Lily versus Ananda
By Lokanath Mishra
Lily’s life took an unexpected turn after her marriage to Ananda in 2014. Despite being a love marriage, where both partners had deeply loved each other, their happiness was short-lived. Ananda, a commerce graduate working in a private company with a modest salary, left the house after three years of marriage and stayed with his mother in Odisha, starting a new job there. Soon after, he asked for a divorce.
Lily, a software engineer with a high salary, was taken aback by Ananda’s decision. She had thought their marriage was progressing normally. She would iron his clothes, clean his shoes, cook food, do the marketing, and handle all the household chores. Despite her busy schedule, they would spend intimate moments together. However, Ananda claimed that Lily’s constant engagement with her office work and household responsibilities left him feeling neglected, leading him to seek a divorce.
The truth, however, lay elsewhere. The marriage had been strained after a quarrel between Ananda’s mother and Lily’s mother over dowry demands. Despite Lily’s pleas to Ananda’s father and brother to convince him otherwise, he remained firm in his decision.
Lily was heartbroken. She had loved Ananda deeply and didn’t want to lose him. The divorce proceedings dragged on, and Lily found herself in a deep depression. For three months, she cried every day, unable to cope with the loss. Her parents tried to console her, warning her that contesting the divorce could lead to more trouble. Meanwhile, without informing Lily, her parents filed a dowry case against Ananda and his family members.
It was during this dark phase that one of her friends intervened. Frustrated by Lily’s state, the friend shouted at her, “How will you face project meetings and interviews? How will you grow?” Those words struck a chord, and Lily realized she needed to snap out of her depression. She turned to meditation, searching for techniques online. Slowly but surely, she began to heal.
After six or seven months of struggle, Lily started to rebuild her life. She even enjoyed herself at her friend’s marriage, a sign that she was moving on. Meditation had become an integral part of Lily’s life, helping her build resilience. She emerged from the experience with a newfound perspective: divorce might have ended her marriage, but it didn’t ruin her life.
Lily’s life took a dramatic turn when she received a notice to appear in the family court for the divorce petition filed by Ananda. Coincidentally, she received this notice while attending a friend’s marriage ceremony in Odisha. To make matters more complicated, she also received a notice from the police to record her statement in the dowry case filed by her parents against Ananda and his family members.
In a surprising twist, Lily discovered that the advocate engaged by Ananda was an old friend of hers. Similarly, the advocate engaged by her parents in the dowry case was also a good friend of hers. What’s more, both advocates were good friends with each other.
After recording statements, the police were about to arrest Ananda and his family members. However, both advocates sat together and discussed the matter. They then called both husband and wife, along with their families, and convinced them to withdraw the cases and mutually settle the issues outside the court.
After some deliberation, both families agreed to the suggestions. It was decided that the work pertaining to their house would be attended to jointly by both Ananda and Lily, rather than exclusively by Lily. Both parties agreed to this arrangement, and after withdrawing the cases mutually, they decided to give their marriage another chance. With a newfound understanding, they started living together happily, working through their issues and strengthening their bond.