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Everyone loves a happy ending. But at the end of the day, it's you who choose how your happy ending is going to be, as Sudha did in this story.
Everyone loves a happy ending. But at the end of the day, it’s you who choose what your happy ending is going to be, as Sudha did in this story.
Sudha had come a long way from being the scared little girl from Jajjhar, Haryana who ran away from home at the age of fifteen. Born in the district famous for female infanticide, her being alive till the age of fifteen was nothing short of a miracle created by her mother’s unending love and efforts. Everyone was so sure that she would be forced to marry the 32-year-old sarpanch that day. Again it was her mother who paying heed to her dreams and will to live, helped her to run away. In 1984 when she accomplished that, people said that it was her Happy Ending.
Sudha came to Mumbai on a train her mother put her on. “Go, live your dream”, those were her mother’s last words to her. When they waved goodbye, they knew that they would never hear from each other again. She reached Mumbai and her mother’s cousin sister picked her up at the station as she was told by her mother. Anju Maasi worked as a domestic helper in the house of a famous social worker. With her help, Sudha finished her schooling and, moved to college. When she finished her studies, she had an MBA.
She got a job in a company and worked really hard. She met her husband Vikas, at work. They fell in love and got married and were blessed with two beautiful daughters whom they brought up with lots of love and care. She did not stop working, her family was supportive of her decisions. And today was a big day for Sudha. She was being promoted to be the COO of her company.
The Banquet Hall was full of thousands of people who had all come to hear the first ever Woman COO in the history of their company talk. Sudha stepped up to the mike, and looked around at the audience; her family was there, Anju maasi and her benefactor too had made it despite ill health. “When in 1984, I ran away from Jajjhar, everyone who I met told me that I had my happy ending. I had escaped from hell, what more could a person in my place ask for? I could not accept that as my ending, happy or sad. I remembered my mother’s struggles to keep me alive every day, she gave me the power to dream, and from that I created my own dreams.”
“I had to fulfill them isn’t it? Only when I fulfilled my dreams would Ma’s sacrifices been worth it. Anju Maasi and Taai gave my dreams wings, and Vikas was a part of my dream too.When I was told that I was being promoted to the position of COO – my dreams were almost fulfilled. There was still a small part of it that remained.” Vikas, got up at this point and opened the door and went out.
The door re-opened, everyone turned around and the saw an old woman being led in by Vikas.
The door re-opened, everyone turned around and they saw an old woman being led in by Vikas. Sudha walked down the stage and escorted that lady up, made her stand next to her while she began to speak again, “See friends, I wished that day my mother sat me on the train; that she should witness my dreams being fulfilled. That was when I would have everything. It was hard to find the woman, who thirty years ago had set me a sail in search of my dreams, the woman who told me that I would never see her again. But I dreamt it differently and here she is today, Khushi Devi my Ma. And this moment, here, now, today is my Happy Ending.”
A happy family image via Shutterstock
Jaibala Rao is a Writer and a Poet whose life revolves around the people she loves, her family, her friends and her toddler. She says that words define her, and writing and reading compete to read more...
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Neena was the sole caregiver of Amma and though one would think that Amma was dependent on her, Neena felt otherwise.
Neena inhaled the aroma that emanated from the pan and took a deep breath. The aroma of cumin interspersed with butter transported her back to the modest kitchen in her native village. She could picture her father standing in the kitchen wearing his white crisp kurta as he made delectable concoctions for his only daughter.
Neena grew up in a home where both her parents worked together in tandem to keep the house up and running. She had a blissful childhood in her modest two-room house. The house was small but every nook and cranny gave her memories of a lifetime. Neena’s young heart imagined that her life would follow the same cheerful course. But how wrong she was!
When she was sixteen, the catastrophic clutches of destiny snatched away her parents. They passed away in a road accident and Neena was devastated. Relatives thronged her now gloomy house and soon it was decided that she should be married off.
Women today don’t want to be in a partnership that complicates their lives further. They need an equal partner with whom they can figure out life as a team, playing by each other’s strengths.
We all are familiar with that one annoying aunty who is more interested in our marital status than in the dessert counter at a wedding. But these aunties have somehow become obsolete now. Now they are replaced by men we have in our lives. Friends, family, and even work colleagues. It’s the men who are worried about why we are not saying yes to one among their clans. What is wrong with us? Aren’t we scared of dying alone? Like them?
A recent interaction with a guy friend of mine turned sour when he lectured me about how I would regret not getting married at the right time. He lectured that every event in our lives needs to be completed within a certain timeframe set by society else we are doomed. I wasn’t angry. I was just disappointed to realize that annoying aunties are rapidly doubling in our society. And they don’t just appear at weddings or family functions anymore. They are everywhere. They are the real pandemic.
Let’s examine this a little closer.
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