Retired and happy - A story

It was the summer of 2030. The couple were staying in a small apartment they had purchased back in their working days. Radha was 72 now and her husband Sri was 81. They had seen it all in their lifetime, births and deaths, marriage and festivals, new persons in their family and their lovely grand kids.

They have a daughter and a younger son, both employed and well settled with their family and kids and way busy with their lives. The new members, their son-in-law and daughter-in-law in their family were lovely, caring and cooperative.

Every weekend the daughter called and enquired about their well being. What more can they expect from a woman who already has her own family and friends, her own set of problems and her career ? It's her turn to live.

They had accepted the new generation and the concepts of westernization well. Although they chose to live with their own old lifestyles, they embraced the new world well. They had stopped forcing their ideas and values long back. Sometimes they were heard and most of the times even their conventional or wise thoughts were ignored by their own loved ones. So they lived in peace with this truth.

Their son was very successful in his field. He had settled in US and made trips all over the world often.

Isn't this something they had always dreamed of - A settled life for both their kids ? Everything they struggled for all their life was accomplished and it was time to turn inwards. Their little banterings were still present as a testimony to their 40 year old marriage. They had also been to US a couple of times, but what can beat the morning filter coffee, the temples and the soil which they were born in ? They preferred to stay in India, even if it meant taking care of themselves on their own. They did have servants to clean, cook and do daily chores. So there was little effort involved. This scene, was opposite to their 30s and 40s when they did not have enough time to do it all. They were running and chasing and extremely busy all the times. Radha was married into a huge family. She was always occupied with daily chores, necessary shopping and she would even repair electronic stuffs around home. She had crossed two caesarian with her children's birth followed by her hernia operations. She was active and living it all anyways. She was looked upon by her own relatives.

As for Sri, he was always running behind time, to office, for his children's admissions, for his siblings and for everything. He had resolved that he would volunteer for social cause even before he retired and that kept him busy now for half the day. He also organized religious gatherings and during evenings he helped his wife, something he had never done before. As for Radha, she was still the lovely understanding mother her kids could come and talk to, but this time there was a difference. It was over phone, less frequent and obviously the issues they talked did not have any childlike innocence.

Radha and Sri have a past together with a family, children and perhaps a roller coaster ride so far. Time had run very fast, but years had bonded them so well that they cared for each other as they would care for themselves. The memories of the four as a family crossed both their minds often. They wished if they could move back the arms of the clock and re-live the entire experience, with the pillow fights the four had, the outings they had together, the fights both Radha ans Sri would have on buying them stuff and then making up, the limited income middle class but a happy family. Strangely the resources "time and money "were all there, but the niche they had carved for themselves wasn't. Now it was all behind them. The children had to leave the nest and build one for themselves, as the conventions in the world would have it.

They just had to confront the fact that it was just two of them in the end, till death parted them. Also this was something that they never thought their life would eventually be like - With little needs, with a matured thinking and with love for fellow beings and god.