UNBELIEVABLE, BUT A TRUE STORY

This happened probably in the mid 50’s.  May be a little earlier also.  I don’t know the year.  It happened somewhere in Andhra Pradesh.

Till 60’s many Brahmins in the Telugu region followed the tradition of getting their daughters married when they were very young, before they attained puberty.  Sometimes the marriage was between cousins, sometimes between distant relatives, sometimes neighbours or between persons from the same social circle.  The young brides continued to stay in their maternal homes even after marriage and the bride and groom visited each others’ homes occasionally during festivals or functions.  Cohabitation started when the bride was around 15 or 16 year old.  While many such marriages worked, there were also cases of families fighting after the marriage and treating the marriage null and void; there were grooms who after completing education, refusing to accept the bride as a partner; some families moved out of the village or town in search of greener pastures and lost ties with the other party.  Every village had abandoned young wives, wishing and praying that her prince charming would change his mind and take her to the matrimonial home.  There was no legal protection for such marriages.

I don’t know her name.  Let it be Annapoorna.  Annapoorna got married when she was around 8 years old.  Her husband probably was 11 or 12.  Her parents were poor.  So were her in-laws.  Soon after her wedding, she went with the groom’s family to their house, spent three days with them as per tradition and returned to her parent’s house.  For some reasons, neither of the families visited each other, even during festivals or celebrations after the wedding.  After a few years when Annapoorna was considered old enough to start a life with her husband and when her parents tried to send her to her matrimonial home, they came to know that her husband had left home soon after the wedding and never returned home.  They heard rumours that he had turned ascetic and was spotted in the Himalayas.  Annapoorna was left with no other option, but to remain with her parents and looking forward for a miracle to happen.

Years passed.  When Annapoorna was around 18 or 19, on a fine morning when her father opened the main door of their house, he found a young man sleeping on the porch.  He woke up the stranger to find out who he was and when the stranger got up; the father screamed with excitement “our son-in-law is back”. The entire household got into a festive mood.  The guy was too weak and also too reserved to interact.  Everyone knew that the son-in-law was an introvert.  Though Annapoorna and her family members wanted to ask him several questions, they refrained from doing so as they were afraid that he would leave home again.  They pampered him and made him feel very special.  Annapoorna’s parents didn’t wait to meet her in-laws to discuss the future course of action.  They wanted to hold the son-in-law back at any cost and Annapoorna was encouraged to start a life with him immediately.

Everyone at home was happy and then there was a festival.  The young couple were advised to perform a pooja and at the beginning of the pooja, as was customary, when the son-in-law started reciting pravara (a person’s descent from a rishi (sage) who belong to their gotra (clan)) did Annapoorna’s father realize the fact that this person is not his long lost son-in-law.  In their excitement, the entire family was so optimistic, that they failed to verify if the person they were assuming to be the son-in-law was actually the one.

At that stage, they learnt that this person (certainly not to be referred to as a gentleman) was unmarried, poor, lost his parents and had a modest income.  He came to visit a relative in a neighbouring village and missed the last bus.  With an intention to reach the nearest town, he started walking and lost his way and since was very tired, slept on the porch.

There was nothing Annapoorna’s parents could do.  He has been with them for almost a week.  They were in a dilemma only for a few minutes.  There was no way they can trace the real son-in-law.  Also, they have told all their neighbours that their son-in-law in back.  This man too had no encumbrances and so, they decided to send their daughter with him.

The couple had a happy life together.  He got a soul mate when he was finding it difficult to get a wife because of his humble background and she, if not for him would have languished in the village.

This story was narrated to us by our neighbor during one of the evening chat sessions he had in our garden as the couple walked past our gate.  They were his tenant’s guests.