Mangala Gouri

Pia, The Woman Who Persevered, and Won! Mangala Gouri

Pia was a sweet seventeen, a college student in Shimla. Sartaj was ten years older than her, a wildlife photographer from Australia. Pia and Sartaj met, fell in love with each other and wanted to marry. Pia's dad opposed-"So, you have no family, don't know what caste you belong to, or who your father had been, have no home, property, or a steady job, no professional degree to get one with, and you think you can marry my daughter?" He vowed to get a rich groom for his daughter. And he did. Sartaj went on to become a renowned wildlife photographer and settled in Australia with a string of girlfriends. But why could neither find love? Or happiness? In 2015, the International Year of the Snow Leopard, when Sartaj was assigned to shoot the big cat in its own snowy mountain habitat, in the Indian Himalayas, he met Pia. Once more. What happened when an avalanche stranded them in one of the most inhospitable environments of the world? As the embers glowed again, the snows melted, and love arose anew from the ashes, just like a Phoenix... Would love be denied yet again?