It has been five years since I requested him to clear his study room. Every birthday of mine, I would ask him for only one present – to clear this room. And till date it has never happened.

Now I believe five years is enough time for some one to clear-out a 10ft x 6ft space. But no, not where it concerns him; he needs to hang on to old bus passes, books which he bought in his fifth grade, love letters that his first girlfriend gave him and magazines that he purchased as a college student. Alright so I am not exactly the type of person who hangs on to the past, no make that I NEVER hang on to my past – past is something that I erase conveniently especially if it is no longer required for my present.

If past were just memories, I can understand that, but when past becomes clutter and that too clutter in MY house, I just cannot stand it. In fact clutter of any kind makes me go crazy. Yeah go on call me an OCD of some sort and I won’t deny it. What do you want me to do? Go to some shrink and moan that I can’t phantom living with my husband because he doesn’t keep the study room clean? HIS study room clean?

Now let’s just broaden the situation a bit more – when there’s video tapes and more video tapes in the living room (yes he is in the process of converting it all into DVDs!!), there’s books and paper cuttings in the kitchen and the guest cupboard gets converted to yet another storage unit – I tell you my blood just gets boiling.

I am sorry, but compromise in a marriage is acceptable only when one can remain sane with what’s required to be done. Every weekend as I dust and clean the house, I kill a part of myself. There are just too many things to be done and I am not allowed to do as I please.

Why can’t he be like my father? He left everything concerning the house to my mom? That was her territory and she did as she pleased........