Enduring Love

The story of Ankit Saxena, the resilience and wisdom of his parents and their commitment to humanity brings immense hope in these strange times.

- Suchismita Ukil

THIS IS NOT A LOVE STORY with a happily-ever-after, though it could easily have been. This is a story about love trumping hate, of resilience in the face of unimaginable tragedy, the triumph of sanity, liberalism and tolerance over bigotry and partisanship, and the victory of rationality over unreason. This is a story of hope, breaking the binary of life and death. This is the story of Ankit Saxena. He was murdered in February this year, yet he lives on.

A young man, just shy of turning 24, Ankit was the only child of parents Yashpal, 59, and Kamlesh, 42, and the sole earning member in their lower-middle-class household. A wedding photographer by profession, with youthful optimism, he dreamt of running a studio and having a business of his own. Growing up he was shaped by the internet, and he made funny, sometimes silly, videos with his friends that have now been viewed over nine million times on YouTube. In the prime of his life, he should have had many productive years ahead of him. That right was taken away from him. Why? He dared to love someone outside his community.

Ankit met Shehzadi as a teenager. They had been neighbours in a housing development in west Delhi’s Raghubir Nagar for a decade, where the residents are a composite of different faiths, communities and social backgrounds. There are a few inter-faith couples, too, which lends an air of progressiveness to this tight-knit community. They were friends for years before they fell in love. Their families, unaware of their intimacy, were on cordial terms.