Short Story- Avoidable Marriage

By: Dalip Singh Wasan

Avoidable marriage
Dalip Singh Wasan, Advocate.

Our son was in marriageable age and therefore, we started giving matrimonial advertisements in news papers to attract a better match. We had been receiving letters from different parties and some of them had contacted us personally. There were so many suitable matches and we had been considering each case on its own merits because we wanted the best match for our promising son. He had done degree in engineering and was posted as a Sub Divisional Engineer in a government office. He was in a suitable pay scale and in addition to the pay drawn, he was having some extra income too and therefore, people were eager to give their daughters to us.
Out of all these one photograph attracted my son and he had been persuading us to contact this family. I was avoiding to contact this family because of my own reasons, but since my husband too insisted upon contacting this family, I agreed to contact that family. They were from my parental town and therefore, I suggested that I shall be contacting this family with the help of my mother and accordingly I started for my home town all alone. My husband was eager to accompany me, but since that was my parental town, I avoided that my husband too should accompany me.
I went to my parental town and actually contacted the father of the girl. I was with him for some time and explained to him as to why this marriage is impossible one. He was surprised to note my stand. He was happy that he would be having another occasion to meet me time and again, because we had been together in school, in college and then in the University.

We had been fast friends and because of certain economic grounds, my parents were not in a mood to give me in that house and thus we could not marry. He got married as per desires of his parents and I too had to marry as per the choice of my parents.
When Malhotra did not agree to avoid this marriage, I explained to him, " You know that I had explained my position to you after one year of my marriage. When the people in the house of my in laws were discussing about my pregnancy, I had to contact you. You took me to the doctor and we found that I was in a position to give birth to a child and there could be some defect in my husband. So on the second visit I requested you to give me a child. You were ready to spare a child of your own for me, but I requested otherwise and this son is that son which is actually your own son. My son Varinder is a brother to your daughter Meenakshi. They cannot marry. Since this information is in between us two, I have come here all alone. Please do write to my husband some difficulty and we should avoid this marriage." Malhotra had been listening to me and still he was desiring that this marriage must be finalized. He explained to me that none on earth knows that we had such relations and we had brought this son earth. If the people are not having any knowledge, we can contract this marriage. But still I was not agreeing to this marriage. I explained to Malhotra, " We know the truth and we should not ignore this truth. We shall never be able to forgive ourselves for this sin. It is a crime and we can say, it is also a misconduct on our part." Malhotra agreed and he asked me to go back and promised that he shall not allow this marriage to finalize .
I came back and explained so many things to my husband and to my son and on this my husband passed the final remarks, " This is the first time you failed. I had been noticing that whatever work you took in hand, you finalized the same and you never failed. And this time you failed, when your own dear son demanded something from you. The girl belongs to your parental town and if you make investigation, they people shall come out as your relatives. There is nothing wrong with our son. He is properly educated and properly trained and he has been earning well. The people from the other side, themselves have written us letter and I think they might have made certain investigations. At least I am not in a position to believe that a woman of your status could come back without achieving her targets. If you pass an order, none from my house is in a position to say 'no' to you and this time, the people who themselves have written us a letter have refused" I am still recalling those remarks and I am not in a position to forget those remarks. But my husband was not having the complete information and if ' no ' has come from the other side, it was so because I wanted such a response from that side. I was not ready to commit such an offence. I had committed an offence, but I do not want that my son should also commit that type of offence. I was under an obligation to give birth to a child because my own married life was in danger. I knew that these people shall divorce because here in India the people want a child and if the bride cannot give birth to a child they can divorce her or they can bring another woman in the house to have a child. I did something which was not as per norms presently followed in our society, but there had been instances when women were having children for their husbands from other men and I had to follow that old tradition under compelling circumstances.
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Marriage
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