Reunion of a curious couple

SOME stories are such that whenever you recall them, you feel good that you played a part in them. In 2018, I was serving as the Commissioner of Police, Surat. One afternoon, a man in his early 20s came to meet me. For a person just four feet tall, he carried himself well, but his face wore a troubled expression. This was Kevin.

He said he had married the girl he loved, against the wishes of her parents. But after staying with him for some days, she had gone to her father’s house and had neither returned nor was answering his calls. He suspected that his in-laws were keeping her in confinement and pressuring her to break the relationship.

Kevin wanted my help in meeting his wife just once at my office to be sure of her intentions. ‘Why at my office?’ I asked. He said that at any other place, his wife would not express her true wish freely.

So, I told a staffer to call up the girl’s father and ask him to bring her to my office the next day. He was reluctant, but agreed when he was told that if he did not comply, he might have to face a complaint of wrongful confinement.

The next day, Kevin met his wife — a nice-looking girl — in the anteroom of my office. But the meeting was futile. A dejected Kevin told me that his wife did not want to come with him. I asked her the reason. She said Kevin’s handicap had put her parents in an embarrassing situation in society. She could not see them troubled. ‘What about Kevin? You have married him knowing everything,’ I said, but she remained quiet. I did not press the point further and she left with her father.

Kevin was heartbroken but composed. I asked him not to lose hope and give his wife some time. I also told him to come back if he needed any help. He thanked me and left.

About a month later, he came again. He pleaded for just one more chance to talk to his wife. He said he was confident that he would be able to persuade her to return to him. So, we contacted the girl’s father again. He was not willing to bring the girl, but we somehow brought him around to it.

Kevin met her again at my office. I don’t know what transpired between them this time, but his wife agreed to return to him. To be sure, I asked the girl if she was firm on her decision. She said yes. I complimented her for her stand and called in her parents. The girl repeated before her parents what she had told me. They had no choice but to accept her wish. They left. I wished Kevin and his wife well and they also left, in high spirits.

Kevin’s in-laws are still estranged from the couple, but he and his wife are living happily with their two-year-old daughter. Sometimes, I wonder what Kevin said to his wife in their second meeting to win back her. But I have never asked him. There is no need for it.