Ganesh and Vasantha's marriage

I, Ganesh, got married to Vasantha in 1967 just after I got into the Indian Administrative Service. As Vasantha used to say, she was senior to my service, albeit by a couple of months! How I met her and how we decided to get married, and how we succeeded in obtaining our parents' consent to our wedding, would make many a popular soap opera to shame! Suffice to say that we were fortunate in having found each other and having spent nearly thirty four years together in matrimony. The marriage ceremony was performed in Palani- a small town at the foothills of a hillock called Palani, after the temple devoted there to Kartikeyan, son of Shiva, who assumed the form of an ascetic. Why the marriage was performed there and not in Chennai or Delhi, where the two interested parties lived, is a bit of mystery till today. All that I know is that one old lady, who was grandmother of sorts to Vasantha, declared that she had vowed to get Vasantha married at Palani. With nobody there, my father in law had lots of problems organizing the marriage and many of my relatives did not show up. The place was very hot anyway, for any decent person to get married , especially in front of a blazing fire and three hours of prayers. What I particularly remember is that we had to trek up the hillock in torrid heat on 28th May immediately after the marriage vows, in full regalia and getting our feet blistered and being stared at by a host of people, who liked tamashas! Hardly the stuff that marriages should be made of, but what can one do? Vasantha and I bore all this, she silently and I vocally, but that was the price we had to pay if we wanted to get married!