She didn’t talk with her parents. They didn’t know where she was, what she was doing, if she was alive or not.
I was back to Ahmedabad from Bangalore and four months had passed. I went to her home, in the village, to meet her parents. Of course, I didn’t tell her. I handed over sweets box to her mother and I told them whereabouts of her daughter, Aneri. I told how good she was earning, more than fifty thousand per month in Bangalore. How happy she is in her life, how badly she missed them. Though it was a lie added by me, it made her mom happy. Her dad wasn’t much interested. For him, he had only one child, his son.
I bent down to touch their feet. They blessed me. I was all set to leave, I looked back, I could see the pain in her mother’s eyes and no emotions in her father. That reminded me of how she had left home. She had told me it all when we had reached the peak point of Kudremukh and resting for a while.
I don’t want to live here, she threw the plate. She was frustrated now. She had enough. She couldn’t tolerate it anymore. That was the day, she left her home, finally. Her parents were shocked. Her mom couldn’t swallow the bite she had just taken. Her dad tried to speak but parted lips couldn’t make a sound. It was on the morning of one fine summer day while taking breakfast. She had just completed her 12th and results were out. She had passed with flying colours but her father didn’t want her to fly. Her mother had no say in those matters. That’s how it was back then. Women were just housewives, like some maid. No participation in family matters, no say in any decisions. Still, it is like that in so many villages, in so many communities. Her family was no different. She wanted to study. She wanted to have a career. She wanted to be independent. She didn’t want to end up like her mother, suppressed under the male ego. She had dreams. She wanted to fly. She had wings but her wings were tied in that house.
She looked back once more at the house she called home for seventeen years. It was a small bricked house without plaster. They had clay house before. Five years ago, it was indeed a good year for any farmer. The rain was just the amount of any farmer would need. They had made some money from a crop, from their as little as three Bigha Land. That’s when they replaced clay walls with bricks. The floor was still of clay but at least now there was no fear of walls falling apart in heavy rain. It was the moment of joy for everyone in the family, her parents, her brother and she. She didn’t want to remember her brother but he was a family, how could she exclude?
She thought for a moment. Her parents were standing at the gate of the house. Her mother was crying but her father, he had no remorse. Her brother was two years younger to her and has just completed 10th. He was an average student but his father wanted him to study as far as he wanted. That wasn’t the case for her even though she was far talented than him. It has always been like that. After all, she was an unwanted child. Her father didn’t want a girl. Since childhood, she would be always loaded with work but not her brother. She had never experienced the love of a father. She was suffering since birth for being a girl but not anymore. She remembered how hard she had fought to study until high school. Her father wouldn’t give a penny more for college. He wanted to get her married and get over with responsibilities.
She had packed her clothes and all the documents she would need for further study. She had saved some money for a moment like that. She wiped tears with her forearm in one blow. She began to walk forward to leave her home behind which was in a small village in Amreli district. Approximately fifty kilometres away from Amreli. The village has around fifty to sixty houses. All same, same houses, same people, and the same mentality. She had to break free from it. She glanced on the wristwatch. Her steps were longer and faster now. It was three in the noon but she had to walk seven kilometres to catch the bus to Ahmedabad. She had no plans ahead but she knew what she wanted. She wanted to go to college, study and get a decent job. It doesn’t sound a big dream but for her, it was as big as any dream could be.
