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By Khursheed Dinshaw
SHERNAZ KERMANI, a Parsi, met Pradeep, a Maharashtrian Brahmin, while volunteering to help the disabled in Pune. The Paralympic swimmer was an Arjuna awardee with 12 gold medals. They married without the consent of their families, “I was wheelchair-bound and my mother-in-law would question my ability to have children.” Relations with their in-laws improved when they had a daughter, Karishma, who is now 22. Shernaz now wears a mangalsutra, bindi and sindoor while reciting her Avestan prayers every day and has decided, out of her own initiative, to celebrate Hindu festivals.
