“She has just completed her studies in medicines!” exclaimed
the pandit. “Belongs to a very
respectable family and is a very nice girl but the only problem is, that she is
an atheist.”
“Oh! Panditji,
bring some better proposals. An atheist! No,” said the old lady who was finding
a suitable girl for her son.
Priti had been rejected thrice because of being an atheist.
Yet, she would never change.
While she was crying on the terrace that day, her best
friend came up to cheer her.
“Oh! C’mon, it doesn’t even matter that you
believe in God or not! A man will love you if he has the capability to see your
beauty!” Madan consoled.
“I know that but…..”
“Stop crying, first. And tell me why you don’t believe in
God? I realize now that I never bothered to ask you this.”
“I never said this to anybody, Maddy,” Priti sighed.
“Okay, tell me now, “He insisted.
Priti started to narrate what had happened years ago that
made her what she is now.
She had been in her second grade when her family had shifted
to a new locality. She had the habit of visiting the temple every day. After
shifting she started to go to the temple nearby, in the new place. It had only
been a few days when Priti experienced something really bad.
As a child, it was fun to ring the temple’s bell loudly
after worshipping. When she had somebody with her, they would lift her up to
let her ring the bell.
One day, when Priti went to the temple with her friend, she
had no elder who could lift her up to reach to the bell. She jumped twice and
tried to ring but failed. It was an odd time and there was nobody else in the temple
except a man who had been watching her jump. He offered help. She was joyed to
ring and requested to lift her up. She noticed that he lifted her frock and
touched her private part while holding her.
Priti couldn’t understand what to do and just ran away. What
could a small child do for this? What could she understand?
She felt weird about it and didn’t go to the temple for a
few days. Nobody noticed that.
One day while going to the school she saw the
same person talking to another man and found out that he was the pandit of that temple.
What a shock it had been to her. How could such a pious person
do this? She was unable to get that incident out of her mind.
“You see, how it affected me? I just ended up being an
atheist. A person calls himself pious and does such a cheap act! Show the world
that you love God and never care about doing sins. Since I was a little girl
then, I couldn’t understand all that but now it bothers me. There would have
been a few other innocent little girls too! “
Madan was shocked. “People like them ruin the community,” He
said with frustration and hugged her.
“Okay, so forget about it now and do what you feel is right.”
There was only silence for a couple of minutes and then
Madan spoke up.
“Hey, I love you Pri. Will you marry me?”
Priti was amazed. Both knew each other from their school
time and had been really close friends since then. Friendship turned to love, today.
"No family would accept an atheist to be their "daughter-in-law, Maddy," she said.
"I've already spoken to my mother about it. She likes you," he winked.
Love has no religion?
He proved it true!
