#Together : The Story of Returning Home

I am a working man and I work hard, rather slog it out from 9.00 am to 6.30 pm. To reach office at 9.00 am I start my day at around 5.30 am in the morning. This goes on for six days a week.

You can say that I have mine priorities lined up and earning well. But am I enjoying life. You will agree that I am not. 

I may be earning money but I am missing something called social life. That is where this story starts. 

The office usually ends at 6.30 pm and I reach office by around 7.30 pm. I have a car so it takes me around one hour to weave and whiz around the Mumbai traffic and return home but when I do make it, I return to see my son Aaditya's face.

Aaditya, you see had turned one this Jan and is a intelligent boy. He knows that his Pa will return at 7.30 pm so he wakes up exactly at 7.00 pm and is ready to welcome me.

So when I climb up the stairs, thinking about Aaditya makes me forget the days slog and I look forward to seeing him. Once I reach home I am greeted by his smiling face and he makes a run for the car keys.

Now this is a daily ritual in my life, as soon as I return to my house I take Aaditya for a drive. Not a longish one but a short drive to the Dahisar Bridge. 

I take Aaditya there, we park the car in the middle of the bridge, a lot of folks out to enjoy the evening/night do that. And I take Aaditya out of the car and make him sit on the top of the car. 

Together we chat about the view, the new buildings and projects that are coming up. I tell Aaditya about my plans to buy a new house in the grandest of the buildings coming up which is some 30 stories high, Aaditya agrees with me. You see Aaditya cant talk as of now so he just babbles kiddie words like bab pee and ka which I assume are yes no and what. Though I am no expert in child lingo, I judge Aaditya's words by the response I get to the question.

When I tell Aaditya I will buy the new house on 29th floor, he says bab which I take it to be yes and when I say should I buy it on 2nd or 3rd floor he says pee which I take as no.

When I tell him, chal lets go home, he says ka. So I understand his words. 

We smile together, have loads of fun, buy some popcorn and ice-cream. Though Aaditya throws half the popcorn away and I have to eat the ice-cream because he finds it too cold.

Now that is a ritual I wont miss for a million bucks. This called returning home.

I sometimes think, what will happen to this ritual when Aaditya grows up, will he remember our haunt, will he remember the house I am trying to buy and will he remember is bab, pee and ka. I doubt it but I will remember everything he does ever.