Dehradun, 2014. Barely a year into her married-life with the elder son of Kala and Vinod Chand of Balawala, Dehradun, 23-year-old Kavita found herself a solitary relict.
Early 2015, a drowning accident in Haridwar killed her young husband. What for many, would have been the end of the world, for this young girl it was just the beginning of a twist in the tale.
Looking back Kavita says, “I never wanted to leave my in-laws alone, they gave me so much love and affection. Whatever I asked for was fulfilled instantly. They loved me more than a daughter. I just couldn’t turn my back and return to my parents, knowing how heart broken they would be.”
As years went by, their daughter-in-law became an inseparable part of the Chand family that includes Vinod Chand’s younger brother Vijay, his wife Kamla and their two children.
Three years later, on 19th of November this year, the close-knit family got together to arrange a grand wedding not for their marriageable daughter but their beloved daughter in-law, Kavita.
Nothing was amiss. The family chose Tejpal Rawat from Rishikesh who made sure that his wife-to-be would have all the comforts that she rightly deserved. The wedding, festivities, clothes, jewellery, venue were handpicked to suit the bride’s wishes.
An emotional Vijay Chand tells us, “when our son passed away, everyone told us to send Kavita back as she was unlucky for the family. But we stood by her. I gave her away (kanyadaan) as my own daughter at her wedding. She is an inseparable part of us. ”
Today the otherwise shy Chand family has become an example of humanity, large heartedness and compassion. Without mincing words Vijay adds, “I wish that our society will learn something from this gesture. Our daughter-in-law is just like our daughter, and she deserves all the love and blessings in the world.”
Once in a while, right in the middle of an ordinary life, someone special gives us a fairytale and this is Kavita’s fairytale gifted to her by the Chand family.
