marriedlife

		MY MARRIED LIFE I got married on 24th January 1973 to a wonderful person called Amrithavalli ( I shortened the name to Amritha as I did not like the ' valli' ). I was about 27 years and my wife was 22 years ( having been born on 24th November 1950). We were second cousins, she being my aunt's grand daughter. Though we were in the same colony, we had not talked to each other before marriage. She was working in AG's office , Madras, which she resigned. Earlier she was working as a demonstrator in SIET College, Madras. My wife was born on the auspicious day of Karthikai deepam, which is celebrated in Tamil Nadu , particularly famous in Tiruvannamalai. Her birthday is also the birthday of Guru Nanak , founder of Sikhism. After the wedding, we went on a long honeymoon covering Ooty, Mysore, Bangalore , Madurai , Trivandrum , Kanyakumari and Kodaikanal. On return from honeymoon , we had the mandatory lunches and dinners in all our relatives' houses ; visited Tirupathi and then left for Solapur . It would have been difficult for a new bride in a totally new environment to manage in the small sum of Rs. 400 , which was my net salary at that time. But she coped very well and we were able to buy a fridge and some essential furniture. I also bought my first scooter, a second hand Lambretta. We spent only about seven months in Solapur, before we had to move to Vijayawada. The six months that we spent at Vijayawada were noted for our extensive travels in the Inspection carriage (saloon). Cost of living was pretty cheap in Vijayawada. But since I was as mobile as the trains, we had to move to Secunderabad after six months. Our life in Secunderabad was very enjoyable. If I am asked to name the best city in India for living, I'd say it is Secunderabad / Hyderabad. Raghu, my brother-in-law, stayed with us for about an year. One never got bored with Raghu around. I remember we used to laugh a lot at all sorts of silly things. We saw a lot of films. Generally, we used two scooters for the three of us , though occasionally all three of us went on Raghu's scooter. We also had a lot of visitors and were visiting the zoo , museums, Golconda etc. so often that I used to call Salar Jung museum as Junk museum. My son was born at this time. As is customary in the south, the first delivery was in the mother's place. Fortunately, I was in Madras at the time of delivery and so admitted Amritha in railway hospital, Perambur. Harish was born on 12th September 1975. I got my transfer orders to Chittaranjan soon after and reached there in the winter of 1975. Life in Chittaranjan was difficult, with a lot of power failures and with a small child.
		HARISH WITH ME & AMRITHA IN CHITTARANJAN IN 1976
		But again Amritha coped extremely well. Going to Madras was a problem as getting leave and reservation ( it was pre computerised reservation days ) were both difficult. The only saving grace was the presence of my eldest brother-in-law, Narasimhan and his family in Bhubaneswar on the way. N.Krishnamurthy, an year senior to me in service , K.Subramanian, Mohan Doss and I arranged pooled dinners and outings among the Tamilian officers. We also had an active Tamil magazine club. We were also seeing a film every Friday night. My parents visited us for the first birthday of Harish and I took them to Gaya and Varanasi.
		WITH MY PARENTS & HARISH IN 1976
		In July 1979, I was transferred to Bombay on promotion. We stayed for just a month in Bombay. Then I went on training to Administrative Staff College of India at Hyderabad. During this period Amritha and Harish stayed with her parents in Madras. In October 1979, Amritha delivered a girl in the railway hospital, but unfortunately the baby died within a few hours. It was a traumatic experience and she took a few months to get over it. In January 1980, I went to Kota on Westen Railway. It was an enjoyable two years. Amritha had a lot of domestic help at home and was also busy in our huge garden. We used to play shuttle regularly in the open-air court that we had at home. We had an active officers' club and had dinners, housie etc. every Saturday. We also travelled a lot and saw the Taj for the first time. Less than two years later, we moved to Railway Staff College, Vadodara. It was an enjoyable period for me as well as Amritha. She had good company with Mrs. Krishnamoorthy, Mrs. Jha , Mrs. Ramasubramaniam etc. She also took part in a few cultural activities that are part of any training institution. On 12th August 1984, she gave birth to Aarthi in the Railway hospital at Vadodara and was busy with the child till we left Vadodara. AARTHI IN 1984 ( NO ! SHE ISN'T STICKING OUT HER TONGUE AT YOU ) From 1987 when I moved to BARC, Amritha and the children have lived in Bombay, though I went to Tinsukia between January 1996 and April 1998. We have lived in three houses in Mumbai - first in Anushakti Nagar from October 1987 to May 1990 , in Juhu from June 1990 to June 1995 and Badhwar Park , Colaba thereafter ( in fact four, if I count the stay with my brother-in-law, Narasimhan in Ballard Estate from May to June 1990 ). All the three places were good in their own way. The present house ( SEE MY REAL HOME ) is airy and has a beautiful view of the sea on all sides. Harish and Aarthi were happy in Anushakti Nagar, as they had good company. As far as creature comforts are concerned, railway is far ahead of the other departments. While Amritha had to do every domestic chore in Juhu ( with some help from me ), she has two assistants now - Sunita and Gopal. Of course, in the 27 months that i was in Tinsukia, she had to manage the entire household including payment of electricity charges, banking etc. During that time, our family of four was residing in three places. I am sure that anyone else would have cribbed a lot. But she never did. Though it was a difficult period , the only relief was that I used to talk to her daily ( at 5.45 A.M. at quarter rate ) and the absence made us fonder of each other. Thanks to Amritha's excellent home management , I have been able to acquire a flat in Pune. We have also collected a lot of furniture and other articles ( three truckloads of them). It is difficult to believe that our marriage is over 25 years old. We still enjoy the company of each other and have not allowed the marriage to become stale. She is an excellent cook. She is also one of the noblest and self-sacrificing persons one can come across. She has some faults, but they are not visible among the myriad good qualities that she possesses. BACK TO HOME