The Power of Love

Love is all we have, the only way that each can help the other. – Euripides

Hello friends, today we will talk about the power of love and compassion which have the potential to melt the heart of a stone and turn it as mellow as soft petals of a rose. During my teenage days, I had come across a story, the indelible imprint of which is still felt in my heart. It was a short story in a monthly woman’s magazine, my mom subscribed to. I was a voracious reader and am still is, therefore, I used to finish reading all the content of the magazine before my mother got the chance to lay a hand on it.

It was the story of a young woman, let’s call her Mahira. She was raised by her maternal uncle as she was orphaned in childhood. After her graduation her uncle started looking for a groom to marry her off. She wanted to study further but due to financial constraints of her uncle she decided to go with the flow and get married.

Before her marriage was finalised the groom and his elder sister came to see her face to face. During the meeting, the groom showed no inclination to start a conversation with her, preferring to keep his mouth shut. All the talking was managed by his sister, who seemed very affable and friendly. Mahira tried her best to have a look at him from the corner of her eyes in a bid to assess her prospective groom. Due to lack of initiative from his side towards any kind of interaction, her wish to know the man she was going spend her life with remained largely unfulfilled.

Yet she gave her consent when asked by her uncle, out of consideration of not wanting to be a burden on him anymore. As her would be life partner sought no further one to one meeting, she had no other option but to resign herself to what destiny had in store for her.

She eventually got married and relocated to a completely new environment. In a few days, all the relatives including her sister in law returned back, though the former stayed a little longer. All the mystery and misfortune in store for her, was in form of her husband. He remained a detached stranger to her, in spite of spending the nights together, treating her no more than an object just to satisfy his physical cravings.

In front of the watchful eye of his sister, he tried to make an effort to assure her that all was normal between the newlyweds. Mahira felt too embarrassed to tell her sister in law about the situation while enquired by her repeatedly. After her going away to her own home with her family, Mahira had to fend for herself all alone. Being deprived of an ally, she felt helpless to deal with the indifference bordering to hostility in her husband’s behavior.

She was completely at a loss how to struck a manageable relationship with her completely unresponsive husband, which sometimes turned into outright hostility. She tried her best not to put any wrong foot forward in front of him always remaining on her guard, yet the harshness resurfaced from time to time, leaving her in tears. She knew that she was trapped and nowhere to go. She wasn’t educated enough to get herself a decent job and sustain herself nor returning back to her uncle’s place was an option.

Do you want to know more, how Mahira sorted out her life?

I shall tell you about her in my next post.

Adieu for now!

Cover photo: digital art by my daughter Riya.

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