An Affair to Remember

It’s strange that this incident had to happen around Valentine’s Day. On entering my third trimester in pregnancy, I found a familiar nesting instinct lingering around my unoccupied mind. As I started clearing one of the drawers in the bedroom for our new arrival, under some files and folders, I found an old brown paper bag that smelled of yesteryears!

And then amidst some birthday cards and old newspaper cut outs, I found a letter… a timeworn love letter!  It was a reply to a letter I had written back in 2005, kept neatly in an envelope from an architect’s office. The handwriting was very architecturally aligned…as though written by long fingered neat nailed artistic hands. I opened the envelope and took out a few odorous paper sheets pressed like dry rose petals in a notebook. A whiff and oh, how it gave me goose bumps! 

I decided to read my own letter first. A letter that was full of apprehension and parting pain. It was an articulate writing laden with a sense of longing. I was always the writer type. A self-confessed poet. I used to write letters in the age of emails only so that I have a tangible memory to cling onto, years later.

I then read the reply. It was written only to make me happy. The man in that letter was never the day dreamer type. He was always a go getter. His writing spoke of positivity, of hope, of determination. It was his answer to all the anxious dreams in my letter. His writing, though not so flowery, had a rare sincerity. Each word was confident. It was enough to keep me going all my life!

There was also a sketch furnished along with --- an artist’s impression of the Dubai creek. It was on a bench along the creek that he had made the sketch, one temperate winter evening. There were wooden boats and sea gulls surrounded by tall glass buildings. I had dreamt of how this promising land would have been, back then. I had imagined getting lost in the wonderland of a new life option painted for me by this enigmatic man from the letter.

As a bundle of emotions kicks about in my womb, I can sense the traces of this very man in me. I can see a miniature mirror image of him running about. Today, most of the dreamy future plans mentioned in that letter have been fulfilled. My eyes well up with an overwhelming joy and gratitude. It is indeed an affair to remember. That young architect will always be my first love…

But today, I have rediscovered the real gift of love.  It is the fact that this secret lover from my past is now my present!!!...That man I fell in love with years ago, is now my husband!! He is the father of my boy and of my unborn child waiting to come out and get inspired by him!

I celebrated my first real date with him on Valentine’s Day 2001. The memories of all the “firsts” that happened that evening are still fresh in my mind. Who would have thought, fifteen years later, again on Valentine’s Day, I would get back my first love…that too, nestled in my own home! 

Happy Valentine's Day to all!