Maitrin’s smile lights up the room. Her energy and thirst for life is contagious. She’s recently climbed to first base camp in the Himilayas, taken a new teaching job, and is looking for more adventures and opportunities.
But Maitrin has an amazing story. She got married for love to a man that the whole family loved, and had two beautiful boys. 10 years later her husband tried drugs, became addicted, and over the following 5 years their marriage fell apart, as he partied and began an affair with an 18 year old.
In India divorce is taboo. Divorced women get constant pity and judgment from their community that extends to their kids and parents.
For 3 years after the split, Maitrin went through incredible hardship. There were no other divorced friends to offer support. Her neighbors pitied her and her boys. Eventually she moved to a new city and started fresh. She and the boys tell anyone who asks, that their Dad has become a ‘sage’ and lives a spiritual life.
“No-one argues with religion, so when we say that no-one asks again.”
She also has a sister and brother in law who supported her decision, and she was able to go home to live with her parents, who were able to take her back, having never had a son, they didn’t have another family living with them.
The 3 year struggle has passed and she now talks about her divorce in an incredibly positive way.
“I can open doors for my boys that were never open for me…. I tell him not to hurry into marriage, I would be happy for him to marry a German if that made him happy. I want them to see the world. They can have what I couldn’t have.”
Opportunity: Ignite The Power Of One
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