Soumya talks about the complications of intercommunity marriage and how things worked out eventually. An exclusive for Different Truths.

Our story is a period piece, set in the 80s, which we boomers remember, but this is to warn the millennials that things were a tad different then

Our heroine was a very attractive and empowered lady, who was dating a smart young fellow from another community and a few years younger than her, also her junior in the workplace. Thus, they had to keep the matter a secret.

The boy’s parents were vehemently against the match and threatened to not only severe relations but also die of heartbreak.

The boy did not want to defy his parents, which annoyed the lady considerably.

Now we introduce the third character, the narrator of our story. He was a good friend and confidant of the lady, a role that was reciprocated.

The narrator was also wooing a lady, from a different community, and faced with parental resistance, took the simple step of getting married first and informing the parents later.

Our heroine was part of the plotting and was extremely annoyed with her young man for not showing such gumption.

The boy was wavering, hating the narrator for having set such targets but his mother upped the ante by leaving her corporal self for the heavenly abode, but with a parting shot, “Now that I’m gone you can happily marry that witch.”

The sensitive young man could not bear the emotional blackmail from beyond the grave and postponed matrimony indefinitely.

Now, our heroine, having arrived at the dangerous age of 30, the pressure on her from family and relatives, to marry someone, anyone, was tremendous.

Remember readers that this was before the time of Tinder and speed dating or even Shadi.com.  Parents fixed dates through relatives or friends or through newspaper ads.

Unable to produce any definite wedding date or even prospects, she succumbed to the prospect of meeting the various potential partners.

In between, a harebrained scheme suggested by the narrator to postpone this trauma, had disastrous results.

It was planned that a willing fellow be produced as a fiancé to fob off the parents. The narrator being newly married was ruled out from this role. A sweet fellow from her own community was chosen, but the poor fellow took his role seriously, and was terribly heartbroken to discover the perifidry and went around like a majnu embarrassing everybody.

Now, the parents would brook no further delay and set up a meeting with a NRI prospect.  The meeting was fixed at a popular restaurant unchaperoned, as our heroine wouldn’t agree to anything else.

Now, the narrator came up with another outrageous plan.

The lady suggested that she’d bring a friend along and the aspiring groom happily agreed, looking forward to ogling two pretty, young ladies.

But the friend in question was our narrator, and much to the horror of the aspiring husband, he proceeded to grill the fellow like a father of the bride from an old-fashioned movie, all the while quaffing expensive drinks, cheered on by our heroine.

The shocked man left after paying for the meal, and informed the parents of this shameless behaviour, adding his suspicion that she’s having an affair with a married man from another community.

This rumor spread like Coronavirus.

This dramatic episode had many consequences.

Firstly, all proposals from her own community stopped altogether, thus removing the pressure.

Secondly, her parents were happy to accept anyone as groom if he was single, thus clearing the path for the young man

Thirdly, the young man, jolted out of his complacency, promptly forgot his scruples, and fixed a quick date for their wedding, with or without the consent of his parents.

Finally, the narrator gained a terrible reputation as a rake, and a colleague from the heroine’s community warned his new bride of her husband’s nefarious activities. Fortunately, she was privy to the plot and his marriage survived, as it does to this day. So does the happy union of our heroine and her young beau, in what was quite a brave relationship for those less enlightened days.

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Soumya Mukherjee

Soumya Mukherjee is an alumnus of St Stephens College and Delhi School of Economics. He earns his daily bread by working for a PSU Insurance company, and lectures for peanuts. His other passions, family, friends, films, travel, food, trekking, wildlife, music, theater, and occasionally, writing. He has been published in many national newspapers of repute. He has published his first novel, Memories, a novella, hopefully, the first of his many books. He blogs as well.

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