I was through a discussion when my friend had called me up on my cellphone asking as to whether we could meet at the earliest. His voice did not reveal much but I could sense the urgency, feel an anxiety.....or was it my imagination? We, then, decided to meet up in the evening an hour before calling it a day.
No sooner were we closeted within the confines of the room, that my friend broke down and narrated the event that has shaken the peace of the entire family. His elder son who'd expressed finer feelings for a malayalee christian girl about four years back(it was laughed away then, saying that the youngster wasn't ready to start a family by virtue of his age and maturity) - working in an office which is a stone's throw away from the boy's, in Hyderabad - had taken an irrevocable decision, concerning the two of them. They were staying together as man and wife without letting their immediate families know. They'd taken the plunge because of anticipated resistance from their parents and my friend had come to know of it from somebody he knew, living in that city.
The dad's worry was that the boy was under duress to accept the present arrangement and might even go through a conversion of his religion, which is being insisted upon by the girl's folks! I'm also aware that the dad is heart broken on yet another score, perhaps, the more serious cause.
He and his wife had brought up their sons - they've two - in typical defence services' style and were more like friends communicating with each other freely and frankly, anything and everything that they'd come across. It was this sacred covenant that was broken by the youngster when he did not keep his parents in the loop! And consequently, the father's in tatters!!
It was decided that there was no point in wishing away the new relationship and its early formalisation was the need of the hour. A reception has to be organised and the young lady's parents had to be taken into confidence without much ado. An action plan has been drawn up and a time frame of thirty days have been fixed for its execution.
Tailpiece.
I could only pacify my friend and his wife by highlighting the following:-
(a) They'd done their duty as parents in giving their son a fine education and by putting him in a position
where he's capable of shaping his own future.
(b) He's going through the tortuous path that he's chosen because that, in essence, is his life's script.
(c) They must never wish him anything bad because, after all, he's a part of them and anything untoward
that befalls him would take its toll on them too.
PS.
Having said all that, I must concede that the couple is going through extreme agony. It's easy for an outsider like me to clinically diagnose the situation and offer solutions but life and its complications are a different ballgame altogether. What worries me is my friend's health as he's had certain cardiac complications in the recent past and is in the process of recuperation. And the wounds inflicted by the son are lethal!
No sooner were we closeted within the confines of the room, that my friend broke down and narrated the event that has shaken the peace of the entire family. His elder son who'd expressed finer feelings for a malayalee christian girl about four years back(it was laughed away then, saying that the youngster wasn't ready to start a family by virtue of his age and maturity) - working in an office which is a stone's throw away from the boy's, in Hyderabad - had taken an irrevocable decision, concerning the two of them. They were staying together as man and wife without letting their immediate families know. They'd taken the plunge because of anticipated resistance from their parents and my friend had come to know of it from somebody he knew, living in that city.
The dad's worry was that the boy was under duress to accept the present arrangement and might even go through a conversion of his religion, which is being insisted upon by the girl's folks! I'm also aware that the dad is heart broken on yet another score, perhaps, the more serious cause.
He and his wife had brought up their sons - they've two - in typical defence services' style and were more like friends communicating with each other freely and frankly, anything and everything that they'd come across. It was this sacred covenant that was broken by the youngster when he did not keep his parents in the loop! And consequently, the father's in tatters!!
It was decided that there was no point in wishing away the new relationship and its early formalisation was the need of the hour. A reception has to be organised and the young lady's parents had to be taken into confidence without much ado. An action plan has been drawn up and a time frame of thirty days have been fixed for its execution.
Tailpiece.
I could only pacify my friend and his wife by highlighting the following:-
(a) They'd done their duty as parents in giving their son a fine education and by putting him in a position
where he's capable of shaping his own future.
(b) He's going through the tortuous path that he's chosen because that, in essence, is his life's script.
(c) They must never wish him anything bad because, after all, he's a part of them and anything untoward
that befalls him would take its toll on them too.
PS.
Having said all that, I must concede that the couple is going through extreme agony. It's easy for an outsider like me to clinically diagnose the situation and offer solutions but life and its complications are a different ballgame altogether. What worries me is my friend's health as he's had certain cardiac complications in the recent past and is in the process of recuperation. And the wounds inflicted by the son are lethal!
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