An ex-Serviceman's unflinching love for his wife!

Chennai, July 15: In a ''testimony of true love,'' an ex-serviceman had buried his dead wife in the kitchen of their house and been bemoaning her death for the last 19 years, at Panangulam in Nanguneri in Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu.

According to police, the ex-serviceman, Selvaraj, cooks food in two ovens which he had placed right next to the spot where he buried his dead wife and offers the same to her.

When his wife died of breast cancer in 1988, he stopped relatives and villagers from burying her body in a graveyard and instead brought his wife's body to his house and laid her to rest in the kitchen of his house.

''How can I bear the loss of someone who had been a part of me for 22 years,'' Selvaraj says in an emotion choked voice.

Recalling the life that he shared with his wife, Panneerselvam, since 1966, Selvaraj says that he remained preoccupied with his service in the Army and had toured the length and breadth of the country from 1962 till 1985.

''After a hectic career, just when I thought that I could spend a peaceful life with her and our four children in my native place, fate dealt a cruel blow as my wife died of breast cancer,'' he recalls.

Unable to accept the reality, Selvaraj had created a ruckus in the hospital where she was admitted and broken the windows and doors there when his wife breathed her last. '' I had scolded her many times, even beat her at times she never uttered a word against me,'' he also recalled in agony.

Whenever Selvaraj is in a depressed mood, he pours out his heart to his dead wife. ''She is not dead. She is still living with me,'' says Selvaraj, who stays alone in the house, as all his children are married and settled elsewhere.

And his last wish is that when he dies, he should also be buried in the kitchen alongside his wife!

UNI