A winning couple

She´s from the hills of Ilam. He´s from the plains of Sunsari. She´s a Brahmin. He´s a Tharu. Together, they are a husband and wife couple-Pramila Rijal Chaudhary and Ash Naryan Chaudhary. Athletes with the Armed Police Force, both of them have become household names in Nepal because of their sterling performances at the recently concluded Fifth National Games. [break]



Pramila won golds in the 100 meters, 200 meters, the 400 meters and the long jump, and the silver in the 4x100-meter relay and 4x400-meter relay; her husband won the gold in the steeplechase.



They are doubtless a pair of proud athletes, and given what they have achieved on the tracks-why shouldn´t they be proud of their achievements? But they are even prouder of what they overcame to become a legitimate couple.



On the sports field they have always been winners. Both of them were standout athletes at their respective debuts at Birendra Shield meets. And since their debuts, they´ve mostly enjoyed a relatively smooth ascent on the Nepali athletics scene.



But the path that led to their marriage was far rockier than the paths they traversed on their way to the podium.



For starters, they weren´t lovers to begin with. They were best friends, unsure of where the relationship stood. But they became lovers, in no small part because their seniors and colleagues at the APF assumed they were a couple, and with their constant teasing, their relentless prodding and the unceasing stream of innuendos thrown their way, they eventually became full-fledged lovers.



One wouldn´t exactly call such a start a rocky beginning, but when the couple did become lovers, the going started to get a little bit rougher. Ash Narayan´s parents did not have any problems with his relationship, but Pramila´s folks were not having any of it. To make matters worse, the greater society in Pramila´s village too did not take to the relationship kindly. For six months, the couple tried to win over Pramila´s parents, and for nine months more they patiently bided their time, hoping that everyone would come around. Finally Pramila´s parents relented, and on November 23, 2008, the couple tied the knot, at Brijeshwari temple, in Kathmandu.



And what about the rest of the people in Pramila´s village? Well, shining on the national stage does add a soft afterglow to everything: today, the people in Pramila´s village are proud to call the couple one of their own. And Pramila is gracious enough to let bygones be bygones. But she does hope that the story of their relationship will set an example for others who are currently in inter-caste relationships. And she´s not overstating the case when she quotes Laxmi Prasad Devkota to wax eloquent about inter-caste love: “Consider a person great on the basis of his deeds, not on the basis of his caste.”

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