Saathiya Style Wedding

I was probably 13 when I first watched the movie Saathiya, and being a die hard romantic I loved it to the core. It was an epic love story for me- guy meets the girl at a wedding, he falls in love, follows her everywhere, makes her fall in love with him, they elope to get married, defy their parents, romance through phones, live together, fight, and end up together after a series of misunderstandings and  tragedies. What stood out for me in the whole movie was the way in which the leads get married. Ever since I saw this movie, I wished to get married that way- go to a temple with your friends, sign the documents, look coyly at each other, smile, pose for photographs,  go back to your respective houses and wait for the right time to disclose your marriage. How the teenager in me loved that dreamy world!

But as I entered the world of adults I realized that nothing of that sort happens in real life, Bollywood earns by selling us those false dreams, life is too complicated to wrap up in just 2-3 hours. My Saathiya dreams took a backseat, and reality crept in.   But unlike me, there are people in this world who do take inspiration from movies. So, a few days back I heard about this couple who got married Saathiya style.  They were in love for more than 6 years but being from different castes, it was impossible for them to convince their parents for their union. In total filmy style they decided to get married secretively, and to wait for the right time to tell their parents about it.

For 2 years they kept their marriage a secret, no one knew about it except some close friends. And then came the day, when the girl’s parents came to know about it through an outsider. They called up the guy’s parents. After a lot of arguments, blame games, murder threats, the families gave up, and love triumphed.

They have been married for five years now and are proud parents of a little girl. They fought for their love and won. Many people will call them foolish, irresponsible for the way they got married, well, hate me for this but I call them true lovers. How many of us have the courage of doing something stupid and face its consequences? They believed in their love and followed their heart. Life is all about taking chances they say, so is it wrong to take chances in love? Probably not…

Well, how can I finish this post without telling you the moral of the story, as in for me-

My dreams of a Saathiya style wedding are back. I’ve told my guy that if ever we decide to elope, we will do it the Saathiya way and that I’ll of course run wearing a lehenga, I can’t dream of getting married wearing shorts, or jeans. That would be gross. Location koi bhi ho, mandir, court, ya arya samaj, shadi to mai lehenge mai hi krungi. And good news is that, he has agreed (as always) but he has asked me to complete all the formalities, legal work etc. (as always).

Henceforth, I wait for my wedding day…With the song Mangalyam  on my mind.  Ab thodi filmy life toh chalti hai na yaar…?

Love this song and this scene from the movie…. 🙂

Disclaimer- I am not getting married tomorrow. This plan will be executed after 7-8 years if required. Please guys stop wishing me luck…I am embarrassed. Gosh..I am just 22. (#^.^#)

Making A Choice- Love or Family???

Recently I saw an advertisement in a newspaper about the upcoming sale in a jewellery store. I asked my dad to check out the advertisement, you know in case he wanted to make some jewellery for me, he could do that in cheaper rates. I was actually fooling around but my dad took the advice rather seriously. He declared that he has gone bankrupt after the marriage of my siblings and has nothing left for me. He then said that I should find a suitable guy myself and he’ll only come to the wedding to bless me.

OKAY, my dad said this. I mean MY DAD!!!!

To find a guy myself- matlab a love marriage!!!

I pinched myself just to make sure that it wasn’t a dream.

It wasn’t. He said that for real.

I asked him again, ” Are you serious?”

And he said, “Yes.”

Just when I was busy imagining my till-that-moment-almost-impossible wedding, my dad said, ” But…

(Here comes the BUT in between)

But…

– He must be a Brahmin.

– Just not a Brahmin, but a Kumauni Brahmin. Brahmins from other regions are not allowed.

– He must not be from our Gotra.

– Our horoscopes must match and for that,

-He must be a manglik.

Lo, Ho gayi meri shadi!!!

Matlab what am I supposed to do? If ever i find a guy, am I supposed to give him an application form, listing the eligibility criteria for falling in love with me? I’ve heard about family planning, Now am I supposed to do love planning? And can love be planned? Isn’t it supposed to be a coincidence, a mutual acceptance of one’s assets and faults?

Does the matching of caste,color,creed,class or planets guarantee a successful marriage? I don’t think so. I am not a pro in the subjects as crucial as marriage but i do know that love, understanding, and mutual respect are essential for any relationship to succeed. Unfortunately many Indian parents fail to match these aspects.

I am myself in a relationship with a guy from another caste. We are too young to think about marriage but we do hope to spend our lives together if our relationship succeeds. But for that to happen I’ll have to make a choice and by far I am not strong enough to choose him. And I don’t know if I’ll ever have the strength to do that.

All my close friends were in relationship with guys who either belonged to different castes, region,religions or same gotra, blame it on our education, our so called modern beliefs, the freedom we got or whatever. But eventually they all gave up, some tried, some remained mum. Almost no one among us, decided to fight for love. Is it because our love wasn’t strong enough or are we all a bunch of cowards?

Would you sacrifice your love for your family?

What would you do if you’ve to make a choice?

[ While trying to write a funny post I ended up getting all serious about it. Why can’t I Laugh over Love? To compensate for that, I am adding the following pictures ]

True Story!!!

Not Quite sure about that!!!

Because I Love A Guy From Another Caste

I am a Brahmin by birth. Brahmins in Hindu religion are considered to be the highest caste among the four castes or varnas.

 In my 21 years and 6 months of existence the only paap (sin) I have committed is falling in love with a guy from an ST(scheduled tribe) category.

Yes, I am a dhabba for my family and the society I live in.

And the only reason I am living with dignity till now is that no one knows about my paap.

Yes I am in a relationship from this guy from the past 2 years and no one knows about it except few of my friends. The younger generation of my family (sister, sister-in-law, cousins) do have an idea about it but even they are not sure and that’s because it’s a little dark secret of mine. Not even our close friends know about it. That’s because we belong to a very small town and we cant take the risk of letting our friends from that town know about us. Small towns are always dangerous. News like these spread fast. And if the news of this paap leaks out, we both will be dead (not literally)

My family like most Indian middle class families is very conservative. No one ever had a love marriage in my family. Leave my family, no one in the entire khandan, village ever had a love marriage. My own sister and brother got married as per my parent’s choice. My sister got married to a guy she only met once for 10 minutes (I still find it unbelievable).  Though they are happy in their lives, I am not. And that’s because I am in love with A. How we fell in love, our story is what I write in my posts ‘In love by default’, and that is not something I am going to discuss here.

Coming to A’s family, they are a little better than mine. Though it doesn’t mean they’ll be all happy about it but in the end they are going to accept it. Adding to that he’s a boy (ghar ka Deepak), no one’s going to lose their son because he married a girl of his choice. Eventually they’ll accept it.

As for me, a girl, I’ve to make a choice- either my love or my family.

And I can’t choose my love as I can’t let my parents die. I am a coward, if that’s what you call me. I’ve tried to change them indirectly many times, I’ve tried to get their opinion and now I know, its impossible to expect that they’ll any day accept it. Leave their acceptance, they’ll die of shame if their daughter does something like that. I can go against the society but not against my parents, not against the ones who gave me life. And I am sorry for that, sorry to everyone who thought I’ll make a different decision.

Sorry, I cant bring a change in the society by killing my parents, their hopes, their aspirations.

I was born a Brahmin and it wasn’t my fault. I am not religious, but I am not an atheist too. I do believe in god. But I don’t believe in unnecessary customs or practices going on in the society in the name of culture. Its their belief not mine. I want to be independent. I believe in equality in terms of religion, race,  caste or sex. The ones showing off in the name of religion is just not me. I don’t know why no one has a right to decide whom they want in their lives and whom they don’t.

My mother says that love marriages never work. May be they don’t, but who says arranged marriages are always happier. May be someday I’ll have differences with A and we’ll break up (most of the times the reason is we don’t have any future!), but that would be my choice.  Yes, we fight a lot and may be this time is the last time we are together but he was never wrong alone. I was wrong too. And it was just our decision. Who guarantees I’ll be happy with the guy I’ll never meet and just marry for my parent’s sake.

And the truth is I never had a choice in my life. They decided my school, my college, the way I’ll dress, the places I can go, the things I can do and the things I can’t. And I was a good girl till I fell in love but that wasn’t something I planned. It just happened. I avoided it to the best of my efforts but eventually I had to admit that I had feelings for him. I left him many times. I’ve hurt him and in this process of denying this love I’ve hurt myself countless times. But I never promised him that we’ll be together. That was my condition. I never assured him of any future, because I know my family. They can accept my decision of spending my entire life alone but not with a guy from the other caste. It’s not like they’ll kill me or anything but if I ever choose him, I know they’ll die and I can’t let something like that happen.

It hurts to call the most beautiful part of your life a paap but I’ve no other choice. I’ve tears in my eyes when I am writing this, yet again I’ve no choice.

So this is for you A (if you ever read this in your lifetime):

I don’t know for how long we’ll be together but I’ll keep loving you till the end of time. No caste, no religion can ever erase the love and the memories we’ve had and we’ll make. I won’t ask you ever to spend your life alone and wait for me all your life. I want to see you happy. I want to see your kids with those small eyes (yes, I won’t stop teasing you for your eyes in this serious post too), same as you have and I promise I won’t feel bad because this would be the second choice I’ll ever make in my life- this choice of not being with you. 

The first was when I made a choice to love you.

 

UPDATE:

I can’t believe I was dumb enough to write this post. This post makes me cringe too hard. I want to delete it, because this is just not me. I am not the girl I used to be. I don’t know how many people I have offended by writing this: Women, Scheduled Castes and Tribes, Parents, Lovers. I am deeply sorry if I have hurt you in any way. If you have come here to find an answer to your woes, I am sorry to disappoint you. Fight, if it worth it. BE brave and stick to your decisions and don’t do anything you would regret in your last days.

I haven’t given up, not yet!

{ 20/07/2017: Five years later read the part two here. }

  ——————–

[ For another story under this category, check out Another Love story from Two States]

*****

Follow me on Facebook, Twitter.