I put on my pants and tee and dash to grab the keys to the scooter. I descend the stairs towards the open entrance. A couple of crows fly by, cawing loudly amongst themselves. I mount my scooter and start it. As I accelerate it to warm it up, I notice that the gate has not been opened yet. The caretaker opens it at seven. He is never late in doing that. He might have slept off today. I guess I am the first one to leave the apartment. Normally we are not the first ones to leave. Our opposite neighbour or the ones below us are. My wife is actually the last one. Her reporting time is a bit flexible in that manner. It enables us to squeeze in some extra minutes in the bed snuggly cuddled. I love our early morning cuddles. As the alarms go off, we switch them off and then go on to cuddle each other. She likes it. Sometimes it gets so comfortable that it becomes hard to get out of bed. When we finally do, it has become late and she has to run to work.

She sometimes skips her breakfast in the process which is something I detest. I pack in fruit for her to munch on after reaching. She knows this. So she goes and takes a late breakfast. I hate skipping breakfast. It is the single most important meal of the day for me. I have personally experienced a lack of energy and enthusiasm whenever I skipped it. Sometimes it has taken even a toll on the day's proceedings. Those incidents made me decide not to skip breakfast and have something that makes me see it through the day.

I drive towards the gate, get out of the scooter and open the gate. I hop back in and exit the lane.

Our apartment opens up to a small lane. This quickly joins in with the main road of our colony. Trivandrum is known for its early implementation of resident associations. Our rented apartment is in one of them. It is a good colony. The people here belong to the upper-middle-class strata. It is quite evident in the houses they have built for themselves. It is also how things are here in Kerala. The house shows the social status symbol. He will work throughout his life to earn money and make a grand home for his family. In this process, he forgets to enjoy his life. This mentality is slowly changing in the upcoming generations. I believe that my generation falls in the transition phase of it.

When we got married I asked my wife what her concept was about owning a home. In a culture that promotes owning a home, having a car as marks of your prosperity and well-being, and fitting into the cultural norm, she gave a beautiful reply which instantly lighted up my face. I couldn’t contain the happiness it brought to me. I hugged her real tight and gave her a good kiss. She was very surprised at it. She stared at me for a while following the kiss. She said she wanted a house after we have kids and sometimes into the future when our kids are in their teens. That meant there were some fifteen and more years to go on before we should even think about it. I was happy because it clearly showed she wasn’t the kind to blindly follow whatever society expects us to. I knew this from the time we had started talking and were getting to know each other. She clearly had her own perceptions and principles and they were unique and beautiful. These things surely attracted me to her and I guess it was these small moments that catapulted our union.

There is this one old house on the main colony road. It has a very distinct architecture that resembles the homes made in a certain time period. I have seen them in other places too. She likes them a lot. On one of our evening strolls, she told me that if it was possible she would love to buy this home. It was at this moment that I observed the house a bit more thoroughly. It surely did have a charm of its own. The lawn in the front was actually a really nice feature. The property was triangular in shape and that somehow contributed more to its uniqueness. It was sitting in an elevated position from the road giving it a slight towering feel. The paint was also a basic light yellow - the kind from that particular time period. It also felt stretched out. I don’t know how long it is but from the view that we got it did seem to be long and spacious. I would have probably loved this home if I were in that particular time period. But since I am not, I can’t relate to it much. I would like to see its interiors though. Maybe it might have this one particular kind of old-school charm that I have always been a sucker for.

I have told her my concept of our home. It is not mainstream. I wish to have a home in the hills. It should be far away from the nearby town, a little bit difficult to access, and should be in a good green cover over a good expanse of land. A weather-susceptible electricity connection would do the job. Running water from the rocks would be fantastic. And probably areas to wander and explore - a spot to see sunrise or sunset and a rock to sit and chill with your near and dear ones on moonlight nights. The home would be a small single storied one. It should be the epitome of functionality. No space should be wasted. Sofas that can turn into comfortable beds, pull-up seats, space-saving wardrobes, and a minimal and functional kitchen. It should be a nice cozy place that preserves the heat and creates an atmosphere of warmth and wildness.

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She was interested in hearing this. She even nodded her approval for this after pointing out that this wouldn’t be our regular home. It would be a place where we would take our kids during vacations and for family outings. I agreed to it. In her profession, this wasn’t feasible. I knew we would eventually settle down in a city where it would be easy for her to work and even find a new one if she ever runs out of her old one. She has a long career up ahead. As for myself, well I am not sure. I can be easily distracted and can chase a wild goose here and there at times. She grounds me, which is very much essential.

It is nearly eight and it is hot. Gone were the days when January had a hint of chillness to it. On New Year, it rained. We had gone to a church by the beach. It is our favorite place in the city. Its proximity to a beach that has minimal crowd attracted us from the first time we went there. The church too is really gorgeous. We have our car parking spot and a set agenda whenever we visit it. First, we go into the church and pray. Then we go to the beach, walk to where there is the least crowd, sit for a while and talk about something or maybe go out and wet our feet. In the process, if a sunset happens to occur, we savor it and feel happy and blessed to be able to witness the beauty of nature.

In my hometown, my mother says there are days when the mist hangs around till eight in the morning. I am not surprised by it now. I would have been probably twenty years ago. But now it is true. And my hometown isn’t in the hills or any place where you would expect the mist to shroud you. It is at the beginning of the hills. In my childhood, I never witnessed anything of this sort. For seeing the mist, we used to go for a thirty-kilometer drive to the nearest hilly area. There in the evening, it would get really chilly as the mist starts rolling in. Soon its density would increase to such proportions that it would be difficult to see someone standing ten feet away from you. The chill, in the beginning, would be fun. I would enjoy it with my cousins. But soon enough you start to feel the cold. It ceases to be fun and exciting. We wouldn’t have brought anything to counter it and so we find ourselves back in the warmth of our car, heading back home through the roads carefully. I forgot to mention earlier that this is one more thing that I want in our home in the hills. I want the mist to engulf us from time to time and leave us enticed and jubilant. There is something exciting about it. I have always been a fan of it and love it. I know this dream of mine will take time to fruition. But that’s okay. I have time. We have just started out with our lives. There is so much more to see and experience and explore.

There is a shop that sells milk and essentials. I find that it is closed as I pass it. We ran out of milk. I need to buy a couple of them. I’ll buy them while coming back from the shop near the main road. There are a couple of shops there that cater to these needs. One will always find the basic essential things you are looking for in one of them.

I see no people on the roads. Or at the doctor's house near the shop I pass by. One can usually find some people huddled up near the gate of this doctor in the mornings. He is a retired professor from the Government Medical College and is well known for his diagnosis in the city. He consults only on weekdays. Today is a Thursday. I wonder why it is so. All these thoughts rush into my head when I speed past the house. I slow down the scooter a bit to turn and look back at the house. There is nothing at all.

My wife is doing her post-graduation from the same college. She is in her second year now. It is going well. Her batch mates are really fun. They come to our home on some evenings to play the few board games we have. Currently, it is a game called Sequence. It does get very competitive from time to time. It keeps you engaged and before you know it the clock has struck twelve. Those are really fun nights. We will probably have one of them this coming week.

With her duty and studies and my weird work pattern, we somehow manage to make the best of the time we have. Whenever I am here at home, she would manage to come early. We would then have our lunch together. She would be tired and after the meal, she would doze off watching some series or movie on Netflix. I would also doze off cause it is really comfortable to hug her, which in turn lulls me to sleep. We would then wake up and have our evening tea or coffee.

She likes South Indian filter coffee so that is the one we make if we are having coffee. If it is tea and if she is brewing it, she would add some cardamom to it and make it flavourful. The rest of the day we spend watching something or the other, some random stuff in reels and shorts and all that. She then takes time off to sit and study for a while. At this time, I might get back to the book I was reading in the morning. We call our kith and kin and catch up on them. Before we know it, it is time for dinner. More Netflix follows it.

Sometimes we sit and play something amongst ourselves. She says I am very competitive. I am. I feel when playing a game, one should play it to win it. Victory is secondary. Your intention should always be to win it fair and square and in the process adhere to good sportsman spirit. It does get us into some tussles but that’s all part of the game. Lately, she has beaten me by a good margin in sequence. I have therefore dubbed her to be the sequence queen. She chides at me as I announce it. She is a queen for sure. My queen.