Telegram

Jamshedpur


We have a custom that after marriage the girl stays back to her parents house, the barat returns immediately after wedding and the boy returns after four or five days. On fourth or fifth day again the whole process of marriage is performed and only then the marriage is complete.


Again the boy comes for the second marriage (द्विरागमन ), with one or two close relatives which is performed later. It can be within a year,within three years or within five years. In between the boy can go to meet her wife.


When I got married in 1972 I was staying with my uncle at Ranchi because my father was posted in Arunachal Pradesh. In 1973 my father was transferred to Jamshedpur, then I came to stay with my parents.


Once when my husband came to meet me, one day he said that his friend Shyam's in-laws are also staying in Jamshedpur and they were relatives of my parents. My husband's friend Shyam was working in Ranchi and he was in Jamshedpur with his wife Sudha. So, one day we planned to go to meet them.


Those days very few people had phone facility. The communication was letter in case of emergency or if it was very urgent then telegram.


One day in the evening we went to meet them. When we reached the couple had gone some where and their parents told us that they were expecting them to return in few minutes, so the parents of Sudha told us sit. We sat there and was chatting with Sudha's parents, who were my uncle and aunt in relation but we were meeting them first time.


Since we were meeting first time to Sudha's father so he was asking my husband from which place he belonged, his father's name etc. He was very impressed with my husband. During our talk he told us that Shyam's elder brother was working in Telco and they had gone there and to-mmorrow again Shyam is going to his village to bring his sister-in-law. He told us that his village and Shyam's village was very near but Shyam's village was still very backward.


Now by Sudha's parents we came to know that: In Sudha and Shyam's second marriage (dwiragman) Shyam's sister-in law had gone to their village to attened the function alone, because Shyam's brother could not get leave. After second marriage Shyam stayed there for fifteen days and was returning alone to Ranchi. The plan was that Sudha and her sister-in-law will stay there with her in-laws for a month. One day Shyam's brother came to meet Sudha's parent and he told that his wife was also coming with Shyam. Next day Sudha's father sent a telegram to Sudha's father- in-law that"send Sudha with Shyam". Sudha's father was going to his village after two weeks, so he thought that it was a nice opportunity for Sudha to meet them and she can again go with her father to her in-laws and stay there.


When this telegram reached Shyam's village that day Sudha's grandmother had sent someone to meet Sudha and give her some sweets etc. The postmaster got the telegram in the morning and he told the postman not to deliver it before lunch, because the telegram was given usually in emergency, so assumed it for bad news. Any how the telegram was delivered to Shyam's father in the afternoon. Now after seeing that telegram every one was worried. Now they told Shyam to leave her sister-in-law she will go afterward and rush immediately with Sudha to Jamshedpur. So, Shyam's sister-in-law stayed back and Sudha came with Shyam to Jamshedpur. When the person whom Sudha's grandmother had sent, returned back, he told about the telegram to Sudha's grandmother and she was so worried hearing about the telegram that she also came to Jamshedpur. Now Shyam was going to bring his sister-in-law.