Granny and the KISS...

Granny and the KISS...



"Do you love him?" she asked.

"I don't know granny!" the twenty year old said shuffling a little in her chair. She looked at her granny expecting her to react.
Granny did not react.

"How will i know if its love granny?" she asked. There was no reply from the granny. Again!

There was silence for a while.

"Granny speak something." the girl was getting restless.

"How will i know if it is love granny?" she asked again... waiting eagerly for a reply.

The granny was quiet for a while before she started speaking.

"We were married fifty two years ago, me and your grandfather. Till he passed away four years ago we were very happy together. There was one.... one...(she hesitated... actually searched for the correct word.) thing or habit that we had. It was not something we planned for. It just happened to us."

"What is it granny?"

"It actually started a month after our marriage. The first few days of our marriage... i was a shy girl. He mixed well with everyone. In hardly a week i got used to him. I was very free with him, though not so much with my in-laws. Slowly we loved spending time with each other. In no time I fell in love with him..... at least I thought it was love. It did not take me much time to realise he loved me too... He never said that he loved me..... but he always showed it."

"It was the sixties... United.. combined families was the in thing.... So we had very little personal moments... so fifteen days later... we found ourself in kodaikanal..."

"Romance haan! dadi...." she winked.. Granny smiled.

"To me.... it was romantic. I loved the place and our stay... we visited several near by places but everynight we came back to the same hotel room. As far as I remember it was on the third night of our trip. We had gone to visit a temple near by. We walked around as the scenic beauty was great. We came back tired but content and happy. We held hands which back then was quite a deed. There was this feeling.. like i was floating in air. Unexpressable it was."

"We were on the bed and I had closed my eyes, rewinding and playing the entire day's events. Suddenly i could feel warm breath against my face. Your Grandfather was a very romantic person. He was a very good kisser. so I was waiting him to kiss me.... if you understand what i mean. " the girl laughed... and winked at her Granny.

"I did not open my eyes. He kissed me on the forehead. Two seconds later I opened my eyes... anticipating to be staring into his and guess what... I was staring at the ceiling. I did not understand but I chose not to turn to him... so I quickly closed my eyes.. and ended up slipping into sleep sometime later."

"The next day was good too. Spending time alone was really getting 'real good'. That night too.... i was lying in bed... I was thinking about how life has turned good after marriage and suddenly there was a wet kiss on my forehead. Somehow again I did not manage to open my eyes immediately.... two seconds later as i opened my eyes expecting him to be there this time at least..... all i found was myself staring at the ceiling."

"The next day.... i wanted to know what he was upto... so i did not close my eyes.... I was shuffling on the bed continousyl and the kiss never came. Some time later after i stabilized and closed my eyes... the kiss came back.... this time I did not want to open my eyes...."

"... and from that day for the next forty eight years.... every night when we get into bed... to him I am asleep. I wait for him to plant that kiss on my forehead before he sleeps. Never in those years has once did he mention that he kisses me. I never wanted to mention him that i would be awake with my eyes closed every night as ke kissed me. I just never wanted to mention. That one kiss would make my day complete. How many ever problems or difficulties I had... he always kissed me. Every night I switch the lights off and get into bed... for that kiss. He made it a habbit to kiss me everyday and I made it a habit everyday to be awake with my eyes closed... but asleep to him."

"Sounds really romantic Granny!" she said with a pleasant smile on her face.

"To me... these are things that tell you if it is love or not. Saying 'I Love You' is not all... you have to show it... and though your grandfather did not mean to show it by kissing me... because i was awake I always knew he loved me. Even when we fought... the day just had to end with that KISS. Always special!. There are those certain things that happen between a pair or a couple which you would just want everyday and never get bored... to me... those are things through which love is expressed and the presence of such things means... it is LOVE.


Written by
Goutam Chalasani