sure if it was me. In her defense, we had not seen each other for over a decade.
“I should have called your name out when I passed you.” she wrote.
I explained to her that he might not have made a difference since I cannot talk. But I wrote that I will wait for her when we deplane.
Which I did.
We walked to the baggage carousel together, she filling me in on her new job!
It was so great to see Amy after such a long time!! I need to do this again though. There were a lot of questions I wanted to ask her but could not!
But, what is the chance that you run into two ex-colleagues in the same flight!
You want to hear the real coincidence? All three of us were in the same company once for some time!!!
Like every other Sunday, Sharmila and I headed out to our Sunday bar at 8PM. Idea was to sit down in some corner over a drink and watch the Sunday night football. We usually see the first half and then come back home.
At around 8:15, our bartender switched the TVs to NBC where the game was going to start in 5 minutes. And Sharmila placed our order.
Sharmila is more of a follower of football games than I am. She is not into stats and all that – but she likes to see a good game.
“Who is playing?” she asked looking at me. Immediately, she realized I cannot answer.
So, I scribbled “4” and “9” with my fingers on the bar table.
“Oh 49ers! Who are they playing?”
I scribbled “Bills” this time. Looking back, my mistake might have been in writing in cursive.
“Oh! Chicago Bulls!!” she concluded, entirely satisfied with my answer.
Oh! Boy!!!
Can’t wait to see a three-pointer in this game!
Natasha went back to New York. She will return for Christmas. Meanwhile, Tuey is staying with us. The sweetest dog ever. Does not mind following all instructions.
Except one.
When it comes to his sleeping time, he refuses to come to our bedroom or bed. He will give you company as long as you want but when you go to your bed – he goes back to Natasha’s bed.
We keep our door open in case he wants to scoot over in the middle of the night. Not a chance. He will sleep all by himself and then moment I get up, he will come down with me and stay close to me.
I feel like my public company days have come back with their quarter end “quiet period”!
Had a deep sleep from the narco painkillers and then came downstairs. Started talking to Sharmila with hand signals.
All these days, I have always wanted to scream at her after most of our conversations: “What you say makes no logical sense! You are just being emotional”. But I never have. About the only secret you will need to know apropos how to be married for 31 years. (Of course, to the same person, I mean)
Today, after 31 years of staying married, I felt like risking it all and screaming at her. “Why are YOU hand signaling to me? I can can hear fine”!! đŸ™‚
We all had a good laugh.
Good fun! Good fun! I am going to turn this as into an adventure. Already, I have submitted three dad jokes in the written form to Nikita!
It reminded me of an incident with my mom some 30 years back. Story for another day!
First of all thank you to DJ for taking me to the hospital at a God-awful hour and patiently waiting there till the whole thing was done and then driving me back. Doctors are too finicky about keeping patients under narco pain killers off the road. A bit too much, if you ask me.
The surgery took more time than was initially thought. I will not know what shape the voice box is in for some time. Unfortunately (or “fortunately” as those around me are pointing out), my total silence period has been extended from 5 days to 2 whole weeks. In fact I am not to exercise vocal chords till the doctor sees me on Dec 10.
I am thinking of this as my all inclusive Vipassana silent retreat with a surgery thrown in!!
