Life, Lilies and Surf

Chapter 8

"With this ring , I thee wed, with my body I thee worship, and with all my 

worthy goods I thee endow"

"To have and to hold from this day forward, for better or worse, for richer

for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish,

till death do us part."                                   

                                                                                 Book of Common Prayer.

Things moved fast after what we saw in the previous chapter.  Bhaskar's uncle from Madras came and talked to Latha's parents as Bhaskar's parents were not alive.  As community, caste, language and religion were the same for both the girl and boy, there was no problem.  Those days these were more accentuated than now.  This was because marriages were mostly arranged ones and rarely there were love marriages.  Co-education and chances for boys and girls to move with each other were not there in those days.  So, the episodes of falling in love were an exception than a rule.  Before marriage the boy and the girl hardly knew each other.  The formal brief event of seeing the girl was the only thing prevalent for settling the marriage, if all other things were satisfactory for both their parents, especially the boys parents.  In order to have as much convergence as possible in married life, the factors of religion, caste, family background, status, etc were used as deciding factors for possible easier mutual adjustment and happiness in married life.  In quite a few cases, these parameters did not work out for to make a happy married life.  After all the innate qualities and traits of a man or woman entering matrimony cannot be easily judged , much less the true colours of the in laws and out laws.  But many marriages did not break down though they could not be classified as very happy or even tolerable.  This was because marriages were considered sacrosanct and people were trained to think that they should carry on with maximum adjustment possible.  The credit for such continued wedlock despite trials and tribulations goes to the women, who made lots of adjustments and considered the welfare and future of their sons and daughters as paramount and not their own personal hardship and problems with their husband and his family.   Most men too had at heart of hearts felt that they should carry on despite situations and problems that arise from their wife and from kith and kin of both sides.  

Latha's marriage was a simple one and there were not many relatives form groom's and bride's sides.  As the marriage celebrated in Bombay, only some relatives of Bhaskar could come. It was all pleasant and cheerful.  All the office colleagues and staff came.  The bosses also came and blessed them.  Presents were given by the office colleagues and bosses.   Al were appreciative that the two finally got into wedlock.  After the wedding the couple took leave for a week and went to the hill station of Mahabaleshwar.    

As a bachelor Bhaskar did not get government quarters and he chose to live in a two room apartment that had restaurants nearby .  He vacated the rooms and came with his measly luggage and joined Latha in her government quarters.   Latha's  father had to go back to Madras as one of his close relatives was ailing. He also preferred to go back so that he could continue selectively his priestly job.  Latha's mother was with her to help her out in running the house.  As both Latha and Bhaskar were employed, this arrangement was much to their advantage.  Latha was very much attached to her mother and the mother was very proud of her daughter and admired her in every way.  She thought being  her mother, she should have a say in whatever Latha did and always tried to run her life.  

As it invariably happens in life and in government service,  you get change or transfer order to another station as soon as you had struggled and got yourself well settled in a place.  One not so fine morning,  posting orders came posting Bhaskar to Delhi in a deputation post in another department.  Bhaskar welcomed it as deputation meant more salary and only officers with good career record got such chances for deputation.  He told Latha that there was a government policy to post couples posted to the same station to keep the family in tact.  So, she could ask for a posting to Delhi and join him.  He packed his bags and went to Delhi and joined his new post.