Friday, February 13, 2015

Fine print

They were always mocked: if not directly, then definitely behind their backs.

He was a cook in a family restaurant. She was a head constable.

"So, if a thief jumps into their house, she probably chases him away while he cowers in the kitchen", said the world.

He was reed thin, with the look of one's favorite uncle to whom you could discuss your secrets. She was built like a boxer - the result of regular training - with the look of a stern head mistress.

"They wouldn't have had anyone else to marry them, you know? So, they married each other", said the world.

Yes, it did bother them. It created some awkward moments between them. But, those moments never lasted.

Because:

When she labored to bring their pre-term baby, it was he who had the grit and determination to encourage her to breathe. He stood by her, all through the time holding her hands and never once failing to tell her that she was doing great.

Whenever he fell sick, she would cook his favorite food and took care of him: even though she would have been back from her night shift.

She thought that saree didn't suit her and that she looked awkward in it. He scoffed at her and told her she looked beautiful in it and never failed to get her flowers when she wore one.

He thought that he didn't have any worldly knowledge since he hadn't studied much. She thought that he was the prime example of how one didn't need education to be educated. And she never failed to tell that to him and others.

The world thought that they had compromised to live with each other, but it never understood how they complemented each other. It never understood how the one always needed the other to be happy. It never understood that the definition of what made a man and a woman didn't lie in the conventional beliefs, but in what one wanted to be.

After all, the world didn't get to see them sharing their lives in the way they deemed it great.

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