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I recoiled from the idea of getting married. In my mind, I pictured night curfews and weekend shopping sprees.

It is natural for a woman to impose a regimented lifestyle, most often one that is to her advantage, on her husband. And I feared that post-marriage I would be stopped from participating in motor racing.

But most people can’t dodge the nuptial knot for ever. I went the way of the world and yielded to parental pressure, but agreed to get married on one condition. “The girl should not expect me to give up motor-racing.”

I need not have feared, because from the beginning my wife was my biggest fan. When I planned to retire from the circuit, she urged me to continue until our son Siddharth could take the racer’s mantle from me.

But once our son was introduced to the racing circuit, she wanted me to call it a day. “I can’t bear to see father and son treating each other as competitors,” she explained.

But I think I am competing unsuccessfully with Siddharth for her love. I am on a short fuse. She forgives me my temper tantrums, except when they are directed at Siddharth.

Marriage has been the making of me. She is popular within our extended family and outside.

She has been teaching Hindi at St. Michael’s Academy for 25 years and I see constant evidence of the respect and love her past and present students have for her.

But she is a balanced person, and praise does not go to her head.

She does a thousand and one things, but they have never been an excuse for neglecting me.

From the day of our marriage to now, I have remained on the top of her priority list. She gives me freedom of choice.

Knowing my liking for an occasional glass of beer, she has given me the liberty to have a drink at home. This, I guess, is her way of keeping me on a tight rein.

Leela

Even I agreed to get married on one condition.

My father was a wing commander and my two sisters’ husbands have also been with the Air Force. I am from a family that swears by patriotism. And I wanted to follow in my sisters’ footsteps.

That Subash Chandra Bose was a civilian disappointed me. But I said yes, thanks to his name.

I never stood in the way of his racing ambitions. When people told me racing was a dangerous sport, I would retort, “Death can strike anytime. It can come to you when you are sitting at home.”

I knew racing gave a lot of meaning to his life and decided to be a source of encouragement. By the same token, he accedes to my wishes. Along with us, all his close relatives occupy various apartments in the same complex. It is a sort of a joint family system. Except for me, all are vegetarian. Bose never asked me to stay off non-vegetarian food, even though he has not taken to it in a big way.

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