How important is faith when it comes to love? The question came up in the tense dark of Maratha Mandir when during the climax of India's longest running film, the hero simply let go of his heroine because he did not believe in eloping with her against her parents wishes. I argued with my friend while Amrish Puri (the father) laid slap after slap on Shah Rukh Khan (Raj)'s rather delicious cheek.
"How can he just leave her like that and go??? Its insane! They love each other." I whispered agitatedly across to my partner in crime Reshma.
"Its faith, Nik. He believes with all his heart that Simran's father WILL bring her to him."
"But what if he didn't? I mean...this is just a movie... what if the father DIDN'T let her go at the last minute?" I argued, always the sceptic. She'd have to spend the rest of her life in a forced relationship with Kuljeet Singh, who, we had all agreed half an hour ago, was a total creep.
"He believes in it. Therefore it will happen. And that's just the way it is in real life." My idealist friend shot back. The thing is, Reshma really believes this. She believes in the healing power of love, she believes in fairy tale love stories, that someone out there is destined to be hers and...among other things...that Raj (from the same, Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge) is a virgin. I have laughed over this last one with her several times. But I haven't been able to provide empirical evidence (so to speak) to prove her other beliefs faulty.
Its not like I'm trying to prove her wrong though. I just want to test the power of faith. I want to know if marriages are really made in heaven, if two people can be together for ever... For most part, I am scientific and sceptical. I question everything. It doesn't just take having burnt your own fingers to know that relationships can be hard work. Statistics prove it too. Faith in the idea that everything will turn out right in the end may not cure cheating, lies, deception or simply a passing away of romantic feelings.
However, at the end of the day, I AM a girl. Unfortunately, fairy tale logic is what we're fed and raised on. We believe the idiot will discover an old text message, phone log or see a "sign" (the old-fashioned way) that will make him get off his ass and call. A co-sceptic and close friend recently had her tarot cards read, asking the Reader if things would work out between her and this guy she has a crush on. The Reader told her that things would indeed work out but that she was to do nothing. Absolutely nothing. This is a problem-point for my friend. An absolute "man of action", she cannot believe she has to wait (patiently) for the stupid boy to have a sudden brainwave...or a desperate wave anywhere else in his body...to set up as much as an evening out together. Acid test of faith? Yup. But how to account for free will? The choices we make? The actions that determine our fate in the world? Would Romeo and Juliet have had a happily ever after, if they just waited around for a bit? Or Raj and Simran...had they just eloped?
A couple I know for a while now have been together for over thirty years. Has love kept them together? Has faith in their love kept them together? Sex? No siree. These two are in it for the kids.
And the kids look up at them as they argue, week after week, fight after fight, with the definitive faith that...no matter what happens...these two will never give up on the marriage because they... (hold your breath)... love each other.
