The Perennial Doting

The Perennial Doting

God makes our matches and marriages in heaven and ultimately it is God’s wish to ultimately re-unite two souls at whatever stages of our life we are. God creates circumstances and situations wherein we are bound to be re-united as a soul separated by individual person’s personal ‘state of affairs’.

We never forget our first loves, even if decades go by before we see them again.

True love has no bounds; we’ve all heard that while some of us have been fortunate enough to witness its magic. But one question is quite relevant and legitimate. What is love without the hardships? Is love supposed to leave you feeling empty with a void that’s hard to fill? Does true love find its way through all the adversities it’s faced with? Does love have to pass the test of time? Does it survive? 

Every love story is unique and every love story works out quite differently from the other. Just like this beautiful tale of love that, like many others, was faced with unexpected hardships and misfortune. But this story proved that when two people are destined to be with each other, life inevitably brings them together. This beautiful story of Raju and Rakhi, who were separated by their family’s traditional caste compulsion and were brought together by destiny, and is a story that will make you want to hold on to your love till the end of time. 

The perfect example is the Love Story and Marriage of ‘Raju’ and ‘Rakhi’ who are the residents of Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh State in India as they met with each other when they were studying together in a Government Primary School nearly more than four decades ago and lost touch, only to find each other again at a common friend’s family celebration reunion!

Rakhi “always had a crush” on Raju, but as happens, they went their separate ways and lost touch after going to different secondary schools.

When Rakhi was 48 Years Old and Raju was 49 Years Old in Year 2002, they both attended a common friend’s family celebration reunion and second time met again!

“Raju was my favorite person to be around at primary school as he used to always make me laugh and help me with my work,”Rakhi told this Author.  

Rakhi further adds, “Raju was the smartest in the class and I was a mediocre girl.”

“We went our separate ways during our teenage years but there were a few occasions I had seen him regularly at a common grocery shop located in our same residential colony but hadn’t got the courage to approach him.”

Rakhi was able to get Raju’s Mobile Number through the repeated requests to the owner of the grocery shop.

“I have always had a crush on him and I had him on social media such as through whatsapp, but it seemed when one of us was single, the other wasn’t which is annoying, but fate thankfully found its way.”

Rakhi said when the two of them first saw each other after all those years, it was like no time had passed and they got along perfectly. It was “like they did all those years ago”.

“There was a primary school reunion alumni meet in 2000 which both ‘Raju’ and ‘Rakhi’ attended and first met after years of long gap, and Rakhi remembers we still got on like we did all those years ago,” Rakhi explained.

But Rakhi thought that Raju had moved on: “He turned up with a girl who also went to our school and I must admit, I was pretty sad.”

Rakhi was unwilling to forget her love.

“Two months later, Rakhi came to know about Raju that he had become single and Rakhi plucked up the courage to send Raju her number through whatsapp messaging.”

Rakhi adds, “It was the best decision I had ever made as he is my soul mate who has pushed me to achieve things, I never thought I could, like my degree in philosophy.”

Raju and Rakhi went from being innocent kids to maturing adults while they were apart, but still found that they fit together. “It is crazy to think that we were once learning our timetables together and now we have been together for ten years.”

“After a few months, I knew that we were destined to be together, he never fails to make me smile.

“When Raju’s Mother, Geeta, 73, found out we were dating, she went digging for photos from year six leaving day and found quite a few of me.

“Raju couldn’t believe he had pictures of his now wife from as a kid – it is just evidence that we are meant to be.”

Their more than four decades of love story continues today, now as a couple.

The couple is married and happier than ever. “Everything is just so easy with Raju, we never have any drama and if I am ever annoyed he makes me laugh and I forget what I was angry about,” Rakhi shares.

Rakhi and Raju are a great example to us all. If you have a great lost love (or even a friend) and you miss them, reach out and try to make a connection. There’s no telling what will happen!

“We met in 1971 in a Government Primary School while studying together in the same class and started seeing each other a few weeks later. The next few years were great—I was madly in love with him, but as life would have it, I’m from a lower caste, he’s Hindu upper caste and his parents weren’t okay with us getting married. In 1979, they started showing Raju girls for arranged marriage. 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 realized 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. Rakhi felt awful…I wanted to kill him, but I maintained my dignity and walked away with grace. That was the year we both got married to different people…and I thought that was the last of it.

“Years passed by — Rakhi had two children and an entirely different life. Even though I had so many mutual friends with Raju, Rakhi never saw him — we both wanted to respect each other’s new lives and happiness. Of course we thought of each other, there are times when you can’t help but think because there was so much love at one point, but none of us ever did anything about it — all Rakhi knew this entire time was that Rakhi would never truly stopped loving him.

“As fate would have it, both our marriages didn’t work out and after nine years we met at a common friend’s party. Even though we were both alone, we both just assumed that our partners were travelling or couldn’t make it. But destiny has a funny way of bringing what’s meant to be together — we both bumped into each other at the family court through the Mobile Number which Rakhi got through common grocery shop’s owner — her hearing was at 2:00 PM, mine was at 2:30 PM 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 — none of were bothered about the past, whose fault it was, what the reason for our divorces were — we were only concerned with the future…our future. I wasn’t going to let her go the second time around, so one day when we had gone out for a walk at School’s Sports Ground, at the age of 49 I asked her to marry me…and she said yes!

We got married in 2002 and had our son in 2005 and ever since then the five of us (together with Rakhi’s previous marriage’s two children) have been one, big happy family. Rakhi guesses our life together was written in God’s Court, and no amount of time or distance apart could have changed that.”

Authorpreneur 'Santosh Kumar Singh' is of the view that in a nutshell this true Love Story can be categorized as 'Souls Made For Each Other'.