Unfailing integrity and love

The 1980's:
A cultural climate where the concept of love between a couple was a far-fetched idea, and where the themes of caste, religion and gender had strong holdings in any discussion.

More so was it in South India, where the families revered purity and self-image.

My beautiful mother hailed from a brahmin family and worked in the same office as my intelligent father, from a Naidu family.

Then, my mother was proposed to by my father.
Both, in maturity, decided that they will live their entire lives together.

There was a period of bliss when they were together. But then there was the stormy period filled with repeated thundering and intolerable heavy rains. They could not convince either of their families. Rather, they had met with intense  opposition. The one you may imagine from a movie.

Mom and dad decided to get married on their own and then approach their families, so that they will be accepted!

To narrate a few salient things on what happened next: my dad was severely chastised by his mother, beaten with a broomstick by her and threatened of disconnection while my mother waited outside his home (as they didn't allow her inside). My mother who was standing outside was questioned by Dad's sisters critically as to how they can do such a thing...  My father persisted all the torment and left his family for his love. Mom and dad rushed from the place, fearing they may do something to mom. But Dad still asked his close friends to take care of his mother, so that she doesn't do something crazy like committing suicide.

The issues from my mother's side were much more prolonged and painful. They tactically approached my father saying that they will accept him and will marry her to him again in a grand way. They asked my mother to only come over to Trichy to see her mom "who was in shock" over her marriage and was apparently bedridden... My mother was reluctant, but my father asked her to go and visit. That ended up as a grave mistake. There, when my mother reached, her stepmother and uncle removed the sacred thread and the toe-ring which signifies her connection to her husband. My mother was spat upon, on her face. Everyone surrounded her and arrested her movement and attacked her with harsh words. All her belongings were taken from her and she was taken to a remote village of her Grandpa's without any telephone connection. However, my mother had anticipated this already and had kept some cash hidden in her clothes. In this remote village, her Grandpa was a bigshot and any attempt to escape via the regular bus will be intercepted for sure as the drivers had to stop if they were told. There was but one helping hand for my mother from her cousin, who helped her board the bus from a far away agricultural field, at the least expected time of the day when the others had slept, in a place where the bus usually never stops. (She escaped their trap in just two days)

My mother further anticipated any attempts at tracing her and switched several routes before reaching coimbatore. She reached late, at 11 in the night, alone as a young lady in a big city. Moreover, my parents had taken a new house on rent after marriage, due to which my mother had no idea of its exact location. Somehow by dealing with an auto driver tactically, she was dropped in the neighborhood of their house. And at the same time, my dad had come out fortunately!! Thus my mother was relieved...

Later on, one day, there came three hefty men to their home. They were sent by my dad's mother to beat him up and bring him back. But the guys, on seeing my parents' sincerity, especially my mother's, left them alone. (They also had known my dad since childhood).
At the same time my mother's relatives had come from Trichy again and they went to my mother's old house in coimbatore (from which she was yet to vacate) and blocked her from getting anything, even her clothes ... So, my mother asked these strong men who came, to help get her relatives out of there 🙂... And so they went and gave strong words to threaten them, and on the same day they left coimbatore for Trichy!

For sometime peace ensued but also there was great financial instability, as no one was willing to help them. But, slowly and steadily, together in all troubles, they paved way for three beautiful children, got their own home and became financially self-sufficient. My mother was an epitome of moral values and my father was a genius in planning for the future...

And yet I do not wish to narrate what happened to all those who opposed my parents. Karma has had her way with them. And we have witnessed karma with our eyes.

However now all the familial connections have recovered from the painful separations my parents had from their homes. Now the talks have resumed.

I would say that it was because my parents were very deeply devoted to each other and didn't give each other up in troubled times, that they could succeed in their love story.