Genesis Of Extramarital Affair? Emotional Disconnect Or Ditching Core Values, Odisha Confronts Many Such Woes

By D N Singh

In very recent months Odisha has witnessed a sharp rise in the number of extramarital affair-related crimes. Some of them lead to ghastly ends. Murders, torture and indescribable incidents of crimes of incomprehensible nature.

The incidents reveal that the trend cuts across class barriers. What has played itself up through the recent occurrence of a high profile one in which a senior forest officer was allegedly killed.

And the genesis origins from extramarital affairs in which allegedly both the deceased and the widowed wife were involved. Although the dead forest officer is not alive to defend his case, his wife has also fallen under the suspicion of having an extramarital relationship with the deceased’s senior, a Divisional Forest Officer.

There were two other incidents of similar nature, one in Bhubaneswar and another in Kandhamal district.

 In the last one year several such incidents have come to the limelight. And some of them are similarly chilling and shocking, like cut clips from crime serials.

Pressing Causes Behind Extramarital Affairs   

What comes out here is not merely the discord in the relationship but, may be an emotional disconnect between the man and the wife, even being under one roof. Which down time saturates in distancing from each other and one tries to find solace in someone else.

Or getting married off under pressure, be it the girl or the boy. When the past continues to prevail upon the present if either of the one had emotional intimacy with someone else. Which opens the floodgates of differences leading to sense of detachment mentally.

Post Twenties Set-backs

Reasons behind extramarital affairs can be found in early marriages when in twenties it is done. Once that phase is over the man or woman discovers new modes of satisfaction in coming in touch with other of the opposite sex and indulge in dating and so on.

An extra modern life style can be reason behind also. When the societal openness leads to such proximity which eases the access to others’ wife or husband and resulting in extramarital relationship.

Looking at the cases in downtown areas such as among the tribal, where the rate of promiscuity is an accepted norm, it works in long term leading to incidents as in Kandhamal where the wife killed her children and tried to kill herself when she found her husband with an extramarital relation with someone.

Extremity of the crimes resulting from such illicit relations have in the past have rocked the conscience of the society.

Nasty Fall-outs!

Either a man gets his genitals chopped off by lover or a two year old son killed by mother having illicit relationship in Raygada district or a man beats his wife to death once came to know about her intimacy with someone else.

Or man burnt to death after his relations with someone else known in Balikuda block, there the list is endless and so many incidents have come to the open that are indeed spine chilling.

But, in a state like Odisha where the people are mostly God fearing in nature, such extremities are given such a free run and crimes follow, is something is not comprehensible.

Once the couple becomes parents the line that divides is pressing often. Mother  gets involved deeply  with children and the husband is left in a kind of isolation which ends in a relationship outside the family, extramarital!

Even  infatuations can be causes behind such relationship which leads us nowhere but the inherent complex leads to mental insanity and pain without any basis.