They made a perfect young couple – he – fair, tall, handsome;
she – svelte, lissom, good looking. 
Together with their cute little daughter they made a pretty
picture.  Lets call the couple Joel and
Nisha.

Those who knew Joel, were happy for him for finding such a
nice girl for himself, ’coz they knew if anyone deserved happiness, it was
Joel.  In his young life he had seen many
ups and downs.  Joel’s father was an executive
in a big company.  But alcoholism ruined
his life and his family.  When Joel and
his sister were quite young, his father left them and went and began to live
with his mistress.  It was a turbulent
time for all of them.  All efforts by
relatives and friends to reconcile the family got thwarted.  Joel’s parents didn’t divorce, but neither
did they stay together.  It’s hard to
imagine what trauma Joel and his sister went through in those formative years
of their lives.  How their mother fended
for the family was questionable; there were rumours which, of course, were
never proved.  Since there was no
conducive atmosphere at home, their education suffered; Joel and his sister
never went past high school.  They had
aristrocatic good looks, but no education or enough money to go with it.

Then Joel’s mother died of cancer.  A few years later his father also died from
alcohol related complications.  Now Joel
and his sister were alone in the world (though they had many relatives, the
question of staying with anyone of them never arose – maybe because by this
time they were not so young anymore!). 
His sister left for Mumbai to try her luck there, but Joel stayed on.

Then he met Nisha and they got married.  They set up home in a rented apartment, Joel
started a small business, Nisha found a teaching job in a private school.  Everything seemed perfect.  Joel’s relatives and well-wishers heaved a
sigh of relief that at last he has been able to leave his unfortunate past
behind and make a new beginning with a nice homely girl.  Nisha really seemed to have made a lot of
difference in Joel’s life.  She even
changed her religion willingly to that of Joel’s and became a Christian,
attended church regularly, took active part in church activities and showed
just the right amount of respect for elders and Joel’s relatives.  All in all, they became quite popular in the
social circle and all were in praise of Nisha.

It seemed nothing would go wrong with this seemingly happy
family.  Then after about a year and a
half of this, it was heard that Joel and Nisha had split and Nisha had gone
back to her parents with their daughter. 
At first, nobody took the news seriously and thought it was just a
regular tiff which happens between husband and wife every now and then.  But quite soon it became apparent that the
matter was serious.  There were accusations
and counter-accusations which literally left everyone stunned.  There were many attempts to reconcile the
couple, nothing worked.  Though Joel was
willing to give it a try, Nisha would not budge an inch from her decision not
to come back to Joel – not even for their daughter’s sake.

As for Joel and Nisha’s well-wishers, they were left feeling
let down.  It was unimaginable that such
a perfect happy picture could hide such terrible bitterness and bad blood that
their marriage was not even worth a second try!  How could anyone break off a relationship just
like that?  It is not for us to pass
judgment – who was right or who was wrong. 
Because we don’t know the whole truth. 
Was their marriage based on truth and honesty?  Did Nisha know everything about Joel’s past
before marriage?  Or, did she get afraid
of the financial struggle that seemed to lie ahead of them?  We don’t know.  What we know is that in this sorry mess one
thing that was no where to be seen was – the emotion of love.  The pretty picture they presented before the
public was just a façade.  Such a clean
break would not have been possible if there had been any love between the
couple.  Their marriage was over before
their daughter was three-years old!

So, Joel is back to square one – a broken marriage like his
parents – a little girl who will grow up without a daddy (for no fault of hers)
– and the story goes on!