Stay tuned to our new posts and updates! Click to join us on WhatsApp L&C-Whatsapp & Telegram telegram Channel
L&C-Silhouette Subscribe
The L&C-Silhouette Basket
L&C-Silhouette Basket
A hand-picked basket of cherries from the world of most talked about books and popular posts on creative literature, reviews and interviews, movies and music, critiques and retrospectives ...
to enjoy, ponder, wonder & relish!
 
Support LnC-Silhouette. Great reading for everyone, supported by readers. SUPPORT

Mera Wala 2 States

February 14, 2019 | By

Author Ramendra Kumar steps back into memories and recounts his own love story that bridged two states in a “special, special story for Valentine’s Day”.

Ramendra Kumar and his beloved Madhavi

I am sure many of you would have seen the movie 2 States and enjoyed it too.
Well, let me tell you my love story which kickstarted more than two and half decades  back and had all the drama, twists and turns which made 2 States so engrossing.
I had always thought instant love was as impossible as instant nirvana. This notion was shattered when I joined Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP) and was asked to report to the Discussion Room of the Training Chief. When I entered the room I saw a girl sitting on a sofa.

“Are you also a management trainee,” she asked and smiled. “My name is Madhavi.”
I looked at her and was mesmerized.  I had never seen any girl so devastatingly pretty.
At 11.05 on 23rd October, 1986 I fell instantly, insanely in love. At that moment I knew I wanted to marry Madhavi, ASAP.

I went about achieving Mission Madhavi with a dogged determination. I had always been an incorrigible flirt. However, earlier my flirting had been a kind of aimless indulgence. But in this case it was with a purpose: to somehow impress this angel and make her mine.

If it took me slightly more than six seconds to decide that Madhavi was my soul mate, it took her exactly six months and six days to make up her mind to be mine.

2 states love story

“Then let us get married right away.”

A day after her ‘confession’ she left for Bhubaneswar to tell her parents.  I too wrote to my father.

Three days later I received a telegram from him: “Congratulations to you and Madhavi.”

When Madhavi came back she looked utterly drained out.
“What happened?” I asked.
“My dad seems to have gone completely berserk.”
“What do you mean?”
“You know we are Telugu Vaishnavite Brahmins.”
“Ya, I know, and I am a Marwari – that too hailing from North India!”
“Y…yes, I mean – father doesn’t mind me marrying anyone as long as he is from our caste.”
“But Madhu, surely you could have reasoned with him?”
“You think I didn’t try. I cried, I wept and I ranted. It was of no use. He simply refused to listen.”

For the next couple of months things continued in the same vein.  Almost every week she would go to meet her parents, make one more desperate attempt and return in a state of further emotional ruin.

Then finally one day she dropped the bombshell.

“Ramen, I am sorry. But I cannot get married to you. My father has threatened he will go on a fast unto death. The condition in which he is, I am sure he won’t survive.    And we cannot build our future on his pyre.”

I was dumbstruck. I could never imagine the every smiling Madhavi whose basic mission in life was spreading sweetness and sunshine would go around like a modern day Mary Magdalene.

I resigned and went back to Hyderabad, but we kept regularly in touch.

A few months later I received a letter. “Dear Ramen, there is no point in continuing a relationship which has no future.  So let us say goodbye forever and move ahead.”

This was the last straw. I went into a deep depression.  I started writing like a maniac, like a man possessed. In a space of two weeks I wrote 21 poems. On an impulse I bundled the poems and sent them to her, without any letter or even a note.

A week later I got a two line letter from her.

Dearest Ramen,
“Can you come to Rourkela for one last time? If you are too busy I’ll understand.”

I boarded the train the same day.

“Ramen, I can’t stay without you. God knows how much I have tried. But it is impossible. I cannot survive without you. ”
“Have you told your parents anything?”
“No, of course not!  If I get married to you my dad  will obviously  be very upset but I’m sure he will come around eventually.”
“Then let us get married right away.”

Ramendra Kumar love story

Our ‘2 States’ are in a state of unity and near bliss!

I approached the management of RSP and was told that I could join back but only as a fresh entrant – that meant I would be around two years junior to Madhavi and the rest of my batchmates.   I agreed – after all it was a small price to pay for getting together with my life, my love.

On 26th March 1988 we got married. Obviously only my side of the family was in attendance. Her parents were informed the next day. There was a lot of drama which continued for close to three years.

Ramendra Kumar with Madhavi

Enjoying a dance in recent times

How did the impasse end? Well it took a 3 kg wonder and her pristine smile to demolish the wall of fury that existed between my in-laws and me. The moment my daughter Ankita was placed in her grandpa’s lap there was a transformation. He probably realized that any person who had contributed to the ‘creation’ of this angel couldn’t be that big a devil!

Now we are one big happy family. And though Andhra Pradesh has been fractured our ‘2 States’ are in a state of unity and near bliss!

Ramendra Kumar and Madhavi

Ramendra Kumar and Madhavi with their children Ankita and Aniket

More creative expressions from Ramendra Kumar
Musings: Papa Scheherazade! – a recount of the challenges of parenting a baby daughter
Poems: My Best Friend – a love poem dedicated to the most important woman in his life

More to read

Book review: 2 States – Kahaani Poori Filmi Hai

Movie Reviews:
2 States Review: Melodramatic Love
2 States Review: ‘Marriage Ki Politics’

Ramendra Kumar (Ramen) is a children’s writer with 38 books to his name. He has won 34 awards in the competition for writers of children’s literature organised by Children’s Book Trust (CBT), over the years. He also dabbles in satire, poetry, fiction and travelogues. His writings have been translated into 15 Indian and 14 foreign languages and have also found a place in text books, as well as national and international anthologies. A much sought after inspirational speaker and story teller, Ramen has been invited to participate in several conferences and festivals. These include the IBBY Congress of Children’s Writers in Denmark (2008) & Greece (2018) and Sharjah Children’s Reading Festival (2019), apart from many literary events across the country. In the Congress held in Greece he was the only writer from India to be invited to chair two sessions. An Engineer and an MBA, Ramen is former General Manager & Chief of Communications, SAIL, Rourkela Steel Plant. He is the father of two children who are bonsai celebrities in their own right. While Ankita is a youth icon and a travel blogger with an Instagram following of 76K, Aniket creates cool Apps and designs covers for his Dad's books. His website is www.ramendra.in
All Posts of Ramendra Kumar

Hope you enjoyed reading...

... we have a small favour to ask. More people are reading and supporting our creative, informative and analytical posts than ever before. And yes, we are firmly set on the path we chose when we started... our twin magazines Learning and Creativity and Silhouette Magazine (LnC-Silhouette) will be accessible to all, across the world.

We are editorially independent, not funded, supported or influenced by investors or agencies. We try to keep our content easily readable in an undisturbed interface, not swamped by advertisements and pop-ups. Our mission is to provide a platform you can call your own creative outlet and everyone from renowned authors and critics to budding bloggers, artists, teen writers and kids love to build their own space here and share with the world.

When readers like you contribute, big or small, it goes directly into funding our initiative. Your support helps us to keep striving towards making our content better. And yes, we need to build on this year after year. Support LnC-Silhouette with a little amount - and it only takes a minute. Thank you

Support LnC-Silhouette

Creative Writing

Got a poem, story, musing or painting you would like to share with the world? Send your creative writings and expressions to editor@learningandcreativity.com

Learning and Creativity publishes articles, stories, poems, reviews, and other literary works, artworks, photographs and other publishable material contributed by writers, artists and photographers as a friendly gesture. The opinions shared by the writers, artists and photographers are their personal opinion and does not reflect the opinion of Learning and Creativity- emagazine. Images used in the posts (not including those from Learning and Creativity's own photo archives) have been procured from the contributors themselves, public forums, social networking sites, publicity releases, free photo sites such as Pixabay, Pexels, Morguefile, etc and Wikimedia Creative Commons. Please inform us if any of the images used here are copyrighted, we will pull those images down.

4 thoughts on “Mera Wala 2 States

  • Jitu

    LOL Ramendra ji. 🙂 Your ‘2States’ definitely has all the masala quotient that made the other, more famous ‘2 States’ such a big celluloid hit. 🙂 Congratulations on your Blockbuster and god bless you. 🙂

    I on the other hand… saw my husband ‘eye to eye’ on the morning of the day we were about to get married. 🙂 Long way to a silver jubilee still but our 17yr old ‘Blind Date’ is still on. 🙂

  • Ramendra Kumar

    Thanks a ton, Jitu for your comments. Appreciate your sense of humour. All the very best for the coming Silver Jubilee. Love, as the cliche goes, is blind. So I am sure your blind date has truckloads of love in it :))

    BTW, if you want to know the Post Script you may read “Effective Parenting : A New Paradigm ”
    The link is on L & C .

  • Leave a Reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

    Today’s Motivation

    <div class=at-above-post addthis_tool data-url=https://learningandcreativity.com/learn-to-adapt-and-change/></div>The only person who is educated is the one who has learned how to learn and change.
~ Carl Rogers<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings above via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Advanced Settings below via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons above via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons below via filter on get_the_excerpt --><div class=at-below-post addthis_tool data-url=https://learningandcreativity.com/learn-to-adapt-and-change/></div><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt -->
    "The only person who is educated is the one who has learned how to learn and change." ~ Carl Rogers