A Dwarf Love Story

Pintu was born to his otherwise “normal” parents. Since his childhood, he remained the butt of all jokes. Even the roadside beggar chose not to ask for alms from him. Once admitted to school, all his classmates started making fun of his height. He could not join his brothers in the gully cricket. He was slowly growing into a parental embarrassment. With the increasing level of taunts from the surroundings, his parents thought to send him to their native village, Sanglay, where he could earn his living by farming.

There was a striking side of his character. In spite of all the taunts, Pintu was never upset with his height. He used to accept all the scoffs in a jolly vein, reacting in a way as if he deserved it! His only friend was Mehtaji, his grandpa. Life was running rather stale at Sanglay till he met Kavita. She was a high-school goer, grand-daughter of Mehtaji’s friend Sudhakar from the neighbouring village. Once they had come to Sanglay at the District Magistrate’s office. Upon Mehtaji’s repeated requests, Sudhakar agreed to put up for the night. It was then when Pintu and Kavita met for the first time. An extremely simple girl, typically full of teenage shies, bereaved of parental affection – that was Kavita. Her parents had succumbed to a deadly earthquake at a coal mine and since then she lived with her grandfather. She was the only reason for Sudhakar’s to live. Since then, Pintu and Kavita used to frequently meet each other. How? That’s a sweet story which later grew to be a sweet love story.

One day Mehtaji had sent Pintu to Sudhakar’s house with some farm-grown vegetables. Sudhakar being away, Pintu spent the whole day chatting with Kavita. Slowly they started knowing each other. Next they met the following week at the local fair. With whatever Pintu had saved in his shallow pocket, he spent in enjoying the fair rides with her. A month later, Pintu insisted his grandpa to go and meet Sudhakar … convincing him typically in a juvenile style. Few months later, Kavita’s school closed for a week in winter and hence they started planning for a vacation at Mehtaji’s house in Sanglay.
Years rolled in between. Pintu had started loving her company by now. Kavita joined the local anganwadi school after graduation. Their grandpas though were not unaware of the growing fancies, but Mehtaji was a bit sceptical about it, due to obvious reasons. Kavita was absolutely normal and any day could get married to a normal man, unlike Pintu. Worries slowly crept in as he could feel his grandson’s growing weakness for her. One day he thought of directly sharing his concern with Sudhakar with deep solemnity.

Today they are happily married to each other with a month-old kid, proving that height could not ‘un-heighten’ their feelings. Like him, Pintu’s love story too was a dwarf one – with no cinematic climax. A dwarf’s feelings may not be dwarf. Hats off to Kavita for her sense of humanity. Whatever they achieve in life, hope will keep adding heights to our societal beliefs.