There are times when people who profoundly love each other have to part ways for reasons that are not under their control. And in India, often the reason of separation is religion or caste, which, in fact, is the most unfortunate reason because you don’t ask the person whether he/she is a Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Brahmin, and then fall in love. You just fall in love.
Something similar happened with this Mumbai-based couple who were forced to part ways because their families didn’t allow inter-caste marriage, she being a Muslim and he, a Hindu.
Sharing her story with Humans of Bombay, Mahajabeen Patel said, “I was madly in love with him, but as life would have it, I’m Muslim, he’s Hindu and his parents weren’t okay with us getting married.” The two met in 1975 on a modelling assignment and dated for good four years till his parents finally started looking for other girls.
“One day, when we were supposed to meet, he didn’t turn up and it was only after I spoke to him on the phone the next day, that I realised that it was because he had agreed to get engaged to someone else — he said that he was tired of fighting with his entire family. I felt awful…I wanted to kill him, but I maintained my dignity and walked away with grace,” she said.
Eventually, the two got married to different people and went on with their lives. But as fate would have it, both their marriages didn’t work out. Seven years later, the two met at a common friend’s party and pretended their partners were busy but guess what?
“…destiny has a funny way of bringing what’s meant to be together — we both bumped into each other at the family court — her hearing was at 12, mine was at 12:30 and we were both appointed the same judge and counsellor. We saw each other and asked a very stupid question — ‘what are you doing here?’ but that’s how it all began again. We picked up exactly where we left off,” she said.
They got married in 1991 and have been living happily ever after since then. “I guess our life together was written, and no amount of time or distance apart could have changed that,” said Mahajabeen.
