Yeh shaadi nahin ishq hain: Big Bull on his pillar of strength Rekha

Rekha, Jhunjhunwala has said, adjusted to all the changes and never asked him for anything.

“Is shaadi mein talaaq ho nahi sakta kyunki yeh shaadi nahin ishq hain (there cannot be a divorce in this marriage because this is not a marriage but a romance)”

That was the late Big Bull Rakesh Jhunjhunwala’s response when asked about the influence of his wife Rekha Jhunjhunwala in his decision making. While Rekha does not know anything about stocks, Jhunjhunwala described her as his biggest support system after his parents. “The initial support and the initial uncertainty she bore with me was unprecedented,” Jhunjhunwala had said in an interview on CNBC-TV18 on his 60th birthday.

Recounting his marriage, Jhunjhunwala said: “In a conservative Marwari family, no one would get their daughter married to someone who was working in the stock market as it was not a stable job.”

Jhunjhunwala’s father had set up a factory and Jhunjhunwala’s in-laws were of the impression that he would be working in that factory, and so agreed to the engagement. But Jhunjhunwala called up his father-in-law and told him that he would not be working in the factory."Sir, you can call off the engagement, but I am going to go to the stock market.”

Rekha came from an affluent family with a fully air-conditioned house, and had her own car. Jhunjhunwala told her that he was not a wealthy man and did not have even a single air-conditioned room in house, leave alone a car. He also made it clear that he would not accept a single rupee from his father or Rekha’s father.

“She told me: don’t bother, we will live together.”

Jhunjhunwala said that after marriage, Rekha often travelled by bus, though she had her own car.

Rekha, he said, adjusted to all the changes and never asked him for anything. “She has stood by me in all ups and downs in life. There are no words or way in which I can thank her for her support.”