T N Seshan with wife Jayalakshmi. File photoChennai: T N Seshan, former chief election commissioner, is alone now. "He always stood for truth and was prepared to sacrifice his job and even wife for truth," his wife Jayalakshmi described Seshan two years ago. While she was speaking, Seshan heard her intently, holding his mobile phone which had Jaya’s smiling photo on its cover.
With Jaya passing away on Saturday, Seshan has lost a companion of nearly sixty years. He had married Jaya even after their horoscope did not match. Astrologers had also predicted that they would have no children. But the couple were always together, bonded by boundless love, till death took Jaya away.
Seshan’s father had written 'unsuitable' in Malayalam on top of Jaya's horoscope and sent it to Seshan. His father, who was in Palakkad, had found that the marriage would not produce progeny. Though the alliance did not materialise at that time, the same horoscope reached Seshan again two years later. So, Seshan suggested that he would go and meet the girl.
Seshan, accompanied by his father, elder brother, sister-in-law and elder sister met Jaya at Bengaluru on December 30, 1958. The meeting, which took place at 5 pm, lasted barely 10 minutes. At 9 pm, Seshan took the decision to marry Jaya. The wedding took place at Bengaluru on February 9, 1959. Seshan, who followed astrology passionately, was aged 26 at that time.
"When we see beautiful kids, we feel that they belong to us. That was what God decided," Seshan had said. Jaya sat closer to him and laughed like Seshan's child.
Jaya's hobbies were music and badminton and she used to play the game regularly with Seshan. Their houses in Madurai and Bengaluru had badminton courts. Jaya also conducted 'Narayaneeyam' classes regularly at her house since 1988, which continued till a week ago.
When Seshan was confined to wheel-chair, it was Jaya that he depended on for everything.
