I Owe An Apology To The Girl With Red Hair

Ruby didi had red hair. She had multiple piercings. She wore makeup. She almost got a tattoo. In the last decade of my small town, this meant that she was a slut.

A characterless, immoral girl who had “gotten out of hand” because of course girls are meant to be kept in control. To make matters worse she would fight with her mother for what she believed in.

Actually, she had screaming matches with her mother.

This was her. No one knew her story, what she liked, what she believed in, or what she was good at. She was reduced to this caricature.

Rubi didi was a cautionary tale

That is how I knew her. I sat with my friends and judged her as we made her into this cautionary tale that that none of us wanted to turn into. We, little schoolgirls sat there doing this to a woman whose only crime was making choices that didn’t conform to people around her.

Then we finished school and went to college. Then mid-college pandemic hit and we came back home. Same age as Ruby didi was when we wanted to be anything but her.

Half of my hair was blue. I didn’t really want multiple piercings but used clip-on. I wore makeup. I wanted to get a tattoo one day.

In this decade of my small town, I was a topic of conversation (on my face, I don’t know what happened behind my back). I was an arrogant bitch who had “gotten out of hand” because of course girls are meant to be kept in control.

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To make matters worse I would fight with my mother for what I believed in. Actually, I had screaming matches with her. This was me.

Yet I was not aware of the irony

But you see I was not aware of the irony that you have just realized. I was blissfully self-righteous having forgotten my past crimes against the laws of sisterhood. It took another group of little schoolgirls to make me humble.

As I sat there in a society function, bored out of my mind, wanting to go back to the book I was reading, there sat a group of little schoolgirls next to me.

One of them notices my part blue hair and points it out to her friends.

I still remember how scandalized they looked as they told each other it is something they would never do. And that is when I realized I owe Ruby didi an apology.

Image source: Still from the music video of  Rang De, Film: Fitoor.

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