Essay: Accompanying Spouse by Nidhi Srivastava Asthana

Nidhi Asthana’s personal essay is a beautiful glimpse into personal beliefs, rituals, and spirituality.

The married couple that prayed regularly has moved out of the official residence leaving behind everything that they were supposed to: everything that belongs to the employer, such as furniture and electronic gadgets, in what is a furnished home. The set-up would help the ‘successor’, my husband, to carry out his worldly duties that have nothing to do with religion: of course, in his office. They did leave behind minor personal stuff. And they also have definitely left their stamp as a religious pair. A stamp that is not likely to give me inner sustenance even as it imparts cultural familiarity in my new home in what is, after all, a foreign land. 

I definitely did not like the overly big and garish calendar of Lord ummmmmm … we certainly do not know him in the same form in my part of our diverse homeland … so, I couldn’t be sure of which deity he was. The juxtaposition of a figure of worship with dates, names of the months, and the advertisement of the sponsor was jarring and commercial; I saw no beauty in it. Off it went with me to a place where I could discreetly and ‘accidentally’ leave it behind – out of cultural, not devotional correctness. I did not have the option of trashing it openly.