Ability to love, conquers disability

New Delhi: On Valentine's day here is a love story which has romance, tragedy, drama and sacrifice. At the outset it might sound like a bollywood saga but this is a real story of real people.

20-years-ago, young and spirited Namrata and Yogesh Paul began their love story like any other couple. But just two years after they began seeing each other in college, Yogesh was suddenly diagnosed with partial paralysis.

He lost life in both his legs and he became dependent on the wheel chair, his dreams of marrying his true love and leading a happy life seemed to have come down crashing. So with a heavy heart he suggested that Namrata look for life anew elsewhere, but as they say 'love works in strange ways', destiny had a different plan for them.

Namrata says, "With his illness I became more determenied to prove my love for him. I believe very few people in life get a chance to prove what they feel for the person they love and get to spend the rest of their life with them."

Yogesh feels deep gratitude for her as he says, "I love and respect her a lot because of the sacrifice she has made for me, and I feel there are very few people in life who have the ability to prove their love."

Namrata's father was initially against the match as Yogesh's paralytic condition was a major concern, but his daughter's defiant and uncompromising faith in love conquered all. Today the happy couple have two lovely children and Yogesh's physical condition has never come in the way of love or happiness.

"For me his illness was never an issue, in fact whenever life challenged us with any problem, we faced it together and our bond became stronger. All we want is to give a good life to our children and I'm sure we can do it together," she adds.

The couple may now share a few more strands of grey hair and a few more pounds, but deep down Namrata and Yogesh are still the 20 something love birds who began a journey with just faith and love in the winter of 1987.