Mr.
R is a gentle being; say the sweetest person you meet!
Ms
D, a beautiful lady, grace personified.
They
live in a gorgeous new house by the side of a hill overlooking the city. They
met four decades back in the coastal town that has always been hailed as
travellers’ haven.
The story
is not that of Mr. R and Ms D but that of Mr. R’s family back in another
coastal town of Kerala.
Mr.
R belongs to an old traditional Hindu family. Having lost his father by the age
of fifteen, he lived with his mother and siblings in an old tiled house with hoards
of relatives and servants. His grandfather ran a business of tea and sugar and
the house always teemed with people.
Once
he completed graduation, he received a job offer in a faraway land, unheard by most
in his hometown. Mr. R decided to take the job; it seemed like a welcome
change. As fate would have it, there he met Ms D and his life changed forever.
Mr.
R was always a very gentle and sweet person. He could not have married Ms D and
lived happily ever after without the blessings and consent of his mother and
younger siblings. So, on a quite vacation, after both his sisters were married
and had borne kids, he broke the news of Ms D, a Catholic Christian, to his
mother. Armed with a black and white photograph of Ms D in saree and her long
hair tied in a bun, he could easily convince his mother, how pretty and respectable
the woman of his choice was.
His
mother, despite losing her husband at an early age - unlike most of the widows
of that era – had lot of passion for life and enjoyed living every moment of
it. Familiar with the ways of the world, she gave her consent almost
immediately and announced she wanted to see her daughter-in-law in person,
soon.
Mr.
R went back to his job and Ms D happy while his family back home started making
plans to visit the place and meet Ms D.
Mr.
R’s brother managed to purchase a second hand blue Ambassador car, with the consent
and support of his mom and arranged a driver too. Within no time, Mr. R’s
family, that included his two sisters, their husbands and two kids along with
his mother and brother embarked on the journey in the blue Ambassador driven by
a sturdy driver. Cars those days could accommodate ‘n’ number of people unlike
modern days and the question of how all of them fitted inside one single
Ambassador is irrelevant.
It
was a long journey. They encountered many hardships enroute, including a flat
tyre and a freak accident. They had to cross a ferry on the way and while the
driver parked the car waiting for the ferry, it rolled down and bumped into a
Mercedes parked ahead. The driver had obviously parked the car in neutral gear and
it accounted for the car moving on its own.
However, Mr. R’s mother would narrate the story to her neighbours back
home for many years of how the car started rolling on its own and bumped into a
‘foreign car’ parked ahead and the owner of the foreign car came out and
shouted at their ‘innocent’ driver.
Water
melons were not common those days in the coastal town of Kerala. So, when the group in the Ambassador car saw
water melons, they purchased half a dozen without realizing they would not be
able to cut and eat them inside the car without a knife. They arrived at Ms D’s
house with those watermelons rolling out of the boot of the Ambassador, much to
the embarrassment of Mr. R, who was keen to project a positive image of his kin
in front of his future wife and her relatives.
Ms D
lived with her mother, a cute and adorable woman, who welcomed Mr. R’s
relatives with much love and pampered them with her freshly baked cakes and
other delicacies. Mr. R’s sisters and mother were agape and amused at the cute
little dress worn by Ms D’s mom.
Mr. R
and Ms D took the family around the town on sightseeing and later to the house
of Ms D’s best friend, Ms P.
Ms P
was overwhelmed and received the family with smiles. She served them beer, as was
usual in their place, in tall glass mugs. Mr. R’s mother and sisters were
seeing beer for the first time but they gulped it down happily and whispered to
each other that it was a shame that they could only serve tea in their houses.
A
small ‘ring exchange ceremony’ was organized at Ms D’s house soon. Mr. R looked
smart in a three piece suit and Ms D graceful and pretty as ever in a silk
saree to please her would-be in laws. It was agreed that the marriage would be solemnized
as per Hindu customs at Mr. R’s hometown.
The group in the Ambassador car returned home thereafter, with plans
already afoot for the big wedding.
The unique
marriage is another story by itself…will return soon with it…
