Her hair is decked with fresh jasmine, pouring its aroma into the air.
She sits in front of the mirror and her mother drapes a silk saree around her form, applies kajal to her large round eyes and makes her look absolutely elegant.
She is instructed how to sit, talk, smile and seem as pleasing as possible. What is the whole affair about?
Well, a prospective groom is waiting in the living room with his parents. It is the ritual of 'pelli choopulu', as it is known in telugu.
She has to stand like a doll in front of unkown people. But, what is her heart`s desire?
Who cares for her 'puny' little heart?
All her family members want is to get rid of her. She is nothing more than a liability to her family.
Two years hence, she is married to the same groom, who is nearly double her age, and holds a mewling infant in her arms along with a huge family of twenty members.
Her in-laws were greatly pleased with her role as a daughter-in-law. She was always quiet, never uttering a single word of retaliation against any word of chiding.
Her feet was riddled with tiny holes. Do you know why?
It was so because, she had to stand throughout the day, completing domestic chores and standing in stagnant water.
But who cares to even look at her eyes?
Sixty pots of water, she had to carry every day to meet the water needs of her family. One day, when she slipped and fell due to muddy water, her mother-in-law was concerned about the broken pot and not about her broken radius bone of her left arm.
She would be thoroughly exhausted but not a minute of respite could she afford.
She is really famished, but not a grain is left in the kitchen.
She weeps incessantly, the infant in her arms clings to her tightly and the fetus inside starts moving about vigorously.
Who pushed her into this life in purgatory?
Did she ever ask for it?
Did she ever have a voice in her life?
What was her fault? to be a woman?
How was her friend who seeked her own life-partner looked at in the society? An ostracised female with no place in society.
Was the society right, in making her a puppet in the hands of her in-laws?
Was the society right, in tieing her up in this almost unbreakable bond?
Was she ever happy?
Was her smile ever true?
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