Stranger than fiction!

This was a strange story if there was one. No, it was not a story at all. It was fact - the stranger than fiction kind. Let me narrate it in its entiretly and maybe you will agree with me in it being very the very strange reality.

It starts off with a simple soul called U. Now U, as her soul, also had a very simple life. No frills, no roller-coasters, no earth-shattering events, until ofcourse when reality took a turn from being normal. The earth did shatter, the roller-coaster did come down when U and her husband T were involved in a crash. Not their fault really. Some drunk driver plowed into their auto-rickshaw killing the auto-driver and grievously injuring T. U was left unscathed in the accident because she was thrown out of the other side. Now T's injuries were so bad that he ended up being unable to move anything from his neck down. Where once a pair of legs carried him, a wheel-chair did the job. Fortunately [if it could be termed that] for the couple, the drunk driver happened to be the spoilt son a very rich tycoon who with his ample financial prowess was able to secure the freedom of his son. The prowess was also used to provide T with a lifelong expert care and a generous allowance to take care of other things. Unfortunately, the prowess could not do anything for the one thing that he wanted to do - be on his own!

That was taken away from him, maybe forever. A nurse was appointed but he refused her care. He could not submit to any stranger taking care of his needs. For that he needed one and one person only. U, his loving wife, who was more than willing to provide that care. For the first time in her life, she felt needed and she enjoyed that feeling. She bathed him, fed him, cleaned him, took him to the bathroom, read to him, watched TV with him, talked to him, walked with him...every slightest need of his, she was willing to tend to whole-heartedly. Soon things fell in a pattern. The couple got used to the life. T finally accepted that he was going to be dependent on his wife all his life and after a couple of years finally turned to God once again to thank him for that one blessing - U.

So the extra-ordinary became normal and life chugged along. As it does, not matter how many out of the blue things happen to it. What happened after that was to be expected. Maybe not welcomed, but it should have come as no surprise to T or even U that eventually there was going to come a point where being needed constantly would go from being a welcome feeling to one that got on the nerves. There was no relief. He could not even talk for long without getting tired. He would fall asleep from time to time. Sometimes in the middle of a conversation. Just when she'd think that she could have some time to herself, he'd be calling out to her. Yes, it felt great to be needed but it felt lousy to be needed all the time. Constantly.

Fortunately for the couple once again, T managed to see what U was going through and more importantly understand her trauma. It was not like she was the disabled person, so why was she suffering so much, he thought with the only fully-functioning area of his body - his brain! So he started going easy on her, paying attention to her needs and her time, exhorting her to go outside, visit friends, take a vacation and interact with people. Once again things fell in place. U stopped feeling morose and unhappy all the time. This reflected on T who basked in her reflected happiness, his guilt pushed under the plush carpet after a long time. Once again things were normal - chugging along.

But as seemed to be the norm with their lives in the past few years, things started to shake and rumble again! This time, the consequences were far reaching and not amount of plush carpeting could mask its effects. The couple tried to ignore it in the beginning. What was happening to her - she tried to ignore, what subtle change came over her - he tried to ignore. But as is common with things that cannot be ignored but are attempted to for long, everything burst up one fine day. She was in love - with another man. She cried. He cried. Not that she loved another man, but that she did not love him any more. She kept telling him that she did, that there was no difference in the way she felt for him. He nodded, realizing that she had stopped loving him for a while. At least the way he wanted her to love him. True, she still loved him. Only it was like a child, not a husband.

She felt guilty. He felt even guiltier. She did not want to leave him. She could not leave him. He was a part of her and she could not imagine herself being happy without making sure he was doing OK. He wanted to be the big man. To let her go towards her happiness, to let her walk towards tha man she loved. He tried very hard, but somehow could not bring himself to let her go. He needed her too much. More than that he loved her too much. Needs could be taken care of by someone else, love can't! She was the only thing in his life that egged him to go on - to want to get up from sleep every morning - to keep on breathing and doing nothing much other than that. He even thought about killing himself to put her out of her misery, but he was so helpless he needed assistance even to do that. He tried to hold his breath once and burst out into tears when he could not even manage to do that.

U caught on to his dilemna. She tried to make things easier. She made him promise that he was not going to do anything foolish. She told him if he persisted with his sacrifices, she'd be the one taking the suicide route. They cried together that time.

So he did something unimaginable. He wrote a letter to the Prime Minister of India. Asking him to grant special permission to his wife to marry this other man while being married to him. His argument was that if men were allowed to do it then why not women? And it was not like she was in a physical relationship with him. His needs were limited to her being around him. Giving him company in his misery. To the thought that she could still care for him even if not married to him that sprung up in the PMs head, he had to say that if that bond were not there, things were bound to change and in his state he could not take that chance. Nor was she willing to leave him and go. Her sense of responsibility towards him overtook her passion for the other man. Atleast she was willing it to overtake her love. The other option of being married to him while carrying out an affair with the other man was unappealing to all of them. It was sure to bring havoc into everyone's lives. So My dear prime minister ji, the letter continued, don't you think the best way out of this situation is for her to be in a legal marriage with another man while being married to me?

My head spun as I read that! Now you can understand what I was trying to say about this being a very strange story. This seemed to be the man's last resort. The issue stunned everyone when the man had expressed his desire to people around him. It got bigger and bigger and finally the whole nation was involved. There were debates, religious leaders terming the issue blasphemous, demonstrations, politicians trying to gain mileage from it, personal attacks and what not. Now it was upto me to sort this matter and boy! was it a difficult matter to sort.

What was I going to do?

"Dear Mr.President.... As the highest authority of the supreme court I think this matter deserves your attention " I smiled as I forwarded the letter.