Re-writing Destiny

A popular Tamil proverb says that marriages are determined in heaven, and often we come across cases of marriage which are strange and even hard to believe. And such is the marriage of this young man, with two legs thin as sticks (due to polio), and this beautiful young lady. It is a marriage between weakness and strength, weakness of the young man whose movement is highly restricted due to his legs, and strength of the lady, who gave up her family and all ties in order to stand by him, after a courtship of seven long years. But at the time of marriage, there were very few to bless them, save a Jesuit priest who stood by the couple and gave them all the much needed support, and a few other close friends. But there was something unusual in the marriage.

Maybe unusual is not the right word, a better word might be extra-ordinary. What made the 'black beauty' to stick to the young man, knowing well that her life too would be in a way restricted (imagine the restrictions to her freedom of movement); often in public gatherings it might become a bit embarassing to introduce a crippled as one's husband, however well educated he might be, and however loving he could be. To go out of the social conditionings and limitations, is in a true sense a heroic value. For the young man, this is the best he could get from life, and for the lady, this is the best she could ever offer to someone in life.

We cannot avoid the scorn of the family members and the neighbors, who might smell something out of the marriage, that the girl might be evil-intentioned, or the couple had a hidden agenda in getting married, despite the opposition by both the families! But nothing could stop them from being united in marriage, and the presence of just a handful of men and women to stand by them at the moment of their self-offering to each other was enough for them to put the right foot forward, as another Tamil proverb might have it. They have no regrets, no demands from anyone on earth. They do not mind starting life anew, from the scratch. There is a special joy in exploring life as it unfolds every moment, and every day.

But what could we say about the families of the couple, who initially oppposed the marriage, but later became indifferent. The girl's family could not believe that she would do such a stupid thing to marry a physically challenged person, and they might even thought that it was a shameful thing for her to do that, and they would have thought it better to keep themselves away from what she was doing; they could not accept her determination, it came as a big blow to them. But then what about the boy's family: instead of welcoming the lady to their household, they only keep her away from them, because there was a unseen factor dividing the families : caste, the most poisonous demon causing havoc in most of the families in the South.

There is no greater assurance in such difficult moments than divine providence, and hope in life as it takes charge of the new family that is formed in marriage. Life has the potentiality to transform hearts, and melt stones. It might take sometime for life to reveal magical moments, where reality would be so very different from what people thought it to be. Where hearts reach out to the core of their inner selves, there no caste, no family feuds, economical factors, or even physical beauty can stand. Truly from this day, the young man has better sticks to lean on - his wife, and with her by his side, he can face any stromy night, scorching sun and torrential rain!