The morning
of Ani’s first birthday had started as usual with cries for milk, demands for
tea, and a push to get breakfast in her husband’s stomach before he rushed
out. She saw him ride away, on his
bicycle, peddling off down the alley, her eyes glued to his back until he
turned at the curb. That was the last
she saw him. Her world came crumbling
down when the love of her life, her friend, her husband, the sole breadwinner
crashed into a lorry that sped up from a bend around the corner.
Blinking
away tears wedged in the corners of her eyes, Radha watched the young
couple. Seeing her mother in the young
bride on the platform, her eyes welled up again. To
support the two young girls, her mother had taken on odd jobs cleaning rich
homes or taking in laundry. She worked
from sun up to sundown and lived with constant remarks from her
mother-in-law. The sister-in-law had
moved out with her husband but the burden of mouths to feed fell on Kanta. She was determined to get her daughters an
education so they would be independent.
Whatever boon or curse future had in store for them, they should never
be helpless.
Radha heard
the whistle of her train and watched it come closer. She grabbed her small suitcase and the
medical case. Boarding the train she
settled in her corner for the six hour ride to her mother’s village. Now old and bent over from sweeping so many
homes for decades, Kanta lived in her village in her parent’s hut, the only thing
left for them to leave for her when they passed on. Ani lived with her and ran the local school
and now Radha will join them as she planned to setup her medical practice.
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