Platonic love - the divine interpersonal relationship
In this twenty first century, the term “Platonic love” is seemed to have lost its relevancy. But it is a fact that thedivine interpersonal relationship between a man and a woman still exists in some part of the world. You may judge yourself when you will go through the short story bellow (although I term it a “story”, it is a fact and it is about a friend of mine!)
Manik used to like Mita (changes manes) when he was in high school. Mita (a friend of Manik’s younger sister) was a student of primary school. Mita’s family was very poor and unfortunately her father also died at that time. It became difficult Mita’s widow mother to bear the expanses of her education and decided not to send her to school any more.
Manik noticed that Mita was not coming to School and he asked her sister the reason. He was from a rich family and used to get a handful of money to meet his personal expenses. He decided to bear the expenses of Mita’s education. The same was conveyed to Mita’s mother. She was little hesitant at first, but finally agreed. She might have dreamed the futurerelationship of her daughter with Manik.
All these I came to know when Manik was in final year in a Engineering college. I was one year junior to him but yet we were good friend.
I used to notice that Manik was a different kind of boy. He had very few friends. In the hostel two to three boys had to share a room. But Manik was alone in a room. I was very curious to know how he could manage that.
That was the starting point of our closeness. I came to know that Hostel Superintendant had allotted several students to his room, but nobody could stay with him. Because he used to study when others prefer to sleep. As a result those students flew away to other rooms. The Super also couldn’t take any action against him because studying more time is not a violation of byelaws of the Hostel.
It was very amazing to me. But at the same time I was eager to know the reason why he was behaving like that. I found that sometimes he used to be cruel to himself. He was skipping meals very frequently. Finally one day he told me the whole story.
It was when Mita got a job in a primary school as a teacher. She as well as her mother were almost sure that Manik will marry her. But neither of them ever talk about their marriage. Finally Mita’s mother Manik’s family and put up the proposal. They also knew everything and accepted Mita as their daughter-in-law.
Then what was the problem? What lead to this situation? It was none other than Manik himself. Manik had no other girlfriend, he still loved her.
Manik had a funny (I thought in this way only) feelings. Do you know what was that?
He explained this to me when I repeatedly asked. He had helped Mita from the bottom of his heart and he had no intension of getting any reward for that. Now if he would marry Mita, it would look as if he liked the girl and took the opportunity of their family tragedy and financial situation to compel her as well as her family to persuade the relationship.
This is a story when I was in college, and now I am almost an old man. I don’t know where Manik is now. I lost his address when we shifted our home to a different place. Manik also left his old house. Now there is no way to know whether Manik and Mita were still waiting for each other, or they have been married (which seems impossible as far as I know Manik).
Still I am unable to give some name to their love. Is it platonic love? I don’t know. Can anybody tell me?
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