REMINDS YOU OF SOMETHING?

Yesterday was a Sunday. We had been for the morning Mass. There was a simple wedding-nuptial ceremony of a local East Indian couple. After the Mass, the couple posed for some lovely pictures, the brass band played some traditional tunes… the guests danced… and the crackers went up in the air. In a few minutes, everything was silent. 

“Reminds you of something?” a good-old friend teased me.

“Yes, it does,” I smiled.

At night, we had to attend another wedding reception of a Punjabi couple. The bride and the groom looked stunning; the parents looked extremely proud and happy… And, on the stage, when we wished the young couple, we meant every letter of our greeting. “May you be together in your happiness and sorrows; may you be together in your laughter and tears; may you be together in your health and sickness.”

What more can one wish on a wedding day? 

What more could, my dearest ones do on my own wedding day?

Yes, how can you better this promise: “Dear, I promise to be with you in your good times and bad times, in your health and sickness… in your laughter and tears”?

I think, that is the greatest promise 

one can ever make to his partner 

on the wedding day. 

And, to make the marriage an amazing, 

life-enriching experience… 

yes, to live up to that simple promise, 

is the greatest challenge, too.

It is.

It is.

After the Mass, when I reached home, I glanced through the newspaper. “250 Million… The Divorce Dollar Drama,” the headlines blared, “The Tom Cruise-Katie Holmes separation is the latest in a long list of expensive Hollywood celebrity break-ups.”

I wasn’t amused even a bit. 

Some years ago, when this celebrity couple had tied the knot, they had chosen a fairy-tale-kind palace. A real fortune on their wedding ceremony. The world had gone ga-ga over it… and, yes, I, here in this remote corner of the world, had blogged on the subject. I still remember what I had written in that Post. 

Was not the promise made by this high-flying Hollywood couple, to each other, same as the one this East Indian couple made last morning…? Or, the one the Punjabi couple made at night…? Or the one I and my wife made years ago?

Was not the challenge to live up our promises same?

Yes, it was.

It is.

It is one promise that needs to be renewed, each day, as the Sun goes up in the sky… and comes down, too.

It is one promise, when really, really meant and lived up to, can help us translate its essence – a loving companionship.

It is one decision that needs to be a real call of our hearts… completely clothed in simplicity, trust, respect and honor.

Because, is not the same God expected to bless the Man and the Woman who declare – “I DO”?

GERALD D’CUNHA

Pics.: Raj Dhage Wai