Two humans, one male and another female, one in grade 9 and another in grade ten when they first met: if one time-travels back to that period when they were in their secondary school one would barely be able to foresee that few years later they would become a living epitome of modern era true love. In fact, not a more perfect example of flowering love, not even in literature, can be found in human history.
Srijana Subedi was comparatively an extrovert while Bibek Pangeni, more an academic person, was of introvert nature. “I had heard about him scoring 100 in mathematics,” Srijana says of him in an interview. “I was surprised that someone so small can be so talented.” Unlike what most movies portray, their love took time to blossom. After Bibek’s initial proposal, Srijana took almost a year to finally accept him, and with that their bond, despite the usual challenges of life, acquired the mythical depth, bringing their souls together.
With a soft, sunlit smile Srijana recounts the time when Bibek courted her relentlessly after they came to Kathmandu for further studies, “We had many mutual friends on facebook. It was he who kept on trying to win me over, so ask him about it.” Bibek laughs innocently and with that same innocence replies, “I sent her the request.” With another break of laughter he adds shyly, “After she accepted my request, I then started to flirt with her.” Srijana chimes in here, “No, at first he behaved like a teacher, a guardian. He would tell me you’re small, you should take care of this and that.” This genuine caring personality of Bibek, expressed through his concern for Srijana’s well-being, won her over and their love, rooted in true care, thrived in due course of time.
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Their bonding was translated into societal success through their marriage in 2020. Later, when Bibek received a full scholarship to pursue his Ph.D. in Physics and Astronomy Srijana also went with him. Life was going smoothly and their unshakeable love had won them solid following on social media. As genuine humans, with authentic love for each other, Bibek and Srijana were building a life together and everything, at least to them at the time, must have been extraordinarily magical.
Unfortunately, as if real happiness is not permitted in this world choking with lies and falsities, as if true love in not allowed to prosper in this lustful age of capitalism and fleeting pleasure, as if pure hearts are not meant to exist in this self-obsessed world, Sagar, whose smile and laughter was enough to infuse joy in anyone’s heart, was diagnosed with brain tumor in 2022. With this heart-shattering news dark clouds entered the couple’s life but Srijana, a true incarnation of love, did not let these clouds sweep the warm sunshine away from Bibek’s life.
Srijana stood steadfast for her love. Despite the fact that Bibek was already in the fourth stage of cancer and there was almost no chance of his survival, she battled with the invincible forces of nature itself to keep her love alive. In a world where wives kill their husbands to elope with someone else merely for petty pleasure, in a world where people are losing their hopes in the sacred bond of love, Srijana, by standing for her dying husband, symbolizes that eternal light which shows path to humanity when darkness threatens to end everything.
When Bibek could no longer move, when his entire body got paralysed after the surgery, she looked after him like a mother, fed him, took care of all his needs with pleasure. During this intense period of anguish Bibek lost his mother as well. While the flames of life were destroying every aspect of his beautiful life, he had, for which he must be counted extremely fortunate, the love of his life standing by him. This is the rarest of the rare joy any man can hope to experience in life. For this reason, it won’t be a stretch to maintain that Bibek’s life, which continued for two more years after the diagnosis, was filled, despite the inexpressible pain of the disease, with the eternal warmth of love that his wife poured on his soul. It is this love that kept his heart beating for two more years, and though he passed away in 2024, the love between him and Srijana, as every soul who has heard of their great life knows to their core, has triumphed despite his untimely passing.
And true love always triumphs. Srijana will always feel happy for having loved her man to the core, for having fought for him with death itself. This is what true love is: to hold our beloved in our arms when about to fall as Dr. Sue Johnson says, “True love is not about perfection. It is about emotional connection - where you know someone will catch you when you fall.”
