PEACE IS A VERITABLE GIFT

ABC Wednesday

'P' IS FOR PEACE

At the moment, I think nobody knows better than me the supreme value of peace and solitude. However, the realization dawned on me the difficult way. Here I‘m not going to dwell on the philosophical or spiritual aspect of the concept of peace but would talk about it in terms of a more mundane side of life.

It so happened that we had to take an arduous decision, the one we had been postponing, figuratively speaking, for centuries.

We constructed our beautiful house more than three decades ago. Though, we had been going through minor repairs here and there but the thought of the jumbo task of renovation, always gave us jitters. However, the alarm bells chimed vociferously one day, when we disturbingly noticed seepage on the wall, wherein the pipes supplying water to the geyser had been fitted. That, of course meant the shocking urgency to pry open the common bedroom, bathroom wall, to pinpoint the spot. The emergent situation left no room for dodging. This was like pushing oneself into the lion’s pitch that too as the best alternative. Nothing short of that really.

Then there was another challenge waiting in the wings for quite some time. The floor laid with chips was spoiled through wear and tear and small stones had come out leaving tiny holes everywhere. It was not bothering us as such but it had become, no doubt, an eye sore and demanded urgent intervention.

Thus, dear friends we went ahead with many misgivings and I never knew, it’d be such a tough battle. For the last two months, I’ve been grumbling my heart out and splitting my hair waiting to get over with the uphill task literally. Though, to my chagrin the renovation marathon, like a balloon, gets extended and expanded somehow, perhaps as a retribution for some past aberration on my part.  As they say, the difficult days stretch too far and joyful days end too soon, so it is with me. The disgust of this never-ending adventure is piling up and I long for the peace that eludes me completely.

Surrounded by nasty cement bags, sand dunes, paints, brushes, carpentry tools and swathed in dust the whole day, you can imagine the messy situation I’m in. To cap it all, I’ve to serve more than a dozen cups of tea to the work force every day.

Another side effect of this ordeal is that dear hubby and I snap at each other all the time. He gets frustrated at the poor quality of the work and that saps his energy and makes him irritable. When I want him to listen, he stubbornly ignores me and I get angry. My cup of woes is full to the brim. The whole house is messed up and mason, plumber and carpenter are in and out of the house umpteen numbers of times. All the outer net doors remain open to facilitate their movement. I pay the price of free run inside the house of mosquitoes and flies that I loathe. At night, to get some sleep ( thee machhar bhagaoe) ‘Good Knight’ is installed to ward off the itchy mosquito stings. My other half is allergic to the chemicals in the contraption and gets stuffy nose. Helplessness rules abjectly.

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Still I hope things will fall in place soon. The good news is that the bathrooms are donning the inviting look after the makeover. The floor tiles are almost done. The paint job though the slowest one is nearing completion. The carpenter is busy removing the long pending hiccups in the woodwork. Normalcy is waiting to happen.

Frankly both of us are working like donkeys to put things in place and bring order and peace of mind in our lives once again. The freshly laundered curtains are ready to adorn the doors and windows in their crispy avatar. The paint is getting dry and losing that screwy odor. The newly laid nonskid tiles on the driveway got a profuse bath from my part time help. The verandas tiled in grey look elegant and the new design on the gate made with granite invites appreciative glances.

The fabulous look of the interiors, more than compensates for the ordeal I underwent. Finally I hope to be at peace soon enough.

Friends,share your experiences in a similar situation.
Image courtesy: Google