It’s a sad story. Amreen was Muslim, and Lokesh was Hindu, but these two young people loved each other and got married anyway. Isn’t that the way it should be, that religion is something that shouldn’t dictate the important matters in your lives? Unfortunately, the other people in their small town of Phaphunda couldn’t allow that. The village council met and ordered them to annul the marriage — and their families seem to have felt likewise, that their love had to be destroyed.

So Amreen and Lokesh took poison and killed themselves.

If this story sounds vaguely familiar, Cuttlefish has written a poem to clarify the resemblance.

Now the village is turning silent and stony to the outside world; the chief of the village is scurrying about to make sure no one speaks ill of the council or their traditions. It won’t help. Amreen and Lokesh spoke loud enough.