So long…
True Love
20/2/20
English transcript is below this post
Just when you are ready to throw in the towel thinking “love” is a fallacy and trope of literary minds, a story like this comes by once again making a believer out of a skeptic. Not once Mukhtar Ahamed complained, lamented or despaired over lack of money or anything else. The contentment and love poured from every inch of his being. Does love triumph all odds? If yes, then how come so many of us are bereft of love in our daily lives including those who are married? It is true love morphs into many shapes and forms over time in one relationship. How and when some of us fell out of love and drifted apart is not an implausible mystery. Did we failed the love or the love failed us?
Until morning she thought respect and loyalty translated into love, but recalling last evening’s heated discussion with besty 2 she came to conclusion only one thing that translates into lasting love is RESPECT. Loyalty and kindness can keep two people trapped in a dysfunctional marriage. One partner is loyal because they are self righteous and the other is loyal as he/she doesn’t have the courage to take a stand thus egos triumph not love. A half a century long loveless marriage is essentially based on loyalty to the institution of marriage not the partner. Respect for the agency of your partner and your relationship will morph into love. Let’s celebrate Mukhtar Ahmed and Shaheen Akhtar’s love and leave the discourse on loyalty and respect for another day/post.
DG
Transcript (verbatim)
Why one man in Pakistan claims his wife is one in millions?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J51RinPqQfk
Both are singing: God united us now we’ll never part…
Mukhtar Ahmed was married to Shaheen Akhtar 35 years ago.
Mukhtar: Few or many, the trials are part of life but that doesn’t mean for little bit of hardship you left your wife. To keep her at home is like asking the sun to rise in the other direction. She cannot stay at home without me.
Voiceover: They have no children because Shaheen had nine miscarriages. Shaheen started losing her mental balance, Mukhtar supported her.
Mukhtar: Due to children she took too much tension/stress. The last miscarriage was a full term of nine months and four days. Earlier miscarriages were those of six months or so but this was full term of nine months. That left her shell shocked.
Voiceover: Mukhtar had to leave his job and home to provide for her treatment.
Mukhtar: She would obey me and I would abide by her then we fell in love. We got married and left for Karachi four days later. At my workshop I earned enough but when she fell sick I had to leave the work. All day I had to attend her, feed her give her medicine, oil and comb her hair, put kohl in her eyes. Do laundry, cook, from a man I became a woman, one who serves.
Mukhtar: We live in this cattle barn; there is only one room here. A year or two ago the roof fell so for now we sleep outside. There are two cots on one we sleep and on the other our belongings are stored. If it rains we take cover under a tarp. We bathe with our clothes on as we have no privacy and place to undress. By God’s grace time has passed well, now the winters are almost done with.
Voiceover: For many years Mukhtar had a food cart as means of earning. Shaheen was with him then and even now.
Mukhtar: Her health may fail randomly. So to stay together is our need and our lively hood is also continuing. We leave around 11-12 after breakfast. We buy a plate of meal from a hotel and share it. If our expense is 300 we make 400 and come back home.
Seeing her with me at times people wonder why I bring her with me. Less educated people refuse to sit with her thinking she is sick whereas, those who are educated are kind and understanding.
Voiceover: He recently bought a rickshaw.
Mukhtar: My parents, friends and family all said, remarry but Allah has given me a wife who is one in millions. Whenever she had miscarriage the doctors would give her injection. They would summon me, please come your daughter is now awake. She looked 20 years younger than her age.
My effort is to make life little comfortable if I can get the roof fixed it will make it bit easier for her. If she is not happy I cannot be happy. She is my life partner.
Voiceover: Neither Mukhtar’s courage nor his hope has diminished.
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