The Nocturnal Partner
His ridiculous hours might be enough to drive most women crazy but these women have learnt to cope. ANEESA ALPHONSUS discovers that when it comes to nocturnal partners, it’s equilibrium that matters.

In order to spend quality time with her husband, *Nalini has to resort to waking up at 3am, about the time *Rajen gets home from work. In the wee small hours, they exchange notes on their respective days, making full use of the two miserable hours they have together before falling asleep – Nalini until the alarm jolts her awake at 7am and Rajen, into the late morning. This has become their routine since they married two years ago.

Nalini belongs to a group of women whose partners’ working hours do not gel with that of the rest of the world, leaving them precious little time together and that too at hours considered odd for most of us. Of course, these late night sojourns have a tendency to take a toll on these women, especially if they have an equally demanding career or kids to manage.

Nalini, an event organiser, married Rajen, a photojournalist after a whirlwind romance. As soon as the couple came back from their honeymoon and settled into their daily routines, cracks started appearing in the relationship due to the nature of Rajen’s job. Rajen leaves for work in the afternoon and comes home in the wee hours. Nalini returns home after a long day at the office to an empty house and is usually fast asleep by the time Rajen gets back. When she’s up and ready to head to work, Rajen, understandably, would be fast asleep.