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| Kathmandu, Thursday February 20, 2003 Falgun 08, 2059. |
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Youth
shows true love transcends all barriers by marrying AIDS infected
By Pratap Bista
HETAUDA, Feb 19 : True
love transcends all barriers. This was demonstrated by a young man here. Even the
knowledge that the girl had contracted the deadly AIDS virus, did not deter the youth from
tying the matrimonial knot with the lady. In love for the past five years, the couple made
a vow to start life afresh and stay together till death do them apart. Nothing has been
able to shake their relation so far, save for the material problem of finding some stable
income to keep body and soul together.
The couple have no
intention of rearing a child of their own. Bonded by a strong commitment to help each
other for life, they moved out of their parental homes and have since been living together
in a separate house of their own. Twenty-five-year-old Sukre Lama and Chakkalimaya Bal,
residents of Basamadi VDC-5 were happily married in 1998 despite staunch opposition from
village representatives and the boy’s family, who pointed to them that their
relationship could be ruinous not just for them but for society in general.
Armed with the
financial assistance they received from various organisations, the couple built a
single-storey house of their own, but now their only problem is to earn some money. All
this while they have been making the best use of the skills they are good at to earn the
bread they desperately need.
Sukre does some
carpentry works which he had learnt some time ago, while Chakkalimaya assists him by doing
some tailoring, in which she is qualified. It has been very difficult for this couple to
manage with this meagre amount they earn, since Chakkali needs medicine everyday, and it
has become quite tough for them even to acquire the basic commodities of everyday use.
In an unwavering tone
both say, " The money that we got from various organisations was just enough to
somehow build this small house. We don’t have even a small plot of land from which we
could generate something. Our skill has not been a boon too. She says that she does not
have many customers as earlier, while her spouse is of the same view that it is difficult
to sustain oneself regularly through carpentry, since it is like depending on the rain
water for farming.
After six years of
unfettered work in a brothel in Mumbai, Chakkali had no option but to return back to her
home in Nepal in 1997, after she tested HIV positive. The ever smiling Chakkalimaya who is
of short stature and Sukre, also from the same village, fell in love, and after around six
months entered into matrimony.
However, Sukre was well
aware of the fact that she was infected with the AIDS virus even before he fell in love
with her, as she had divulged everything to him. Not only he knew that she had contracted
this fatal virus which has no medicinal cure till date, but also it had become an open
book to the locals in their village as well. This life-threatening disease however, could
not lessen the attraction that had so pulled him six years back, and that platonic love
displayed in the beginning of their relationship is still alive even after all these
years.
This exemplary feat of
the twosome, who have proved that nothing can come in the way of true love is being
narrated all over the village and the couple is being invited to grace seminars organised
in different parts of the country, taking them as an inspirational example for society by
various social organisations.
Not only this, it is
learnt that documentaries of their heroic saga are being taped and sent to foreign
countries as well. The couple contends, "The men and women who have AIDS should learn
from us," adding, "Neither virus nor anything in this world can strain the bond
of human love."
Lama says he remembers
that Chakkalimaya has this dreadful virus only at the time of sexual contact with her.
They do not want any baby from this relation since they do not intend on taking the risk
of producing an infected child, and feel that it is meaningless for them to go on testing
their blood. In a melancholic voice they express that if they could get busy with some
income generating occupation, they would have been completely relieved from the traumatic
thoughts of AIDS that would emanate from time to time while staying idle.
Sukre says that when
they have nothing to keep them engrossed, the thought of this disease would sometimes
strike their mind. Inspired by this couple, some of the youths even went ahead and married
other similarly infected young women, but their bond could not last even a year. These
young women, who had dreamt of starting new lives like Chakkalimaya are now at their
parent’s home, devastated by the separation. Their dreams could not be converted into
reality like that of Chakkalimaya and Sukre.
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