“Wonder whether their spouses would have nursed fond memories of these as you did?”
“Won’t the fresh nuptial require the surviving spouse to dissipate the affections of the departed soul, and sadly for the toddlers, it brings about their emotional disconnect with the deceased parent,” he said and continued with his saga of life. “While in my childhood, I was close to my paternal grandfather for his affection, in my youth, I was drawn more to my intellectually endowed maternal grandfather, who, as I told you, was reluctant to have my dad as his son-in-law; it was another matter though that he came to realize later what a capable man and devoted husband my dad was. Well as his fancied first son-in-law was found wanting in ways many, his esteem for the slighted groom only grew; he even came to depend on my father whom he began treating like a son, and my dad too started looking up to him as a father figure; what an amiable relationship they had developed and how that sustained till the very end!”
“Maybe, liking is a product of presumptions and respect an outcome of analysis; that’s why, liking wanes when perceptions are belied but respect grows when the character shows.’
“Good observation,” he said and continued, “Once, citing Kalidasa’s astrological averments, my maternal grandfather predicted that I would be a rich man but cautioned me not to be complacent, how I rue failing to follow his warning! Whatever, sadly, when ripe old, he broke his hip, necessitating his hospitalization; he was put in a special ward at the government hospital, now a taboo even for the lower middle classes. ‘S’ the nurse on the night duty was wont to be playful with me but being fair and plump, she failed to enter into my zone of sexual attraction; but I was taken to ‘V’ her younger sibling who kept her company in the staffroom; though raw she was nearer to my ideal female. What a time we have had in the staffroom late into the nights as ‘V’ too unwound herself in S’s infectious company; the euphoria of their animation seemed to draw me closer to both of them; oh, how they vied with each other to shower praises upon me, all the while caressing me with their enamored looks! Though the vivacity of ‘S’ began to dent my entrenched sense of beauty; it was V’s romanticism that catalyzed the chemistry of our attraction; how lovingly she symbolized the imagery of our attraction in that sketch of two flowers, marked ‘S’ and ‘V’ with the leaf ‘M’ in between them! Soon ‘S’ proposed that we three should celebrate her birthday, a week away, at a nearby tourist resort, and to my delight ‘V’ seconded the proposed outing.”