Happy ending to agonising story

Several political outfits in Nagercoil, the district headquarters, including actor-turned-politician Vijayakant’s DMDK, Sarath Kumar’s Samathuva Makkal Katchi and the CPI (Marxist-Leninst), unreservedly supported a “satyagraha” by the 23-year-old Gopika. It appeared to have outdone the women’s wings of mainstream political parties in their new-found love for micro-level civil action.

But timely intervention by the police and the revenue divisional officer (RDO), put an end to the “pulled-apart” couple’s months-long marital discord and gave their story a “happily-ever-after” turn.

Kanyakumari District Superintendent of Police K Shanmugavel, when contacted, told Deccan Herald on Monday that Gopika with her infant in arms, was finally reunited with her 25-year-old husband Kannan after a three-hour-long counselling.

Strangely enough, it was not a direct husband-wife squabble deepening into separation. “The parents of the boy and the girl were hurling abuses and finding fault with each other’s family, which was the root cause of the problem,” explained Shanmugavel. This resulted in the boy being not even able to meet the girl whom he married several months ago, widening their needless rift, he said.

At one stage, Gopika, determined to rejoin her husband, went public with her marital grievance. She even tried to stage a dharna in front of her in-laws’ house. That was when some political parties threw their lot with the hapless bride.

Before matters reached a point of no return, Shanmugavel, in a pro-active move, summoned the feuding couples and advised them to put “such petty things” behind. The SP said: “We let them spend some time to enable them to understand each other’s situation clearly. The differences were sorted out, and their misperceptions were cleared.”

This set the stage for the couple’s happy re-union on Sunday at Nagercoil. Gopika has an MCA (Master of Computer Applications) degree to her credit, while Kannan is already armed with an MBA, besides doing his Law Degree course in Bangalore.

“Though hailing from a well-to-do family, Kannan “assured us that they would be able to find jobs to build their home and independently take care of the family,” the SP added.