Life Story: Stale Food Syndrome

 

Although he does not try to remember the past moments from his marital life, sometimes a few incidents naturally popup in his mind. For example, an incident suddenly flashed in his mind today.

He and his wife were traveling on a short vacation to another city. Since journey plans were made on a short notice and it was just over-night journey, they had booked bus tickets in AC Sleeper category. While making the plan, it never came into their mind that she suffered from a tendency to vomit while traveling on road. Sometime after the journey began, she mentioned that she was feeling a bit uneasy, so he suggested her to carry a polybag in her hand so that it could come handy any moment. But she ignored the advice and said that she would be fine. Just 5 minutes past that conversation, she suddenly vomited directly on his trousers! He was disgusted and furious! He was not furious just because she vomited on him, He was furious because she had ignored his advice and then vomited on him. She managed to bring things in order and did not say anything, after all it was her mistake. But what happened next day was an epic act.

Next day, while they were having lunch, she offered last evening’s vegetable dish to him and asked if he would like to have a bit of that in order to help finish it. He took it readily. And that dish was stale! He ended up with a very bad case of diarrhea immediately after lunch. She had good talent and knowledge of food, so she would know that it was stale. After a few days he had wondered if she did it on purpose. There was no means to know for sure; and he did not say anything about it later. But another time and place, it was not so subtle.

Once at home, she took out some sweets from the refrigerator and started to eat. But as soon as she took it in her mouth, she threw it saying that the sweet had gone stale. He heard that. Then she went to the other room. But she returned soon. She took out some of the same sweet from the refrigerator, came up to him and asked if he would like to have some sweets! He was shocked! He told her calmly that he had heard her saying that the sweet had become stale, so was she trying to make him sick again by asking him to eat it? She did not respond and just left the scene. 

At that time, he had wondered why his wife hated him so much. What kind of wife would purposefully give stale food to her husband to cause him food-poisoning? What did he do to deserve this? But these were questions to ponder only once. Now he knows about things for sure. His wife did not need a reason to hate him. And he did not do anything to deserve this. Not all wives are meant to love their husbands and not all husbands get to get a good wife. It is as simple as that. 

- Rahul Tiwary