Seema was a middle class working girl living in the suburbs of Bombay. She had two siblings; one elder brother and a younger sister studying in class ten. Her day would start at 6 in the morning. She was not the kind to complain and whine about the petty matters that bothered the world. Seema seemed happy and contended with what little life had to offer for her.
As she was of marriageable age, her parents were on the lookout for a good-natured working middle class boy for her. Seema had dreams too just like other girls of her age would have. She too would dream of having a house of her own and a happy family life to live by. She was a simple, good-hearted, god-fearing girl. Many proposals came for her from the wealthy and not so wealthy boys too. But somehow nobody wanted to marry her.
On the other hand there was Rekha, another middle class working girl living in the suburbs of Bombay. Rekha was a beautiful looking girl with very high aspirations and dreams in life. So beautiful and pretty was Rekha to look at that even women, leave alone the men would turn and glance at her a second time. A perfect face with the perfect figure to match. Wow! Like the saying goes in Hindi “Upar wale ne bade fursat se isko banaya”. Meaning God must have really spent hours working on this beautiful creature called Rekha. Rekha’s parents did not have to go looking for boys for her. Proposals would come by the dozen for her even without asking!
Along comes by Ravi. A thorough gentleman. Very good-looking coming from a middle class family. Ravi is a very ambitious young man and whatever he is in life today is because of his hard work and dedication to life. Ravi wants to settle down in life and is looking out for good homely girls. He receives photographs of both Seema and Rekha. One look at Rekha’s photograph and Ravi is smitten by the so-called LOVE BUG. He immediately gets in touch with Rekha’s family and wants to meet Rekha. Ravi looks forward to his meeting Rekha and his mind is full of thoughts of how wonderful a human being Rekha would be and how caring and loving she would be and so on.
On meeting Rekha, Ravi is totally disappointed. He never expected her to be snobbish, a person with a high and mighty attitude. Ravi was shocked to see Rekha’s ugly face! How can such a beautiful girl like Rekha turn out to be so ugly suddenly? Well, it was not Rekha?s face that was ugly but her soul and heart that had so much pride in it that made her look so ugly. Ravi then goes on to meet Seema. He is smitten by her beauty. But how can that be? Isn?t she the plain Jane, someone whom nobody would glance for a second time? Yes, Seema was a simple looking girl, but what made her beautiful was her beautiful thoughts, her beautiful soul and her loving heart.
Seema and Ravi are now happily married with two lovely children. Seema did ask Ravi as to how come such a good looking man could choose such a plain Jane like her. He turned around and said: “BEAUTY LIES IN THE EYES OF THE BEHOLDER MY DEAR. IT?S YOUR BEAUTIFUL SOUL THAT WON MY HEART.”
Author: Ramona Pereira- UAE