Flight to France

Last post, I celebrated my first wedding anniversary with a return on my blog. This time will do a little flashback of my first year of marriage. No!! It would not be written as a series like my “Me in Chinkyland Series”. I would not bore you so much. Just a quick update on my life in the non blogging days!!

To speak my heart out, the first year of marriage was not all that colour filled with the honeymooning, travelling and all those sweet filmy moments. It was way different!! The first 16 days of marriage was tightly packed with travelling to Tirupathi and Kerala, a pooja at home and lunches at relatives’ houses. We hardly had some personal time. On the 16^th night, September 12^th 2006, exactly a year back, Shan left to France :(. Actually, I did not feel anything at that moment for the following reasons

-I usually never miss anybody!! I am kind of strange!! Maybe thanks to the development of technology that I am always in touch with family and friends through e-mails, telephone and even video chat.

- Secondly, I had prepared mentally before marriage for this 'separation'. I had quite some things on my checklist to be completed before I left India.

- Thirdly, as per the details collected by us, the dependent visa would take about 9 to 12 weeks. This time frame seemed encouraging!!

The visa took a great deal more!! It was as if we had misread 9 months as 9 weeks!! Yes, you got it!! It took 9 months!! It seemed longer with constant enquiry from family, friends and colleagues. I do agree that they were genuinely concerned but at times these enquiries were really like adding fuel to fire!!

Life was going a bit monotonous. A work day was as follows:

- Get up at 4:45am!! Ya!! I had just one office bus from my in-laws place to office at 6:45am. After getting up, put the water to boil and help my MIL with the breakfast. I must admit I hardly had time to cook. My MIL and FIL were really very co-operative in getting my breakfast ready and lunch packed for me by 6:45am. After taking bath and having breakfast, off I went to the office bus.

- In the office bus, listen to some damn FM channel playing a devotional hymn!! Badly, needed this to keep it going!! Then do some French reading for about 30 minutes during my bus travel! Then listen to some songs and bak bak going on the FM channels!!

- Then 8am to 'God knows what time' were my office hours. Usually, worked till 7 or 8 in the evening. Of course, very well intervened with lunch and tea breaks with colleagues! I could not work longer as I had no bus after that!! Uff!! Even if I tried to leave early, I would be stuck in the traffic jam!!

- After work, reach home around 10pm. Thanks to all the traffic jam on the clogged roads of Bangalore, I would be dead like a dodo by then!

- Dinner was an exercise. I call it an exercise as I hardly felt like eating after such a hectic day. Just ate to keep up the routine!

- After dinner, chat with hubby deary. Thanks to just 4.5 hrs time difference, I could catch up with him at around 10:30pm. So talk about an hour or two. By then, the needle of the clock has already crossed midnight! Remember the next day starts at 4:45am!!

So, I was managing with less than 5 hours sleep day after day! Shan used to plead me to go to sleep and suggested we would talk only over the weekends. The head listens to such practical suggestions but what about the heart!! It is a cribby machine throwing tantrums all the time!!

That was about the weekdays!! What about weekends!! They seemed to fly, one faster than the other. Weekends were utilised for French classes, visiting my parents and some odd chores including cheering up myself!! So that was 3/4^th of my first year of marriage!! How boring! Lesser talked about the better!!

Was it all? Nah!! After 6 months wait for visa, I could not wait anymore. I took a month off from office and flew to France in February. Why! Just a month!! Nah!! It was not office that was holding me back! My boss was quite co-operative that way!! I did not get tourist visa for more than a month though I applied for 3 months!! Really cursed the French consulate for this!

Shan and I were teasing each other, if we would recognise one another in the airport. We did!! I was so relieved to see him! That one month in France

- We visited various well known places in Paris. We live away from Paris, in the beautiful land of Normandy.

- After a week in Paris, we reached ‘home’. I must say, it was a wonderful feeling when I stepped into my new home. We caught up with some lost time at “Home Sweet home”

- We had some lunches with Shan’s colleagues-cum-friends here. We went on a trek too with them.

But heck!! One month just vanished in thin air!! Don’t call me greedy now!! The day I left to India, I could feel it, almost for the first time. I ‘missed’ him.

After returning to India, I was cursing myself for not having waited. After having lived with Shan for a month, it was all the more difficult. My brother was pulling my leg that it was not Shan, but France that I missed! Sick timing for his jokes!!

Finally on May 15th 2007, I had my dependent visa interview. I was really nervous about this interview after the tourist visa episode. I got my visa with just 2 minutes visa interview. I was not able to believe it!! I checked and re-checked the stamped page on my passport. Shan took 2 weeks off and landed in India. After these two action packed weeks, both of us flew to France on 10th June 2007.

In spite of all this drama, I must say I had a wonderful and fruitful first year!! The long calls with Shan were such a boon for strengthening our relationship. Some cheering moments, lots of cribbing moments and lot more understanding moments over the phone added great energy to our marriage. I strongly believe that “communication” is the key for a marriage or any relationship for that matter. Ironically, I miss those long calls these days!! Touch Wood!! Me == Weirdo!!

Signing off!!

Photo of the Moment:

Next to Come: Over the Tower