Sudha…
Today Sudha was not happy to go home after school, generally at this time she would have bounced half the way to home. But today her face was dull and her legs were heavy, the teacher noticed the dullness on her face and asked her why was she sad? Sudha told her teacher, Miss Kamla that some people were coming to see her for marriage alliance. Her teacher felt sad for her but she was not the only girl getting married this year from Miss Kamla’s class. Miss Kamla bid Sudha good bye with a heavy heart and tears in her eyes. Sudha’s Aunt was waiting for her in the school gate and this irked Sudha even more, it was not every day that she would get a school pick up.
Sudha walked as slowly as she could towards her home, her friends were waiting for her in the ice-cream shop. It was their tradition to have an ice-cream together on the 15th of every month but today she saw them from outside but did not wave to them; she was too embarrassed to say anything to them. She walked briskly past the ice-cream shop and they stopped in a bangle store. Her aunt asked her to select some bangles but she refused to look at them so her aunt pulled her hand and measured her wrist size and chose sparkly pink bangles for her. Sudha’s hands were thin and had maths formulas written all over, this embarrassed the shopkeeper to put bangles in her hand but he was helpless after all he was so used to putting bangles in the hands of these young school girls. He knew the fate of young girls in this town, they would hardly be 14 years old and ready for all these pre marriage customs of getting ready and showing themselves to older suitors who would look for young girls to be their life partners.
Sudha’s aunt walked into few other stores to buy hair clips matching to the bangles, they walked in the tailors shop to collect the saree and the blouse which was given for some last minute alterations. Generally girls would get excited shopping for cosmetics, accessories and dresses but these things did not fascinate Sudha. This only irritated Sudha and she saw this as an end to her education and her dreams to make a change in the society. They reached home only to find the home neat and clean with smell of clarified butter everywhere, on any occasion when guests were about to come you could get this smell in the entire Choti Kela Bari where Sudha lived. Everyone in the Choti Kela Badi was aware of the fact that there were guest expected at Sudha’s house, any festivity in any of the houses in Choti Kela Bari meant celebration for all. Sudha was helped by atleast twenty people from the neighbourhood to get ready and after two hours of getting her ready her face was beyond recognition. Sudha did not want to see her face in the mirror, her face was red not with makeup but with continuous sobbing, her aunt came and seeing her sob asked her to stop crying or her eyes but look swollen.
Sudha was married when she was 14 years old but nothing could come in Sudha’s way to achieve her dreams to become a lawyer and a social worker, she continued studying with the help of her father who fulfilled his promise to educate her even after marriage. Today Sudha herself was fighting a case for a girl who was forced to marry at an early age and she could not help but think of her own time and her days.
