The story of a differently-abled love letter

KOCHI: “I love you. Do you love me? I want to marry you,” said the letter that Smitha carried in her purse. There was no way for the 24-year-old deaf and dumb Smitha who cannot read English, to know what the letter said. And, she consented to her mother’s wish to attend the disabled matrimonial meet held in Kochi on Monday.While she sat in a corner, troubled and looking scared, she couldn’t take her mind off the letter and finally told her mother about it. Confused,  her mother asked a passer-by to translate the letter showed by the girl after much reluctance. While the translator slowly translated the words, the message left Smitha shocked and her mother Rejiniamma surprised.  Rejiniamma said the letter to Smitha was from a young man Shyam, also deaf and dumb, who lived across their home. “Shyam is also differently-abled like my daughter. She loved him since her school days. But it is now that she knows that he loved her too.”The mother-daughter duo hail from Kollam and belong to a fishermen community. They have been living under dire financial state for many years. However, Rejniamma is proud of her daughter, who at present is working as a beautician in their hometown. “After school, Shyam left the town and joined the navy. He is young, smart and financially well-off than us. His mother may never allow for such a union,” she said. According to her, Smitha used to await Shyam’s visits to their hometown, hoping to talk to him one day. “However, she would never talk to him fearing that society would speak bad about her. She had seen it happening when her best friend eloped with another man.”The story took a fairy tale turn when Shyam walked into the same disabled matrimonial meet with his family. Surprised and shocked, Smitha’s family friend approached him and questioned his presence at the meet when he lovedSmitha. A disheartened Shyam mimed, “I had sent a letter confessing my love to Smitha a few weeks back, but did not receive any reply from her. I came to this meet believing that she rejected me.”Now that Smitha and her mother are aware of Shyam’s love for her, excited Rejniamma said that they will approach Shyam’s family with the proposal for marriage and make the lovers have their own happily ever after.