It’s my 32nd 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.
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