The what-if situation.

k tells me that I often get into what-if situations so much that I forget that it's a what-if situation and it's not actually real. Let me explain that better. The conversation starts innocuously:

Me - "What if your mom comes to stay with us and I get up really late on a Saturday, will she be ok with that?"

k - "Sure, why not? We can make her also sleep in late!"

Me (not liking the playful tone to his voice) - "Are you sure?"

k - "Yeah! It's not like we live with my parents in India! Relax"

(Aside - Argg! I hate the words "relax", "cool it", "take it easy" in the middle of an argument err...conversation. It indicates am getting all worked-up and hotheaded about the issue whereas the real issue that's making me hotheaded is the word "relaaaax" followed by a casual shrug!)

Me - "What if we have to go back to India, where will we live?"

k - "Bombay" (The answer comes to him unconsciously, especially since he is busy staring at his NCAA bracket willing his next-to-last position to inch up magically.)

Me - "Bombay?! Will we have to catch the local train to go to work then? Where will we live? Don't tell me we will live next to annoying Mrs.h~ that we met this time!"

(Aside - Mrs.h~ is the one who always talks to me through k, as if I didn't actually exist there. "Does she cook? Can she speak Hindi? She does? You must speak to her in Gujarathi so she will learn soon." - all questions addressed to dear hubby. For a wild moment then, I had an urge to answer similarly, I imagined tossing my hair, turning to k and saying, "Can Mrs.h~ give us the recipe for these yummy gulab jamuns?" and oh yeah, "Can she speak Hindi?")

k - "Ok, Bangalore then." (His bracket is beyond help, he realizes, so he has gone back to browsing his normal stock sites.)

Me - (Am relieved momentarily that we have decided on Bangalore but then I suddenly think of all the articles I have been reading about traffic congestion and infrastructure problems in Bangalore) "Gosh, what if we have to travel an hour to get to work? What if we can't adjust to work-timings there after getting used to the schedule here? What if..."

k - (interrupts me rudely, after all it was a reasonable hypothetical situation, one would think!) "Why should we always discuss these hypothetical situations of yours? What if? What if? And it's not that you answer a what-if and it goes away, it leads to more what-ifs all the more confusing than the first! Women and their what-ifs, bah!"

And so the story goes. My what-ifs remain what-ifs. Maybe I should ask him my what-if questions when his bracket gets better.

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