Space Exploration - and How!

 
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At home, my better half and I have one common topic that we argue over – space! Before you stop reading this post, thinking that it is about space exploration, let me stop you right there. I mean ‘inner space’ as in ‘lack of space at home’. We have very diverse opinions about what takes up space.

As I always say, “Home is meant to be a comfortable living space made up of the things you treasure most – mementoes that remind you of your past, gifts from loved ones and anything sentimental.”

Quick comes the rejoinder! “Yes, old letters, mouldy plaques, ancestral brass items, dusty photo frames and clothes that you will never wear!”

According to him, when we got married, it was understood that with his worldly goods he would me endow. However, he was horrified when he saw the worldly goods that I would him endow. He once quoted someone called Francine Jay.

“Your home is living space, not storage space.”

                                                                                             Simple Lionheart Life

That was when the arguments began.

While in the Army, we would add boxes to our luggage every year, picking up artefacts from every state that we were posted in – papier mâché bowls and trinkets from Kashmir, phulkari in Punjab, crockery and mirror work in Gujarat, ‘tankhas’ (silk hangings with the portrait of the Buddha) in Arunachal Pradesh – in short, a tiny slice from everywhere. For we were (are) nothing if not cosmopolitan.

The day my Army husband took premature retirement, we were left gazing at the mountain of luggage we had.  We needed to prune it down, because we knew that we would be going into a flat, wherever we decided to settle down. Without exaggeration, I can say that we disposed of fifty boxes to our thrilled maids and batmen, with household stuff including our curtains, electrical appliances, crockery and carpets. It was like a purging of our souls, though it was my heart that broke.

However, to give credit to my thoughtful better half, the first thing he did when we finally settled down in Kerala was to fix loads of storage space in our flat. “It’s all yours to fill up!” he said generously. He regretted his words soon after as he watched me do just that with all the gusto I am capable of.

Of all the worldly goods that I possess, it is my collection of books that take up a large part of my heart. As a writer, I do have a large group of writer friends whose books gravitate on to my shelves. I can never saunter out of a bookshop without buying at least one book. Besides, as a couple, our tastes in reading are diametrically different. Tom Clancy and Wilbur Smith jostle for space along with Daphne du Maurier, PG Wodehouse and Agatha Christie.

                                                                                          Deepti Menon pics

To say that I am a magpie would, I agree, be a slight understatement. I have Kitchen Mate cook-and-serve bowls that are as old as our marriage. When I was a newly wed and knew nothing about cooking, I started writing simple recipes in a little brown diary, which is still going strong today. I have, along with my younger sister, inherited the hoarding gene from my 87-year-old mother who still has the diaries she wrote in when she was in her twenties. The sad part is that the writing within has faded just as memories do, slowly but steadily. My youngest sister is a tougher nut, and has absolutely no magpie tendencies. She throws out stuff every season, but her older sisters somehow manage to stretch out their hands and catch what she throws. So much for space control!

Shoes do have a way of taking a stroll in the middle of the night and turning up in the most unexpected places the day after. In order to curb their nomadic tendencies, I decided to place all my footwear in a low shelf. I sat on the floor, and by the time I had finished wiping every shoe, I felt like a mini-Imelda Marcos. I had discovered pairs that I had forgotten I possessed. A part of me felt downright sheepish, but the rest of me was elated. I had brand new shoes to wear without lifting a finger, or opening my wallet.

                                                                                        AI Generated - freepik.com

Our daughter has taken after her youngest aunt. With two energetic little ones who play with everything from playdough and puzzles to kitchen sets and ninepins, their room overflows with toys, all of which go into boxes at the end of the day. Once or twice a year, our daughter creates piles of everything and gives them away to people who need them. Every time she does so, my better half raises an eyebrow as though to tell me, “That’s how it is done!” Of course, we could not be prouder of her, but then, God broke the mould after he made her! Or am I talking about myself?

Nowadays, you hear hammering anytime you walk by our flat. If you walk in, you will see men hard at work, creating extra cupboards and shelves. My beleaguered better half has given in to my magpie tendencies and allowed me more space to hide the clutter and create yet more space at home.

                                                                                         QuoteFancy

Hopefully the arguments will now be ‘spaced’ out!

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