He's home, finally. It's ten o' clock. Even the dog is annoyed but neither of them say anything. He's been coming home late everyday for a week now. He blames it on his boss. He walks in, removes his shoes, keeps them in front of the shoe rack, not inside. He throws his socks carelessly beside the sofa and slumps down in the armchair.
"Where's the remote, Shubha?" Sentence number 1.
She hands it over to him. The TV is on. He changes the channel to NDTV, doesn't ask his wife before he does. He has only started watching NDTV recently. Till about three weeks ago, he was a loyal CNN-IBN fan. But his heart broke when Rajdeep Sardesai quit and he feels Bhupender Chaubey isn't up to the mark.
"Are you going to change or should I give you dinner now?"
"No, I'll have now." Sentence number 2.
They're having dinner. They've switched back to Zee TV now. There's this new show on, EVEREST, about a girl who wants to be a mountaineer. Both of them like it. Or at least, she likes it and he watches along. Mihir the nephew calls. He picks up and starts talking. She can't hear the dialogue now but she doesn't mind, she's gotten used to it. From what she can gather, he needs career advice. Something's going on with the girl who wants to be mountaineer and her best friend and it sounds serious. One fo them is crying. "Yes yes. See, If you ask me right now, I'm happy with my job. I enjoy it. And at the end of the day, that's all that matters". They keep talking. EVEREST gets over and Satrangi Sasural starts. They're still talking. "See, I'll talk to him. I'll talk to him... No, I think he's still in Jamshedpur".
He finally hangs up. It's twelve. She's looking at him. "Happy new year," he says. She smiles as he sits beside her and puts an arm around her. Then her gaze slides down to the sock curled up near her leg and she frowns. "When is that Agarwal fellow coming?" she asks. They're getting new furniture and carpets. It's the carpeting part she's all excited about. The floor's going to look all wooden now, like it looks in Abha's house. "He'll be around 11:30. He said today it might take two more days," he says. She doesn't mind. So many things to look forward to now. Sonu will be coming over in March, there's still three months to go for that. But in the meantime new carpets, new furniture, and maybe new TV! Her life is going to remain the same after all that, she knows. You buy a new phone and you think "Maybe this is going to change something, maybe this is going to make my life a little less miserable". But in reality, nothing changes. Stuff like that happens only in advertisements. It's going to be the same old life till she grows old and dies. Unless grandkids. But that looks unlikely. But enough about all that. It's a New Year! It's time for a fresh clean start! Anything can happen, right? He nods.
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