TWICE IN LOVE WITH HIM

He was Adonis to look at. His fair skin, sharp chiseled features, dark hair made him pure eye candy among girls. It was my weakness for fair skinned, bespectacled, intelligent looking men that landed me amidst his teenage fans.

It was at a party, after more than a decade that I recently met him. His grey hair now added to his charm. I kept admiring his looks and charms from corner of my eyes. Then the bomb was dropped from somewhere. I overheard that he has been married for a long time now. How can he marry without asking any of his fans?  I kept thinking and biting my fingertips and lips alternately. I looked around for my childhood friends to share this tragic news.

But shock of the shocks was his wife, to whom he introduced me mid-way in the party. She was the most simple looking, wheatish complexioned girl, whom I thought was most unlikely to be his wife. But that was not all. It was when she stood up to meet me and together we moved chatting towards eateries that I observed she had polio and there was obvious limp while she walked.

She later told that he was her distant cousin and no one would agree marrying her because of her disability, when this teenage crush of mine stepped in and changed her life for ever and for good. She kept telling me how much he cares and loves her and all this when she had given up all hopes of leading a happily married life.Wasnt this man ashamed of his wife in public ? Why peer pressure didnt bother him ? I wondered.

In doing so he won my heart once more and even more regard and respect of his long train of admirers.

KNIGHT IN SHINNING ARMOUR

It’s my 32^nd Valentines Day and I haven’t yet found one for myself. Turning 30 and being single, I assure you, isn’t less than a crusade. People eye you with suspicion all the time to catch any physical or mental disability which is making you unfit for marriage. And now there is one more phrase, thanks to soaps and movies, on the tongue of India housewives that “is she a les? “.

There was a man whom I can justly call “My Knight in Shinning Armor “.It so happened during my college days I was working part time in a local clinic. A very ordinary looking man came with his wife for consultation. His clothes were even simpler but tidy .I could assess from his old and rugged moped his financial status. He later admitted that he owns a small grocery store nearby and wanted affordable treatment for his wife. To my horror she was a patient of depression since 20-25 years and I had to waste my pleasant Sunday morning making her Case history for hours.

The seemingly illiterate attendant of my patient started to narrate his wife’s   past history. The woman, now over 45, was divorced 5 years back by her previous husband after surviving years of torture, beating, insults and mortification. He simply left her saying she is no longer of use to him, and didn’t even let her meet her daughters, which added to her depression and misery.

Tears welled into my eyes when the present husband told that this woman was all alone and there was no one even to treat her, clothe her or feed her. He needed a companion, after death of his first wife, so he married her. The woman was looking on the floor and sobbing all the time. Her old and wrinkled face was by no means pretty. All the time I was looking at the attendant in amazement, wonder and respect. Do such heroes exist outside Bollywood movies?  Are there men who marry for reasons other than beauty, sex etc? How could a man of this status marry for companionship? Questions flooded my mind for a long time.