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Love means never having to say you are sorry

Latest reports indicate that the cops are on the lookout for the not-so-young couple who are currently, possibly honeymooning after a two-and-half-decade gestation period.

A wedding came to a crashing halt in the Indian city of Surat in Gujarat recently. Weddings in India come to crashing halts in movies as part of the intrigue in the plot and in real life as the fates conspire with fair regularity.
This could be for several reasons. Mostly because the dowry is not good enough and a couple of codicils have not been honoured (where is the car) or because the true lover has arrived and claims his beloved's hand, the cops decide to arrest the groom just before he utters the sacred vows , a 'secret' wife announces she is the cheated one, the groom is an imposter, the bride is underage, there is a baby that appears, there is a caste, creed and religious issue, any of the scenarios will not raise eyebrows.
What has caused the collective eyebrows to swing upwards in a streaking arc is the halting of a wedding on January 10. Not because of any of the reasons given above but because the bride's mother ran away with the groom's father bringing the children's date with destiny to a grinding halt.
It now transpires that in 1995 these two were madly in love but he was poor and she was from a wealthy family and marriage sanction was denied. She was married off to a suitable boy and he also settled down with another woman. But the flame burned bright all these years and when they met again to get their children married, Cupid pulled out his rusty bow and arrow and sent one straight into their hearts. The flickering flame of love soared into the sky and they eloped.
As a love story you could go with Erich Segal's hugely successful and now legendary quote: Love means never having to say you are sorry.
This couple certainly isn't apologetic and so strong was the attraction even after all these years that their respective children's happiness didn't figure in their great escape.
The romantics amongst us might say what the heck, love conquers all, it is one life, let them go, after all, what could be truer love than this? And if one wife and one husband are staring woefully and the wedding decor and singing 'woe is me' as their son and daughter wonder what the heck happened two middle aged lovers are ecstatic.
For the more conservative, this is not only a self-indulgent step to have taken, it is inconsiderate and selfish and dishonours the institution of marriage. Not to mention flinging clods of mud on the stricken kids.
Latest news reports indicate that the cops are on the lookout for the not-so-young couple who are currently, possibly honeymooning after a two-and-half-decade gestation period. But do not despair, Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love, has been working overtime with her Indian counterpart to set the matter straight.
As such, a modern thinking uncle, having assessed the real time situation has volunteered to make the best of it. He will give away the frozen bride to her frosted groom on February 13 and invite both sides to celebrate.
While missing will be one Mom and one Dad, newlyweds themselves, it is probably a good thing they are disinvited. As the left behinds (also one mother and one father) seethe and express shock and relatives tremble with ill-concealed glee and the righteous speak of embarrassment and a profound loss of face (the whole Indian 'what will people say' syndrome) and neighbours are secretly delighted at the comeuppance the youngsters can plight their troth and canter into Valentine's day the first morning.
- bikram@khaleejtimes.com