Thought she was elder to us,
she played with us.
She wasn't mentally sound.
Last I heard, after the demise
of her husband, her in-laws
didn't treat her well.
She came back home and
did farming by her own.
Reminds me of Raji too.
The dusky little girl who's
house was beside mine.
Played with us hide and
seek almost everyday.
She was married off
and for some mysterious
reasons, she committed
suicide and that's that.
What always gets to me is
the story of this classmate,
Bharti.
Her father was my grandpa's
friend. She hardly spoke.
She had green eyes and
Everyone called her cat-eyes.
After she overhead her
husband's family's plan to
burn her for dowry reasons,
She fled the house and
walked for two days to
be back home.
Even in my own family.
Two daughters of my
grandpa's elder brother,
they were sold to some
rich family in Gujarat.
The marriage squeeze
of such nature is often
sugarcoated, but in all
bluntness, the reality was
starker as I learned more.
Sometimes I don't know
if I should be sad over these
things or draw inspiration
or just be grateful for not
Even remotely going through
anything like that.
I guess I carry the same
confusion within me whenever
I encounter one of these
classmates of mine.
The wisdom lies simply in
not talking to them or
even looking at them.
Because I remember how
bad the treatment was,
when one of my mother's
classmate had talked to
her in local bazaar and
my dad couldn't keep his
shit together.