Happy Welding Anniversary

Sneha and Sahil were going to celebrate their fifteenth wedding anniversary. They had two kids Suraj and Mishika. The kids wanted to make this celebration a special one as it was their parents 15th anniversary. They were secretly planning to do things which they thought would make their parents happy. Suraj had told Mishika to keep everything a secret, but he didn't trust her. She was in class two and the chances of she blurting out the celebration plan to mommy were very high, but he was taking the risk. He had given her the job of doing cards depicting important events in their life.

In the meanwhile he himself was busy making a movie with the photographs of the family. He had planned to give it as a surprise to his parents. He had collected pictures of all the people who mattered to his parents and he knew they would be happy when they saw the movie. That day after lunch when they were in their room he told his sister,"Mishi let's check, how much money we have in our piggy bank." The little girls eyes lit up as her elder brother was making her feel so important. Yes dadu, she agreed. They both opened the box. Suraj was praying that they should have a descent amount as he didn't want his mom to cook on the special day. With bated breath they started counting. He heaved a sigh of relief when he got to know it was around thousand rupees. He was rest assured that he could buy a descent lunch for all four of them. The kids played games on the computer for some time and then slept.

The next day at 9 AM, Sahil came to the breakfast table, adjusting his tie. He held his laptop under his arm. Up on reaching the table he kept his laptop there and screamed, "Sneha, breakfast please. Quick." Sneha was exasperated. She could never understand why this Man would not finish his chores ten minutes early. He always seemed to be in a hurry. She brought the breakfast and his lunch bag and left it on the table and went back to the kitchen to get his coffee.. She got a cup of coffee for herself as well. "Where are the kids?"he asked. See the time, she wanted to retort but she simply said they are off to school. "Hmm" he nodded and announced that his parents were coming the next day in the morning. She hated this habit of his. She knew he would have known about his parents coming to their house much before but he was telling her now. "And what about our anniversary celebration?"she asked. He had promised to take them somewhere for a weekend so that they would all get the much needed break.

But with his parents coming to stay with them she knew it would not happen as they hated eating outside. "We will celebrate afterwards he said. Stuffed his omlette and Chapatti in his mouth and got up. "What afterwards. What's the point in celebration if its not happening on that day. You could have easily told your parents to come a week later." Sneha fumed. "Calm down darling" he said, kissed her forehead, picked his bag and left for office. "Would you have asked your parents to come a week later if they were to come to our house?"was his parting question. "Of course I would have. Moreover they would have not intruded like this in the first place" she retorted and realised it was a waste of time as he had already zoomed off in his car.

Sneha had no problems in anyone coming to their house. She was a good host and enjoyed cooking and serving delicacies to the guests. But her mom-in-law was incorrigible. She would mess up with the kitchen in her zest to cook her son's favourite food. She would touch the containers after dipping her hands in the flour, spill everything everywhere. She would keep moving when the mopping was done leaving marks everywhere. The lady could just not sit quietly in one place. But what to do? She was her husband's mom. Sneha would have a tough time cleaning up all the mess her mother-in-law would make. She would have loved to cook and serve food to the lady, but her mother-in-law had this strange notion in her mind that she was the best cook in the world. She just wanted to show off all the time. So what could poor Sneha do, but compromise?

She decided to take the patience pills so that she could keep her calm. And she was just thinking life was only about making compromises. Don't say anything to your MIL as she will be hurt, postpone holidays so that you can be hospitable to people, if your kids do not fare well in exams listen to free advice given by in law's and relatives. The list was endless. Her kids were so excited for going out over the weekend. Mishika was telling everyone that it was her parents Happy wedding anniversary on Friday. She knew something was cooking between the kids and now she didn't know how she would handle them either. At times she would wonder why men don't speak at the right time. If only her husband would have told her in law's to come over the next weekend, the problem would have been solved. Sneha realised but now it could only be Happy welding anniversary as so many years after marriage it could only be a Happy Welding Anniversary and she prepared herself for a modest celebration at home. The welding had to happen constantly or else the bond of marriage would weaken and ultimately break.One more compromise and one more welding.