Mind of the Confounded Man

 "Pick up whatever you feel like and let me sleep!", she said and hung up. I am not much of a drinker and neither is my wife, but at Duty Free shops I have this crazy urge to buy alcohol because I love good deals that help me massage my ego. You would think that as a marketer, used to toying around consumer behavior, I would realize the irrationality of my own habit. Well I don't and this is a perfectly rational behavior in my head. My wife has given up on trying to make me see the absurdity of it but she hasn't given up on her sleep. So when at 3AM, I landed at the Mumbai airport (home to some of the cheapest booze in the world), and took a rational decision of calling my wife to check on what booze I should buy "for her", I soon realized this was a faux pas. While boarding the Uber back home, my mind had already switched to damage control mode: 1.Should I pick up her favorite coffee from Starbucks | At that hour it was suicide 2. Flowers? The only flowers

  My wife and I go for long walks through a silent and serene park to talk and unwind from the day that has been. We have promised not to take our phones on these walks as she especially treasures the peace and calm of the surroundings. Overall it is therapeutic and helps us cope with the times. That day the walk started a bit hurriedly, perhaps a desperate attempt by me to escape one of those bad days at work. In my hurry, I forgot to leave my phone behind so the promise shifted to not using it.  As we strolled through the calming silence of the park, I complained about life and people. My dear wife, who loves me to bits and wouldn't let any emotional harm ever come to me, ran her hand gently through my hair and said, "You know they are wrong" . Felt better. Just then I got a group video call from my parents and sister. Now we are a regular Bengali family whose cacophony would overpower the calm of the surroundings that we were in. I wanted to generally complain about th