Eligibile Match

Sunder’s luck turned suddenly in 1946 when he found a stable job with an English daily in Lahore. Surprisingly he rose very quickly in the new establishment. Though he was only a few months old in the paper he was asked to write the daily editorials during the absence of the regular editor who went on a month long leave.

On the return of the editor Sunder was made the Special Representative of the paper. That gave him a lot of prestige in the profession and a chance to see the communal carnage in the undivided Punjab. What he saw convinced him that India could not remain united after the British leave. He planned to move to Delhi and in May 1947 he got a good position on Jawaharlal Nehru’s staff. A few months later he was selected as Assistant editor of the News Services Division of All India Radio, a senior position in the profession.

Rukmani, wife of , a senior journalist who was very friendly with Sunder thought he would make a very fine husband for her sister who had just taken a masters degree in Kerala. Soon Radha, a smart and vivacious girl of 20. arrived in the capital and requested Sunder to show her around Within days they became good friends and started spending a lot of time together. They would meet every day and spend the whole morning in each others company. Sunder was on evening shift in the Newsroom. Every day they went for coffee or something and remained together till about 2 in the afternoon when Sunder had to leave for the evening shift. The relationship was very welcome to both as they were very new to New Delhi and had no friends of their own.

In the circumstances it was natural for the people around to think that the two of them were going steady. Rukmani as well as Sunder’s sister[he had no other family members] thought the relationship would culminate in their marriage. Sunder never thought like that. Radha was a very good friend and a very pleasant person but nothing more. He was very fond of her as a friend but there was no emotional attachment of any type. It would have made no difference to him if Radh was not a girl, he would still be fond of her as a good and close fiend. While this was going on Sunder’s maternal uncle in Kashmir decided to marry him off to the daughter of a rich businessman who had offered a sizable dowry.

A senior journalist with a gazetted position in the government was a rare catch in the marriage market in forties. Fathers looking for good matches were willing to pay for such finds and Sunder’s uncle was very keen ‘to cash the rich cheque’. But Sunder was not ready to get married as yet, something that his uncle could not understand. He would say what is Sunder waiting for, he has the best possible job in his profession, a good health and a very good marriage offer? How many people are lucky to have all this at a young age? But Sunder stuck to his resolve not to marry just yet and the uncle had to give up in the end.

One day a cousin of Radha told Sunder about a good movie that was on and invited him to go see it with him. Sunder agreed and the two of hem saw the picture together. Rukmani was very upset as to how could Sunder go to a movie without Radha and said so to Sunder. He tried to tell her no harm was meant and it just happened. But Rukmanii felt it was a signal that Sunder did not care for Radha who she thought had failed to attract him towards her. Her trip to Delhi had failed in her view.

One week later Radha was on the train to South on her way back home in Kerala. Sunder came to know of her departure after she had left. He felt very sad and wondered why she left all of a sudden and without telling him.

In a years time Sunder married a girl whom he liked. Soon he had a family of his own. Four decades later a common friend from the South told him that Radha had gone to America and taken a job in a Library. To his query ‘how is she?’ He was told, ‘sad as ever. She has not forgotten her love, some one from the North’. She did not marry and was living all alone still.