Kalyani watched as
Paru beat her wet clothes against the rocks with a vengeance.
Her drunken womanizer
of a husband, Koran, had just tried to pawn her to his imbecile friends in return
for a few tolas the previous day. She had given a fitting reply by splashing
cow dung water on the delinquents and rubbing her husband’s loin clothes with
the itchy nettle leaves. Koran was heard screaming the whole night after his
daily evening ablutions.
Paru was
definitely a fiery one but Kalyani worried for her friend’s life. This time it
surely felt like there would be severe consequences. Paru was Kalyani’s only
solace in this godforsaken village, the one who tried to cast a silver lining
amidst the horror of a life women like her lived every day. She was also the
one to advise Kalyani to put Kanchi under Sambhu Asan’s tutelage.
“Your Kesu is
incorrigible, Kalyani. However, you should be glad you have your Kanchi. That
girl is brave” assured Paru, as she continued to beat her clothes on the rock.
“Being brave
doesn’t help Paru, I fear the day she becomes a woman, she will be trampled
upon like all of us,” said Kalyani
“They trample on
us because we let them. Only if more of us stood up against them”, said Paru
“And how is that
working out for you,” said Kalyani rhetorically as she pointed out to the long
scar that ran across Paru’s stomach. The scar was the painful reminder of how
Paru became barren as a result of the continuous brutality she endured at the
hands of her husband in their early days of marriage. Koran needed no specific
reason to hurt her, he would just get drunk and abuse her as he pleased. At
times he would bring women from the brothel and make her watch as they engaged
in their perversions. He would blame her for her inability to bear him a child
and punish her for that. After a year of her marriage, when she had finally
become pregnant, she was yearning to share the news with her husband. That
night however, a drunken Koran came home and kicked his wife endlessly for snitching
on his wayward behavior to Sambhu Asan. That night Paru bled profusely and the
village doctor had to cut out her womb to save her life.
“There will never
be an end to this misery until you put a stop to it. What is that you fear for,
your life? Is there a point to calling this life if all you face is pain and shame?
Each voice raised will be a call in the war cry against this order” had said
Sambhu Asan who had come to visit the ailing Paru
Perhaps it was his
words or perhaps it was the gut-wrenching pain of losing her child, that
transformed her docility to recalcitrance. She understood her days may be
numbered but she wasn’t prepared to go down without a fight.
“I know you want
to make me an example of why women should not speak their mind, but I have no
regrets Kalyani. I rather die my head held high than bowing down to these
bastards.”
“Just be careful
now Paru, maybe you should just run away. I just have a bad feeling about it
this time. Go to Sambhu Asan, he will be able to find a way” said a worried
Kalyani.
“Don’t worry
Kalyani. We all must die someday. However, I have a piece of advice for you. The
day Kanchi becomes a woman, make sure no one in this village knows. Maybe you
shouldn’t even wait for it to happen, just get hold off her and run, run far
away from here. I am going to stay back and fight till my last breath” said
Kalyani as she stared across at the old banyan tree across the pond.
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