true love does exist.... :)

Can anyone give a definition of what true love is? Unconditional? Conditional? Well… people do, but most of it seem too unreal and magical…

We were told that ordinary girls like Cinderella had Prince Charming falling for her….. (well she wasn’t ordinary… she was too pretty so she was hidden or something)… Then stories about a princess kissing a frog and he turns to be a prince… (seriously who were we kidding?? Too bad she didn’t have to kiss every frog in the pond to realize who the right frog is) then when we grew up we learnt about Elizabeth Bennet… who had Mr. Darcy to sweep her off her feet… Then came Mills and Boons, the total “I had a secret childhood past, that was why I was acting like a jerk” stories…. Then we grew up more and believed in Nicholas Sparks… the guy who wrote “a walk to remember” “note book”, “dear john”….

Married couples freak me out, honestly…. Except for a very few blessed ones… the phrases we hear very often “after 5 years love dies away and what you are left with is compatibility…” hmmm… maybe that’s why the corny movie lines doesn’t last… but then, how are we to know?

How does it happen? True love? Does it exist? If it does, will it last? Soul mates exist? I didn’t know….

Well… now I know it does… coz I met this exceptional person who proved me wrong…. A man who has been in love with his wife for the past 35+ years…

Usual start for a common love story… He was a tall dark handsome guy with a dimple and she was one of the sweetest ladies you can ever meet…. they met at work, they became friends… he dropped her home everyday…. Yes and eventually they fell in love… Then their families got to know… after a bit of fighting between families finally they tied the knot…. They were blessed with two daughters… lived happily ever after…. for 30 years… It’s a common love story, I know… until…

In March 2002 she was diagnosed with breast cancer for the second time…. It was hard and it was not going to be easy he knew… she knew it too… this time was hard…. and it was..

He was worried about the two daughters, so was she…. One was about to sit for her AL examinations and the other was a final year student in Law College…. They went on for 7 months… just like that…

In October 2002 she had to undergo an operation…. She had lost weight, she had lost her hair (almost all of it) she was fragile…. but she was in her high spirits… her eyes were bright and her laughter was still live…

But she was suffering…. More than her, he did… When the reports started getting worse day by day, he knew her days were numbered… But he was the strength to her and his daughters…. He was his usual self, he dropped his daughter off at classes, picked her up… made breakfast… made dinner….

And then she started getting worse… One night in October, before she was taken into hospital… before she was unconscious she said “thaththi, mey paara nang maawa goda ganna bari wei”…. He didn’t say anything…. Just smiled….

She lied in ICU for two nights while almost every organ in her body started to fail…. He was still strong, he was concerned about the visitors… he was concerned about his daughters, told them every detail of her last few minutes…

On 9^th October evening, doctor came out and asked them all to come in… and he had to switch off the machine… He was still strong, making calls, working every minute till the funeral ended…

Late that night he came near her wardrobe and selected the best white saree she had…. “where is the wig?” And picked her wig… “we need to put the wig … that’s how she will be remembered to everyone…not like this” she had the most beautiful hair, thick black and silky, I realized … He gave her jewellery to the daughters…., “ill keep the wedding ring” he said…

He cried the day of the funeral…. He knelt down near her corpse…. Then stood up and hugged the two daughters….

He never got back to the normal state… he does what he has to do…makes breakfast, makes dinner…. still takes care of his daughters… but he lost the spark, long time back…. He didn’t seem complete… He wasn’t…. he never will be….

After 9 years I visited him in hospital to see him lying on a bed…. While I was watching him, I realized that he has two wedding rings in his hand….. when he was getting his injections, he was clutching his hands….. when I looked closely I realized, one was his and the other belonged to her….

“He never took it off since ammi passed away…” his daughter said….

Now I know, true love does exist… around us, in front of us… everywhere… its just you need to see it, you need to feel it, you need to realize it…. to believe it :)

p.s. - his daughter has been my best friend for the past 21 years….