Life, when counted in weeks, tells a story differently.

 Over 3,575 weeks have passed since my first breath in Dadar and inside them are about 2,360 weeks since Alka and I first crossed paths. Nearly 1,982 of those weeks have been as husband and wife. Each one carrying its own weight, its own gift.

Before those married weeks began, we had already stood together through storms. Emotional storms that made us question our own courage. Financial storms that left us unsure of tomorrow. We stayed through all of it. Then Dubai happened. That single turning of the page changed the story. Our weeks filled with good life, beautiful home, travel, laughter, friendships across continents, and the joy of living larger than we had ever dreamed.

Not all weeks were easy. Some stretched painfully, in hospital corridors and in nights after Alka’s stroke. Some vanished before we could catch them—airports, deadlines, hotel rooms, snow, seas and sand dunes. A few remain timeless. The registrar’s office where a borrowed garland crowned our vows. The afternoon at Siddhivinayak Temple when fear sat heavily between us. The quiet evenings at home when nothing else in the world mattered.

We tried for children. Doctors, godmen, pilgrimages, candles, vermillion, ashes ...of all forms and sizes. The Universe decided otherwise. That sorrow lingers quietly, but it shaped a different gift. A closeness that is ours alone. Every one of those 1,982 married weeks carries that bond.

In these last 260 weeks, we have lived cloistered within our home. Circumstance forced it upon us, yet it has not broken us. We have laughed. We have smiled. We have found sunshine every morning, even on dark rainy days. The world outside has gone faster, louder, sometimes harsher. Inside our walls, we have created a gentler rhythm, a rhythm that still belongs to us.

So I do not see time as running out. This second innings is not about less, it is about more. More laughter, more tenderness, more small joys that add up to something greater. We will see Week 4,000 as a strong, active, healthy pair of beautiful souls. I know this with certainty. That faith is enough to carry us forward.

With love, From somewhere around week 3,575 and counting.

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