Homecoming

He was a Sainik School boy, since his 6th standard, then NDA, then IMA. 45 years of marriage to my mother did not get that out of his system.

I was internally devastated as we wheelchaired him to the Navy hospital ward. He'd lost weight and energy and, as it seemed, the will to live. At the Navy hospital, we weren't allowed to stay or minister to him. I thought I had seen the last of him.

In the night call with mother he told us what he ate at the Naval hospital: noodles and manchurian for lunch, chapati-dal-subzi for dinner. We had struggled for weeks as he nauseated food, and ate nothing but thin buttermilk.

That was his home, among the men in uniform. The boy just got home, after 30 years in the wilderness of civilian life.

finally finding
what our pet likes eating most
— attention

Published in Glomag May 2025