THE DILEMMA

THE DILEMMA

She was another ordinary Indian girl to be married in a few days. She immersed herself in the preparation of the wedding, if only to escape the emotional aspect of the event; girls do put in a lot of emotions into such events. The bridal jewellery, dress and other trivia entered into the conscious world of the poor girl, but they were insufficient to obscure any misgivings she had on being crossed with me. A sense of supreme sacrifice manifested itself with more intensity as she realized all that she was foregoing. After all, I could never be the Prince Charming she had dreamt of all her life. She wished to be a part of the bond, but she had certainly not looked to the compromises she would have to make if it was to be with me. These were certainly not in the bag of wishes she held. She looked up at her reflection in the mirror. Did she deserve this? She began to think.

The same thought crossed my mind. She certainly deserved to be with someone better than me. In a few days, she would no longer be the goddess I’d dreamt of all these years, but a real woman in flesh and blood. She would be someone I would have to fight for, I would have to support, help, and perhaps, be maligned for. On second thoughts, I would prefer the life of freedom I enjoyed. But the cards were laid, and I had very little choice but to abide by the rules of the game.

The game had been played by countless people before me. I was not the first one to go through the experience. But when I consider my inability in achieving what others can, I do feel a bit disturbed. To make things all the more difficult, there is an agonizing pity that I was ever born. I’m certainly not satisfied with my present, but the very thought of a future that could be darker than the present really scares me. I wasn’t to live in the present; I don’t want to wade into the future. On second thoughts, the transition from the present to the future could be the very change in my life I’d been looking for all these years. She might be the only one who could deliver me of this feeling of wretchedness. Her love and affection would be the elixir of my life; it would be the glue that would hold us together. But what does frighten me is that nothing can ensure the continuance of love. It fades away with the intricacies of life.

Life had failed to deliver on the promises it made to each of us. On my part, I was left partly incapacitated after an accident. She found herself in a very difficult situation, one that initially promised glee and happiness, but turned out to be a big dilemma instead. To spend one’s life with someone supposed to be one’s equal but who transcends the definition of equality if a challenge none of my precedents had embraced. All said and done, there is the realization that our destinies bring us together, and would keep us together.

Together we could change the world. Things just might turn out to be well-organised, life just might turn out to be as beautiful or even more beautiful at the other end of the rainbow, the summer days might just be a bit cooler, and the mornings might be a bit brighter-----only time will reveal the truth.