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| Love story of my Grandmama and Grandpapa |
This real life love story needs a little bit of background.
Now, you have to keep in mind, I am talking about early 20th century India, pre-independance era, that too, a remote village of eastern India. This village was not troubled by the revolutions against the British Rule. Not sure that was good or bad, but that is the fact. Also, I am talking about the time when marriage between one innocent pre-teen boy and one innocent little girl was not against the law. Well, this I know for sure was not a good thing.
In anycase, let me start my story. My grand parents were married to each other when my Grandpapa was 10 years old and my grandmama was 7 years old. They have been married for 70 long years. Isn't that wonderful? But, let me not digress from my story.
Although they were given to each other at that very young age, my grandmama continued to live with her parents until she came of age. I would not go into the details of "coming of age" because I myself do not know if I was ever ready to leave my parents abode and venture out to live outside of their shadows. Back to my grandparents...As they lived in the same village, they often got to meet each other, kind of a play date, you can say. However she was taught at that very young age, that she is to show her respect to her husband. Besides all the customs of showing respect to your respected ones, a woman was expected to cover her head with one end of her saree when she was infront of her husband. It was embarrassing for a woman to be seen among men without her head covered uptil her forehead. Things have changed drastically in India, well atleast from my point of view.. for now I find it rather embarassing to cover my forehead with saree end infront of my husband or any other elders for that matter. And I think it is true from many woman of my age. See, I have a habit of digressing. Please stop me, if this bothers you.
In any case, here is a story of one pleasant morning in the very tropical country. My grandmama was playing with her friends outside her house. It was right before her bath time, so she was allowed to roam around only in her panties and a small piece of cotton cloth draped around her waist ,which covered only until her knees. She was very much enjoying her play with her friends and was oblivious of her surroundings. At that wonderful moment, my grandpapa was on his way to his in-laws for he was invited to drop by his in-laws place so that his mother-in-law could treat him with some delicious homemade sweet-meats. He was in a great mood and was galloping down the lane and that is when he saw his bride. He halted, reduced his speed, gained back his gravity and in a mild pace started walking towards his destination. At first, my grandmama did not notice him. But when he was seen approaching towards her very own house she was bewildered, for she didnot expect to see him there. She was embarrased and she didnot know what to do. The first thing that came to her mind was that she had nothing to cover her head to show the respect her husband deserved. She immediately took off the cotton cloth around her waist and used that piece of cloth to cover her head. Imagine a little girl, only in her underwear, with her head covered with a piece of cloth in her futile effort to maintain the custom of showing respect. I have heard, my grandpapa blushed and ran inside the house. A few minutes later, a lady came out from the house to take her inside. She was draped in a nice little saree and was brought to meet her husband.
Later, when my gandmama finally came to live with her husband and inlaws, she was thirteen or fourteen years of age. It was said that my grandpapa relayed this story to her one day. She had conveniently forgotten the incident and refused to believe that at first but then she finally gave in. And boy,she blushed! It could have turned the whole sky pink.
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Posted by kanjasaha on 2008-01-16 10:01:35 | Rating: | Views: 122
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