CHILDHOOD LOVE DIES HARD

Pratik and Varuna were together in the same college. They had been school chums and therefore they took admission in the same college, in the same faculty so that they can be with each other. Pratik was from a rich family of doctors, while Varuna was from a poor family. Her father ran a small teashop near their slum house. Varuna's parents came to know of her alliance with Pratik and they did not like her mixing with him. Even Pratik's parents resented the association. However, unknown to them, they had fallen in love with each other. They had decided to get married without their knowledge, and flee to a friend's bungalow, from where they would start their own small world.

However, a common friend of theirs played truant on both and he informed their parents. This resulted in their marriage not taking place. Their parents married them off to materialistic people. Pratik married a doctor and he studied to be one himself. On the other hand, Varuna married Roshan, a shop owner in a reputed mall of the city. He had a shop in the biggest mall of the city.

Pratik's wife Raina was materialistic, while Pratik was romantic. So was Varuna's husband. Both their partners were busy in their careers and did not give adequate time to their hubbies. With time, both their relationships turned sour. It turned so sour that each of them had to take a divorce. Both the parents were very dumbstruck with the divorce. However, they could not do anything about the divorce. The divorce was formalized and both came back to their own homes.

Pratik had taken a separate house for him and his wife. He sold that off after his divorce, while Varuna who had migrated to her husband's house, came back to her maternal home. Once they came back to each of their homes, their parents decided to goad them into getting married again. However, each of them resented the ritual of marriage. The parents then decided to include each of them into the clearing of their liabilities. Varuna's father had incurred debts on his shop. He had mortgaged his shop to a bank. He decided to let Varuna sit at his shop while he went to work in a job with a shop in the same mall where her ex-husband had a shop. He used her husband's contacts to get a job in a shop in that mall. Pratik's father, on the other hand, who had studied to be a surgeon, had incurred liabilities because he was not doing very well as a doctor.

This went on for ten years. After a decade of their separation, Pratik and Varuna met once again, in a park. Their old ties were reignited. They decided to come back together. Unknown to their parents, they started meeting once again. They decided to get married again after they turned 50. Until then they decided to stand faithful to each other. As each of them had started taking part in clearing the family liabilities, they had been given freedom to do their own thing. This was when they met in the park and reignited their love. In the next ten years, they turned 50, after which, they got married to each other. Their bodies did not support them having children so that they decided that they would not have children. It was Pratik's fetish that he would have children. They decided to adopt children if they could not have them naturally.

After they were married, they visited an old age home and adopted a daughter, who was an orphan. They went to an orphanage in their city and adopted the child. They gave a home to an orphan and they were feeling very good about it. The child was named Pranali similar to the first letter of the name Pratik. They brought up the child with their love and resources and taught it to become an independent professional. The child excelled as a freelance writer and made a name not only for them but also for her. Their love had brought them together and got them married and their love had given them the fame and glory that they enjoyed as the parents of a successful daughter. They were happy that they had decided to adopt a daughter. The daughter took care of them until they died. She took it upon herself not to get married until her parents were alive. This was because they were not doing very well professionally. Therefore, she decided to support them financially. Their lives proved that OLD LOVE DIES HARD.