I am sure you have enjoyed the movie ‘2 States’. Let me tell you about our 2 states which happened more than 3 decades ago.
I had always thought instant love was as impossible as instant nirvana. This notion was shattered when I joined Rourkela Steel Plant as a Management Trainee. I saw Madhavi at 11.05 on 23rd October, 1986 in the Training Department and fell instantly, insanely in love with her.
If it took me slightly more than six seconds to decide that Madhavi was my soul mate, it took her exactly six months and six days to make up her mind to be mine.
A day after her ‘confession’ she left for Bhubaneswar to tell her parents. I too wrote to my father.
Three days later I received a telegram from him: “Congratulations to you and Madhavi.”
When Madhavi came back she looked utterly drained out.
“What happened?” I asked.
“You are from UP and we are from AP. My father is dead against our marriage.”
“But Madhavi, surely you could have reasoned with him?”
“You think I didn’t try.”
For the next couple of months things continued in the same vein.
Then finally one day she dropped the bombshell.
“Ramen, I am sorry. But I cannot get married to you. My father has threatened he will go on a fast unto death.”
I resigned and went back to my hometown, but we kept regularly in touch.
A few months later I received a letter. “Dear Ramen, there is no point in continuing a relationship which has no future.”
This was the last straw. I started writing like a man possessed. In a space of two weeks, I wrote 21 poems and sent them to her.
A week later I got a two-line letter from her.
Dearest Ramen,
“Can you come to Rourkela for one last time?”
I boarded the train the same day.
“Ramen, I can’t stay without you. God knows how much I have tried. But it is impossible.” She rushed into my arms, tears streaming down her face.
“Have you told your parents anything?”
“No, of course not! If I get married to you my dad will obviously be very upset but I’m sure he will come around eventually.”
My father made all the arrangements and on 26th March 1988 we got married. Her parents were informed the next day. There was a lot of drama which continued for close to three years.
How did the impasse end? The moment our daughter Ankita was placed in her grandpa’s lap there was a transformation. He probably realized that any person who had contributed to the ‘creation’ of this angel couldn’t be that big a devil!
Now we are one big happy family. And though AP & UP has been fractured our ‘2 States’ are in a state of unity and near bliss!
Shared by : RAMENDRA KUMAR
