She:S

She (S) was in my neighbourhood. 25, a house-wife, and happily married with 2 kids. People found her beautiful. I found her exceptionally good looking because she had my teacher's hair style. Those days, whatever the teacher did was fashion to me, even when she put a flower on coconut-oiled-and-pleated hair. Her husband was into the timber business. Suddenly, he was diagnosed with cancer and passed away within a few months shattering her perfect world before her eyes. My story starts here...

I have not seen her in all these years and only remember that she was beautiful, though I clearly remember the blue Maruti 800 that was shattered into pieces by the men of the locality.

She fell in love again after her husband passed away. The guy was the tuition master of her boys. He came home to teach them. The men in the locality came to know, and suddenly decided that parayas cannot eye their sister. I guess this guy wanted to impress her and got the brand new Maruti 800 (it was in the 80s. Dad still had a scooter then. So, this guy must be rich and may have wanted to show her that she would be happy with him). The second time, he got it and parked on the road, it was broken.

S eloped with him to another state with her younger boy. Somehow, she couldn't take the elder boy with her. Her mom continues to tell the world that she doesn't know where her daughter is. We hear murmers that she came down to try and take the elder boy, but he judged his mom wrong, and continued living with his uncle. We heard she is happily married now. The man left his parents and the state for love, to create a safer and happier world for her. I salute him!

My point:  At 25, I was still not married. I shudder to think what it must have been like for S, who was a house-wife with no financial security, and to be widowed with 2 kids at that age. What it must have been for a mother to choose between a second chance at life with a loving man, and her child? What it must been for S' mother, and why does society still bother so much about someone else's life?

Looking at this, I am so happy that my were-married-once friends have the freedom and also the anonimity in the city to live their own lives. One of them told me how she hates visiting her hometown because people still eye her differently, and remind her about her failed marriage to an abusive swine.