Dear Diary…
Today is the best day of my life… I feel alive and overjoyed… Even at 40, I feel like I’m 16 again… I feel this new surge of energy… I feel a new…yet nervous energy… Tomorrow is going to be the beginning of a new life! You know dear diary how I’ve longed for today… the struggles I’ve faced and the battles I’ve won… All seem to me today, as a small bump in the road…
I know it wasn’t the wedding we hoped for…definitely not the kind of reception we wished for… No parents or friends, to shower us with blessings and love… No pendal and no sacred fire… No religious chants or no promises around the ritual fire… But I know, I believe, that she knows that even without all of these… Our lives are now complete! Our journey together has reached a milestone…
The smile on her face, the affectionate glow…Ohh! it spoke a thousand words! Her cheeks were plush from smiling…Her delicate eyelids blinking ever so often, as she held back her tears… It’s moments like this I wait for…
I looked at her and wondered why it took us so long…why was it such a steep uphill battle? I could not understand why no one, neither family nor friends could stomach this joy we feel… How, I wonder…how could society be so selfish? Doesn’t society understand that we are simply just a part of it? Not just a part, but contributing members of this society. For fourteen long years we kept this love to ourselves…hiding away like we were criminals…hiding it to a point where even we almost denied this beautiful love from our very selves..
Even after the law of the land changed..It took us four long years to finally move forward…the fear of society had paralyzed us… Four years of arguments and disagreements… Four years of preparation for today…
I wonder if it really mattered that I was older than her… Or that I was a catholic and she was a hindu… Or was it that they could not wrap their feeble minds around the idea that love is a feeling that knows no boundaries… That love is not confined to just a man and a woman…
Why, I ask, aren’t we open to the idea that love can transcend everything… Religion, age and even gender…?
Well I guess the answers to these questions…we will never know… Man is simply a slave of two masters…one is fear and the other is ignorance…But from today onwards, I shall liberate myself, I will break the chains and free myself…I’ll always be proud of Who I am, What I do and Who I love… This promise I make to myself… Till my dying breath…
Your dearest friend
Jacqueline
22-2-2022