Life Is Beautiful When You’re Romantic.
In the first week of the lockdown period, I received a call from a college mate. He said he has got my number from a friend.
He said: “Ah, I am Ashok (not the real name), I was your super senior at college…”
I don’t clearly remember him. But as a courtesy I said: “Hi, Ashok, how are you doing?”
“I am getting divorced!”
“What? At this age?” I was shocked. That’s not normal with the generation I am in. “Oh, I am sorry to hear that,” I added.
“We lost our love…”
“What? How come? How can real love be ever lost? It is not a material thing to get lost. It should always be with you if you ever had it…”
“Uday, you have been a romantic thinker and writer during college days, so it is very easy to say superficial things like that…You gave a piece of advice then, even without asking. I guess you were right….”
“I am really sorry Ashok, but I have a poor memory. I don’t remember a thing. Can you refresh my memory…”
“I had a love affair. We were from different castes – she was Syrian Catholic and I was Latin. But we dared to challenge our families and get married…That was the most courageous thing then. But you said it was not courage…”
“Did I say that? What was the context?”
“You said, as per Indian culture, marriage is a family and community event. We needed blessings from parents, seniors, and elders in the family. Any hurt doesn’t sync well with love. How can you live a happy when your kith and kin become sad, you asked.”
“Yes. I might have said that..”
“You asked me then, should you be selfish about yourself? If you are alone, you can. But when you have sisters, brothers, parents who are all conditioned by the prevailing social norms (whether it is right or wrong is a different question), they would find it difficult to get good alliances from a reputed family. Love is an unselfish act of dharma, you said. It needs a lot of sacrifices. Sometimes we may have to let go of the dearest thing in life for the sake of family and society, that’s dharmic. According to you, being dharmic was courageous, but I called you a coward then” he said….
For further reading please check the book : TIDBITS: From The Life of Pai
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B094QN5DP9
For all books:
https://www.amazon.in/Udaylal-Pai/e/B06X9CCJTZ
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