Family bonding triumphed over love as parents of two Haryana-based sisters, who had fled home almost a month ago to meet and marry Indian pace bowler Irfan Pathan, took them back on Sunday.
Lakshmi Valmiki (18) and her sister Seema (15) were taken back to Yamunanagar in Haryana after they failed to meet the golden boy of Indian cricket, family sources said.
"It was their childishness which led them to do such a thing," their father Surajkumar Valmiki told PTI.
He had withdrawn a sum of Rs 4,000 from the bank and kept it in a cupboard in June. The girls took this money and, without informing anybody, went to Vadodara, where Pathan lives.
Initially, the girls were reluctant to return home but conceded after Pathan advised them to concentrate on their studies, during an interview with a private TV channel telecast on Sunday.
Since they did not know anyone in Vadodara, the Nari Sarankshan Gruh (women welfare home) took care of the girls. However, the duo had not revealed their true identities as they did not want their parents to trace them or the authorities of the Nari Sarankshan Gruh to send them back home without meeting their idol.
An autorickshaw driver had taken them to the old and new residential addresses of Pathan, located in Mandvi and Tandalja, respectively. But on learning that the cricketer was away in Sri Lanka, he took them to the Nari Sarankshan Gruh.
Since June 30, the girls had been staying at the Nari Sarankshan Gruh in the hope of meeting Pathan. Lakshmi was keen to propose to him as she had fallen in love with him after watching him on TV.