December 15. “Why don’t you get the house painted?”

“I’ve been wanting to but there was all that work happening outside. We’ll have to get down to doing it shortly.”

“I don’t think Dost is too keen. Too much mess is created and all that dust and the smell of paint can give anyone an allergy.”

“I also see it as the beauty of ageing. When we age, it lends us a particular character—the experience of having lived for so many years, the ups and downs all of us go through—all that adds character to our lives and  physical appearance. It is the same with the four walls within which we live. As they age, cracks develop and they look old and aged. But that lends character to the home. All the memorabilia we collect over the years and decorate the home with, all the little things we keep adding over the years sometimes get misplaced when we move these things away to do a paint job. It’s almost similar to doing a botox treatment to stop our skin from sagging or hair weaving to get a head full of hair.”

“That’s a nice way of putting it. I understand exactly what you mean.”

“We have, in the past, misplaced lots of memorabilia from shifting them around every time we got the house painted. I am also not saying that we won’t get the house painted but there’s no rush as such.”