Uday Shankar and love marriage

Image via Wikipedia

I was watching the movie Daud, starring Sanjay Dutt and Urmila Matondkar the other day. In one of the sequence, they identify themselves as Uma Parvati and Daya Shankar respectively. The names reminded me of a schoolmate of mine at St.John’s School in East Marredpally, Secunderabad, where I studied up till my 4th standard.

He was a lean and unusual guy, with very vertically pointed hair, which, refused to lie down still. In those days, we children did not have video games or television to while our time away. Our society also hadn’t evolved to the present extent. As such, the lunch break and after school hours were spent playing various outdoor games, such as hide and seek, catch, cricket, football etc among other things.

In those days arranged marriages were the norm (Even today they are the right thing to do in our society) and speaking about love and such other things were considered taboo and if elders heard such stuff, we were to be severely reprimanded. So it was a day of shock to me and some of my friends, when one day, Uday Shankar, while lying on his Mother’s lap, during lunch hours at school, said with an air of nonchalance- “My mother had a love marriage”.

Sadly after we shifted out of Marredpally and I joined a new school, I lost all contact with Uday. I still recall his face to this day, whenever my friends ask me about my marriage.