A stolen childhood

She was all of 17 years. Her slender frame drooped under the weight of the gargantuan garland. 

She was just out of high school. 2 of the 40 odd girls who graduated high school that year, in the remote village in India, entered college. Not that the ratio was healthy among boys.

Like every other girl in every other village/town/city in India, she lived her dream.. well, in her dream. Fantasies helped her overcome reality. The ugly reality of child marriage. She imagined that she was enrolled in a college. That she was in a lab, handling beakers, computers and circuits. Gal pals, hostel rooms and late night chats. Wear Jeans, take bus rides to college. Watch movies with classmates, pass notes during a lecture, get caught.. Campus romance, the freedom to choose a boyfriend. The freedom to say no. The freedom to consider and reconsider a relationship's progress or regress. 

She didn't harbour big ambitions. No civil service/doctor/pilot aspirations. Simply because she was not exposed to that world of opportunities. Her world revolved around her family, school and the only other information source was television. Her mother could, at best, speak about the neighbour's new saree. Her father, in his drunken stupor, or in semi sobriety, swore multilingually. 

All she wanted was freedom. Freedom to sleep late, wake up at 10, eat Maggi noodles for brunch and yet not be thrown out of the household for such behaviour. Freedom to go to a new place and have a career. Earn her own money, live her own life. Use sanitary napkins advertised on TV. Tweeze her eyebrows. Cut her hair. Fiddle with a computer. Freedom to explore her desires, the way she chose. To build a home with a toilet. To earn enough to pay for a flight ticket, all on her own. 

She had little idea about the realities of marriage. She had little idea about the man who will be fathering her children, starting next year. 4 pregnancies, 2 kids, an induced abortion and a couple of miscarriages... all in 4 years of marriage. She had no idea she will be battered, anaemic and malnourished at 21. She had no idea that she will forego milk and precious calcium so that she can feed her kids. All at 21 years of age. When her more fortunate counterparts across the nation hunt for a job. She felt guilty that she felt she didn't want children. She did not want to introduce more characters in this already dreadful story of her life. Her mother shrugged and said 'this is our life, you don't have a choice'.

All she wanted was choice.