Are you being pickled?

Recently, a good friend of ours - Ravi & Lakshmi - celebrated their 10 years of matrimony. Many of us, single, been married (beaten?), wished them many, many years of togetherness.

In response to our wishes, Lakshmi, who always seemed to have had a hidden talent for metaphors described the essence of marriage in a short poem. The poem is mentioned below.

Marriage is a jar of pickles with a variety of fruits,vegetables and spices
sweet as mango
sour as lime
Rough and bitter as gourd
spicy as mustard
hot as pepper
It does not taste yummy or last long until marinated in the sun, slow & steady.

Wow! marvelous! heard a lot about good marriages, but this metaphor...just made me think a lot.

She may have said the words of wisdom with a lot of memories to cherish, but what a disservice she has done - to me - alas!.

Before I run out of interjections in my language, let me interrupt and say a few things.

I am scared, a lot scared now. I have heard people gaining wisdom when they grow old. This much of wisdom - especially this "Pickle Theory" - makes me wonder!

Now from on, every time in solitude when I enjoy the curd rice with that spicy "Priya" pickle, made more flavorful by a can of coke and a bit of jamoon at 1 AM in the mornings, she has made me think about the marriage. "Priya" or "MTR" pickle - equated to many, many years of marriage. Man, my peace of mind - the one I have watching the reruns of "Sex and the City" in the wee hours is gone.

I completely like the last part of the quote though. "It does not taste yummy or last long until marinated in the sun, slow & steady."

Now, I realize why am I being asked to do the yard work in the hot sun. I was getting marinated in the sun, slow & steady. Remember this, my wife is always ahead of many of you in a lot of ways. Wow! now I realize one more thing: my wife Shree was actually helping me getting "marinated" more, when I do those long runs in the hot sun.

So, what is going to happen with the other Pileon husbands? Beebs will be forced to fly the planes with no top -like the ones resembling the B2 bombers of the WWII era (I hear Jer saying: "That might be the only way anybody would get sun on him.").

Poor Ram - he will (asked to) bike up and down, east to west, north to south, on all the possible trails known to mankind in the Fremont area - not to mention in the hot sun.

Imagine, how will the Pileon husbands look like in their 15th year and 20th year of their anniversaries: as dark as a coal, just the teeth being white (or may be yellow for coffee drinkers like me). May be the hair color would be compensating for the white in the color of their teeth (if at all they too remain).

Imagine the kids saying, "dad! please show your teeth. We can't see you in the dark."

Hallmark cards might start issuing wedding anniversary cards titled, "Are you pickled?"

I see a lot of good things to come in the years to come. For now, enjoy the Sun's tan.