Gokul was in high school when his mother separated from her first husband

A young engineering graduate from Kerala has arranged a second marriage for his divorced mother who he says had walked out on her first husband years ago because of domestic violence.

Kollam resident Gokul Sreedhar, 23, has been flooded with congratulatory messages since he announced the marriage of his mother Mini Ayyappan to a retired army colonel, K. Venu, on Facebook.

“My mother is getting married. I did consider whether this note was really needed. This is a time when most people would find it difficult to accept a second marriage,” Gokul, who happens to be an area secretary of CPM student wing SFI, posted in Malayalam on Tuesday.

“No one should see this with a shadow of doubt or contempt. Even if someone does, none of us are going to flinch.”

Gokul was in high school when his mother separated from her first husband. They finally got divorced in 2013 after a lengthy procedure.

While with her first husband, Mini Ayyappan had had to quit her job as a schoolteacher because of family issues. Since she left him, she has been working as a librarian in Kollam.

Gokul wrote about how his mother had “set aside her life for me”.

“She suffered a lot in a disaster of a marriage. When blood oozed from her forehead after getting beaten up (by her first husband), I had asked her why she was enduring this marriage. I remember she said she was living for me, and would accept any suffering for that,” he wrote.

“The day I walked out of that house, I had decided about this day (the remarriage). My mother, who wasted her youth, has a lot of dreams. I have nothing more to say. I just did not want this (second marriage) to be kept a secret.”