Bound by love, not walls

At the start of a tempestuous romance, they sing it like O my luve’s like a red, red rose. As you walk down the aisle, it is a must-do. The ‘happily ever after’ players have only been pole positioned. The race had not begun yet. Valentine’s Day should never forget those who were once neck-deep in love, renew and retain it in good shape in long years of togetherness. Those who crossed hurdles of caste, religion and regional barriers are our heroes and sheroes this V-Day. Recently, Adv. Shaji Pillai and wife Lakshmi Shaji remembered their 17 years of marital bliss sharing a modest wedding picture on their respective Facebook walls. In their tale, Shaji was the first to be smitten by the love bug. It’s a wonder how a then college-goer got enamoured by a charming sixth grader passing by in a school bus.

“That was only the first time I saw her. I waited for two more years to propose to a bit more grown-up girl,” Shaji Pillai can’t contain his laughter. Love bloomed over the phone and during rarest of the rare clandestine meetings and soon, the matter came before their families. The script took a cinematic turn in no time. “As soon as she entered her marriageable age, we tied the knot. It remained a hush-hush affair for about one-and-a-half-years until we revealed the matter to the families,” says Shaji. Having surpassed the initial struggles to face the white heat of life, their relation is only growing from strength to strength. Proud parents of a 14-year-old son, they say their romance never lost steam.

Venu and family

“We both tell our child to not chase after fortune and that life’s more about living it to the fullest. And we are always in love,” Shaji and Lakshmi admit in unison. A Malayalam daily featured the wedding of Venu Nair and Gurdeep Kour, at the start of the 1990s, on the front-page. The union of a Punjabi girl and Malayali boy at the Sikh Gurdwara in Kochi was forging two different cultures and customs in a novel way. That was the time Doordarshan Kendra opened its station in the capital. “I was interested in doing something different. A salwar-clad me was mocked at as a girl in ‘pants’ who rode on a cycle and two-wheeler. Doordarshan Kendra was a big attraction then and visual media got into my head. Destiny had it that my husband and I work for a project in a motley crew of four. Together we met people, travelled. It went on like this until one day he asked my father for my hand in marriage. He got agitated and was like why his daughter didn’t inform him first? How do I know that my teammate had feelings for me when he never said a word about it,” says Kour, who is now Gurdeep Kour Venu.

Gurdeep admits that theirs was not a tale of cheese, chocolate and roses. “Our foundation is strong and sturdy. In personality traits, we are poles apart. In thoughts, deeds and looks we differ in many ways. Rather, we never looked at the similarities. The stronger the bonding, the longer it sustains. Hardships only reinforced our relationship,” she says. Mollywood has been for a long time looking forward to Priyamani saying ‘I do’ to long-time boy friend and fiancé Mustafa. Though yet to enter the wedlock, it’s their fifth Valentine’s Day together. On the penultimate night of the V-Day, she was planning to surprise Mustafa. “He has a habit of checking through internet and I won’t say what I have in store for him. Let’s the surprise remain,” she smiles. February has their ‘proposal anniversary’, Valentine’s Day and Mustafa’s birthday on the 19th. “We try to spend time together, say from Valentine’s Day to Mustafa’s birthday.” This time around, V-Day has the couple inaugurating the next season of KFL (Kerala Fashion League) in Kozhikode.