15th of February

There are certain days in life, that are more beautiful than others. Arun and Vaisya had reasons to hope that, the 15th of February 2014, being their wedding day, would be one such day. It was early morning and almost time for the ceremony to begin. All the nervousness and wedding jitters gave way to excitement and expectation from the day.

Vaisya was at the mandapam, almost ready with her make-up, and being clicked by the now fashionable candid photographers. Arun preferring to spend the last night of bachelorhood at his house with friends, was starting his wedding day accompanied by the usual adult jokes about marriage and honeymoon.

Arun and Vaisya were always destined to be together. They had known each other from childhood, as their families were friends and very distant relatives. It was neither a love nor an arranged marriage strictly. It was probably a marriage by de-fault. It was bound to happen as both parents had always wanted it.

Arun, amidst all the hurry of getting ready, had some time for himself only in the shower where he started acknowledging the biggest day of his life. Right from his first crush at std.IV, his entire life of flirts, romance and love flashed before him. He was happy about getting married to Vaisya, but still she wasn’t his first love.

Arun then wore the traditional dress and started giving his final touch-ups while his friends left to get the prestigious groom’s car ready. “Come soon, we will wait down” said his friends.

Arun tried his best to not remind himself about certain things, but, the more he wanted to forget it, especially on the day of his wedding, the more he was remembering it.

15th of February 2010

Arun had  completed college and was yet to place himself in a job. That day he had gone to the beach as usual to meet his friends and there stood Janavi, the girl he loved the most and the girl who understood him the most. They were just friends, after Janavi turned down Arun’s proposal on the farewell day a few months ago. It was her birthday and Arun had deliberately not wished her.

She stood there surrounded by all of Arun’s friends. For the sake of decency, Arun wished her for the birthday. Just like that, when he least expected, Janavi hugged him  with all the friends cheering on.

Janavi looked onto Arun’s eyes and said  “if you ask me the same question again, my answer is yes”.

Arun was in disbelief and ecstasy at the same moment.

Arun was never lost like that before. His mind was full of thoughts from why she had earlier declined his proposal, and why she was accepting it now, what role his friends had in this turnaround, and many many more questions. However, none of it really mattered.

Arun coming to terms with the reality of having got what he wanted the most in his life, well apart from a job, hugged back Janavi and said :

” Two years and you will be my wife, I promise”.

 

15th of February 2012

Gone are the days, when the date of marriage was determined by the astrologer. Gen-next have their date of marriage fixed much before, as a part of the wedding dreams. Be it the date of their parents’ wedding, first meeting, proposal date or like Janavi wanted, her birthday.

The biggest deviance from Janavi’s wedding dreams though was that it wasn’t Arun that she was getting married to. When her parents said they were getting her the best life, all that they ever meant was that her husband earned well and yes, in american dollars.

Only one year or so after graduation, Janavi was introduced in the marriage market by her parents. They received heavy bids, and Arun was no match to any of the contenders. Janavi though gave him the wild card entry, and the girl’s father–girl–girl’s boyfriend–boyfriend’s friends meeting happened. The meeting went as usual. The boyfriend was declared the low earning, careless, joyful, irresponsible youth who corrupted the girl.

Really, Arun had no where to go. Arun and Janavi had long decided that they would not be the “run-from-house” lovers. Further, Arun’s parents also shut him up by asking to get a job first and without their support and recommendation, he could never get placed as a husband in the recruitment process of Janavi’s parents.

Earlier, when the marriage talks first surfaced, Janavi wanted to buy time for Arun to get settled. But then, she never got a choice in determining when she wanted to get married. When a probable spouse was identified, Janavi dropped the bombshell about Arun. She did not get a choice of whom she wanted to get married to either.

Right to choose when to get married, and to whom, is probably the largest violated personal right in our country.

Arun was everything he could be, everything that Janavi wanted her husband to be. Yet, her parents decided that he was not suited and can’t be trusted with Janavi’s life, a decision they arguably had no capacity to make in the first place.

Janavi got to choose the wedding date, colour of dresses, theme of the marriage hall, and a host of other trivial stuff, and at the end, the parents had the better bargain. They succeeded in not only getting Janavi married to a person of their choice, but  also in making Janavi understand and accept their decision.

This change of Janavi confused, startled and broke Arun. Janavi was taken to her relative’s place in another city for a few months, brainwashed and when she came back, it was as if, her entire college life and the months with Arun was erased from history.

When Arun saw Janavi with her groom on stage in her wedding, he really wished to kill her. He anyways had enough reasons and motives to do so. He did attend Janavi’s wedding with his friends, which was celebrated on exactly the same date he promised to marry her. On the stage, everyone including Janavi were all smiles and lovely. Even Janavi’s parents greeted Arun and he said to himself “Yes, after all, her college life is deleted”. Janavi deliberately avoided even an eye-contact with Arun even as he tried to, in the few minutes on stage as Janavi’s groom was introducing himself to all the other friends with the brightest of smiles.

 

15th of February 2014

Arun couldn’t be sure as to why tears rolled down. Having moved on with life, having settled down, and getting married today, a date he intentionally chose, he felt that this probably was the position that Janavi was in on her wedding day. He felt very guilty that he thought very bad of Janavi as to how she could marry someone else. Arun himself was to be married to Vaisya today, but couldn’t stop thinking of Janavi. He thought that Janavi would have also felt the same on her wedding day. He left for the mandapam collecting himself and trying to focus on the wedding.

Janavi, now settled in Manhattan, was woken up from her sleep on the buzz of her mobile. She received a message which read:-

” hi. Hope all is well. just thought u should know. Arun is getting married today. Some distant relative gal. We are on the way to the mandapam. Will send pics soon. Tc ”

Janavi was silenced for a while. She was aware of the date today. She just kept looking at her mobile. This emotion of Janavi had no name or description. She smiled a little and cried a little. She then ran to the balcony, stood there just by herself and kept looking east.

Arun reached the mandapam, greeted everybody and was to join the wedding ceremony. Janavi came back to her room, checked on her six month old baby, and proceeded to the kitchen.

Both of them were in different parts of the world and in completely different situations where different duties of life were ahead of them, but they were united at the present moment in their thoughts.

Arun’s thought before getting on the wedding dias was that when Janavi accepted his proposal, along with the hug, she could have probably given a small peck on his cheeks. Janavi came running back from the kitchen to the room, lifted her baby, smiled, cuddled, gave a peck on its cheeks and said “Arun pappa, I love you” .

Arun and Janavi will certainly get back to their lives, get back to the commitments they made with their spouses, adhere to social values and norms and basically live the life which is forced upon them.

But, the thoughts and feelings that they share today and those that they certainly will share in the future years, is one that defies reason, logic, decency, values, customs, practicality and therefore is perhaps the best expression of LOVE which is at its best when it’s true and most potent when separated !!!

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