Parvesh Sharma

Tribune News Service

Barnala, January 30

Setting an example, an NRI from Canada has got married with Manjit Kaur (36), daughter of a slum dweller from Bhadaur town of Barnala district.

Manjit Kaur had participated in a national-level competition of badminton, but had to leave sports due to lack of money for her treatment while Mahinder Singh Bhullar (40) learnt about her from a newspaper in Canada.

Both got married on January 12 and today visited the Barnala Deputy Commissioner’s office for the registration of their marriage. Kaur belongs to an SC family, does not even have a house and stays in a hut, while Bhullar, who belongs to Dhapali village of Bathinda district, has been in Canada since 1990 with his family and running a business of selling plants.

“After participating in a national-level competition, I suddenly started suffering from fever and pain in joints. The pain continued from 2009 till 2019. My father died in 1998 while my mother had to sell even utensils for my treatment,” Kaur said while showing her certificates in sports.

She has three sisters and two brothers and all married and live separately while she resides with her mother.

Things took a turn for her when Bhullar read about her in a newspaper in Canada in December 2018. Since he did not have any contact number of her, he sent his cousin Gurmail Singh from Dhapali village to find her.

“After I got her number, I started calling her and proposed to marry her because I want to help her permanently rather than giving some money. She accepted my proposal and I came to India on January 7. We got married on January 12,” Bhullar said while sitting with Kaur in her house.

He said earlier, he did not disclose his plan to marry Kaur to his family members, but told them later in the last week of December.

“Everyone supported my decision. I will go back to Canada on March 3 and prepare her documents to take her there as well,” he said.