Trini gets his Indian wife to Canada

Canadian High Commission officials in New Delhi, India, had refused to allow Maharaj’s wife Sudha Arora to join him in Toronto on the grounds that the couple failed to take seven ceremonial steps around the hearth at their Hindu wedding in India.

When he was told so, Maharaj was willing to give up his Canadian passport. Maharaj went to Canada in 1998. Divorced with no children, he decided to look for romance through Internet dating. There, he met Sudha Arora, a devout Hindu who lived in New Delhi. He flew to India to meet her, they made a love connection, and they got married in August 2003.

Their wedding was performed in a traditional Hindu ceremony, exchanging red and white garlands and rings before a pundit. However, Canadian immigration officials contended that the wedding was not legitimate because it did not include a Saptapadi, a religious rite that involves having the couple take seven steps around a ceremonial hearth.

Arora, 48, was not granted permission to join her husband in Toronto. An annoyed Maharaj said not everyone includes the Saptapadi in their wedding.

"I chose not to because this was my second marriage and, in our tradition, we don’t do these things on the second occasion." Maharaj insisted that his love to Arora and their marriage were real. "She was told very early on in the immigration interview process that she was not married to me and that I am not her husband. She broke down, she fell apart. It would have happened to any one," he added.

Maharaj continued, "We have telephone calls going back 18 months before this wedding. We have communication.

"My mother went to India and spent time with her. There was a lot of communication through whatever channels we could afford." Maharaj pointed out that stress had taken its toll on his wife as her health was failing. Maharaj did not leave it there. He pursued the matter in Toronto where he resided. Last week, a member of the Immigration Appeal Board in Toronto overturned the decision and said it was clear their wedding in August of 2003 was valid. The board member pointed out that the religious rite of walking seven steps around a ceremonial fire, known as the Saptapadi, is not always required.

"I’m happy but I’m also bitter," said Maharaj. "This was absolute nonsense in the first place, and I have lost two years of my life and spent $15,000 fighting the case. My wife has lost face in her community.

"She married, but then she wasn’t able to join me." When Arora applied to join her husband in Canada, an immigration officer with the Canadian High Commission in New Delhi said the marriage had not been solemnised in accordance with the customary rites, and declared it invalid. It was a slap in the face to Maharaj, a Brahmin — the top rank in the Hindu caste system — who counts several Hindu priests among his relatives.

Maharaj hopes that his wife and her two adult daughters will be granted visas soon, and looks forward to showing them the many pleasures of a Canadian winter.

"I want her to have fun and enjoy her life to make up for all the frustrations of the past," he said.