Maria

On turning 61 Anne Lamott rightly wrote " All truth is a paradox." So is life I believe. We don't always end up where we once dreamt of reaching but we do reach where we are meant to. Sometimes our dream is something, our destiny another.

Today I met a relative of mine after a really long time.Keeping up with all the family gossips I had missed out on in the last couple of years seemed like enough script for 3 Bhansali movies. There were weddings, divorces, break ups, births, deaths, anniversaries, illness, potatoes, tomatoes and bananas. With all due diligence I listened to the entire conversation like an enlightened listener. At the mention of  a dear cousin's name, however,  I was all ears. The only beautifully rusted memory I have of her is 10 years old.

Maria was one of those ever shy girls among all my cousins and I was the loudest tomboy. We shared a very special bond, something that was never understood by any of our parents or anyone around us. When she was with me I would feel strong and more notorious and walk around like I conquered the world. Maria had the prettiest smile and the cutest ponytail. She would always walk right behind me in cute little skirts and be the one carrying all my toys or weapons as I called them. The last I saw her was during the summer we both turned 12. We discussed our future plans that holiday. She would become a successful lawyer in America and I would become an aeronautical engineer.

Maria today suffers from mental instability and seeks refuge within the 4 walls of her bedroom. She has completely disconnected herself from the world and refuses to meet anyone. I always believed and still believe everything happens for a reason. But however hard I tried I couldn't understand what good came out of her sickness. Her dreams were buried under the clouds of expectations and time and I couldn't think of one single reason to justify my conviction, until Aron was introduced into the story.

A renowned lawyer and the sweetest husband of Maria, Aron was just the man any woman would dream of. To her he meant the world and to him there was no place on earth warmer than her arms. It was soon after her Masters that Maria married him. Like any other newly married couple they were as excited as kids on a merry-go-round to begin their adventure together. When life slowly seemed to fall in place Maria started showing signs of restlessness and major anxiety. Few months down the lane she was diagnosed with acute mental illness.

Today if you speak to Aron you will not hear a hopeless husband pouring out words of despair or a man who is at the verge of giving up. Instead you will see a man who is thankful for every single day he gets to be with his wife, treating her. You will see a man who is grateful to the woman who taught him patience and the power of love.

From the dream of becoming  an aeronautical engineer on multiplex seats to an admirer of life and love today, I can only say I stumbled upon life and swayed with it. And so did Maria. She did not become a successful lawyer but she did become a successful wife in marrying Aron and in being smothered with all the love one can only wish for. I can never forget the summer we both turned 12. The dreams we dreamt then seems blurred and distant now but our journey to the present was definitely heaven's plan.We might have taken the wrong train but we sure did reach the right destination.