TWO BEAUTIFUL FATAL ATTRACTIONS

Last time when I gave few words of assurance and support to a friend, who was going through certain crisis in his marital life, I could visibly see the affect.  I could not miss the tears welling up in his eyes. His stoic pretensions of carrying on with his life without any effect of malicious back-biting going on in the town melted.

I understood his folly of leaving his wife and a child for another woman who also had kids of her own. I reasoned with him to avoid getting involved in an affair of the kind because the stakes are high. There were troubles and difficulties ahead. And many more obviously in the offing. But, when the decision has been made of no turning back on his relationship against mounting odds, little moral support was what I thought he needed and, I was not wrong.

He said, he was in love with the woman and the fact that although, they both had their families but did not matter to their new relationship was something strangely bizarre. And he added that, from the moment they met for the first time they felt an unexplained bond of a proportion like never before. This, he thinks has something to do with their past karma.

“This is something that cannot be easily explained. People will disapprove of our relation obviously. We know, this is not an ideal relationship but, both of us wanted to take it one step further,” he said.

He said that there were ample evidences of gossip mongering going on behind his back and, although it hurt him, he pretended not being aware of it.

I thought over this and concluded that, however wrong the relation may be in the first place, on the hindsight; it is love story that is best understood by the couple themselves. Yes, hearts have been broken, trusts and confidence breached and, ethics and morals questioned on one hand. On the other, I have a feeling that, the reason the couple stood against all these odds was a triumph of love in the end. We all see what is bad in carrying forward a relationship like this but, what we fail to realize is looking at their relationship through their eyes. Love can be crazy but, do we need to be reminded that this craze was what drove human to leave behind spectacles like Taj Mahal or epics like that of Paris-Helen, Layla-Majnu or Singye-Galem.

Here is another story; about two years back a lay monk in his fifties lost his wife and, with his children living separately he felt lonely. He went places but ultimately had to return back to his village. This was where he belonged to. As night fell, the emptiness of his humble hut gave him heartaches and his health deteriorated.

In the same village, a woman, past her prime was also facing a similar situation having lost her husband to tuberculosis three years earlier. Her son, in his twenties was, an alcoholic and instead of caring for his mother became abusive and violent under the influence of alcohol. She was epileptic too and, the prospect of something disastrous happening was always looming like a dark cloud.

And what happened next was abhorring to others but beautiful to these two individuals who shared similarities of their lives that brought them together. After a short period of courting they got married and their life was back on the track. Relatives from both the families stood against the relationship. No matter how much they tried to dissuade the couple to end their relationship, they stood firmly together and saw off all those who despised them. They were happy again.

When I met the couple early one morning during my regular morning walk, I was surprised to see how happy they looked together. Both of them have regained their health and there was visible glow even on their wrinkled faces. It was obvious to me how wonderful they were feeling in their new found love.

They acted like any other teenagers in love.The couple could not stop exchanging passing glances intermittently. Their eyes would meet and understand what is in their mind. I felt happy for the couple. I understood what must have gone through them initially but, they are triumphant and happy finally and that is what mattered to them. They deserve to live happily and, their love will certainly take them through the rest of their lives.

What do you say of these two love stories? It may not look acceptable. Ideally, a straight forward normal run of the mill kind of love stories culminating into marriage may look appropriate. This is what happens with the most but, in the two stories I mentioned, however worst it may look initially, it was a happy ending with love triumphing over all odds in the end. Often, we look at such things through our own myopic lens and see them as unacceptable but, what matters more is the happiness of the individuals concerned in the end.

What I wish for these love two stories, is an ending many many years down the line which will say……………and they lived happily ever after.

Happy reading. Until next time take care and may god bless you.

Gyembo Namgyal

September 30, 2014.