0:00

Paint me a picture of

0:02

that love story. It's like Romeo

0:05

and Juliet. She's 15

0:08

and he's nearly 17. They

0:11

date in secret. Love is a

0:13

beautiful feeling. She says suddenly

0:15

every song was about us. Every Bollywood

0:17

song was about us. That is love.

0:19

That is the trust. On

0:24

NPR's last season of Rough Translation.

0:28

It's fine for you to play together as friends.

0:31

Yes. But love

0:34

marriage? Not fine. No.

0:37

The risk in India of falling in

0:39

love with someone you're not supposed to. Kids

0:42

in these areas are born

0:44

with the awareness that marrying

0:46

out of your community means that you

0:48

are inviting trouble. Arranged

0:51

marriage is such a thing of importance.

0:54

Love is a destabilizing force. Love marriage?

0:59

An act of rebellion. So

1:07

he shows us this message.

1:11

It says, I think they're going to

1:13

kill me.

1:15

The love commandos is all he has left. They

1:17

call the love commandos. The love commandos.

1:21

I was like, wow, this is so cool.

1:23

Right, they sound like ninjas, right? They're

1:26

actually more like social

1:28

workers. The love commandos

1:30

are a group of volunteers, and they'll help

1:32

you marry the person you want to marry. And

1:35

they'll protect you from those who would try to hurt you for

1:37

that choice.

1:39

They help couples escape.

1:43

The head of the group. I'm

1:46

Sanjay Sachdev, chairman of love

1:48

commandos. Describe Sanjay for

1:50

me.

1:52

He... Young people, they have constitutional

1:55

right to fall in love and marry. He's

1:59

this... balding, gray-haired,

2:02

chain-smoking, really mopey

2:04

kind of guy. And then he delivers these,

2:06

like, really theatrical

2:09

statements about love in India.

2:11

The only solution to

2:14

every problem is love. You

2:16

want to raise your fist in the air and be like, yeah,

2:18

love is not a sin. It's like God to

2:20

me, because He helped me when I

2:22

have no one in my

2:23

back. But that's the story of

2:26

the love commandos that you may have heard. In

2:28

films, news features and documentaries,

2:32

this is not that story.

2:33

Owner of NGO Love

2:36

Commandos has been arrested.

2:38

This is a story of broken trust. There

2:41

is no evidence. And the true price

2:43

of protection. Sanjay is a threat

2:45

to the establishment, families

2:48

and religions, and the way things have always

2:50

happened. But the question is,

2:53

is he really who he is

2:55

promising to be?

2:56

On July 26th,

2:58

on rough translation, we go inside

3:01

the Love Commandos safe house to

3:04

understand what happened to the couples that stayed

3:06

there. Stories that

3:08

may make you ask yourself, how

3:10

much are you willing to sacrifice for love?

3:16

I'm Gregory Warner. Listen to Love

3:18

Commandos, wherever you get your podcasts.