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Chapter 1
It was 9 o’clock in the morning. I was sleeping under my warm light-weighted brown blanket dispersed all over the cold, spongy bed.
I was, however, feeling a bit chilly. I wanted to know the exact reason for which I really had to push myself to remove the blanket from my face. When I opened my eyes to see, a cool breeze was coming through the agape window of my bedroom. I thought for a while who might have forgotten to close it, and a moment after, I realized that my servant’s daughter, Mona (roughly about my age 15), who came last night to wish me Good-Night, maybe forgot to close it.
However, I wasn’t mad at her for forgetting to shut the curtain down; in fact, I was feeling something strange. It was the very climate that made me feel that way. The weird, or should I say the beautiful thing about the zephyr was as if it was pleading me to drag myself out of my bed and cuddle it with open arms. Finally, I decided to embrace this very beauty to cheer myself up for the whole day.
I started to get up from my supine sleep and roll my hands over my clogged eyes when I recalled that I had to brush my goofy teeth as well. I ordered Mona to search my toothbrush and toothpaste, and bring them to me. To my surprise, Mona brought them within a minute as if she was habituated to my recklessness; and maybe she was totally aware of where I had thrown them yesterday morning.
After spreading the paste all over my brush, I started to cleanse my teeth hastily in an anxiety not to miss the breeze that was flowing swiftly outside. Once I finished brushing my teeth followed by a hot cup of milk served by Mona, I asked her to play our all-time favourite game “Hide & Seek” in our backyard. (Maybe, it was only my favourite game, but since Mona didn’t have any option, she had to accept it as her favourite game too). As usual, without any objection, she murmured “Yes” in a husky voice.
Then we went to my backyard lush green garden of 100 acres, (one of the many things my father inherited as part of the legacy of the royal dynasty and surely the one which he would pass over to me in future), where we started playing our or should I say my favourite game.
However, I wasn’t feeling like I was totally enjoying the game though.
My thick moustache, sturdy father and my talkative mom carrying a big circular vermilion on her head were calling Mona again and again for doing the work that was actually needed to be done by her father. But, since Mona’s father was off sick, likely or unlikely, without any choice, Mona had to obey my parent’s orders and anyhow, I didn’t want to go against my parents’ orders as well. However, like a daughter of a proud father, she never felt ashamed of the work that her father used to do for a living. The moment my parents were calling her name, she used to take a quick run to them and get every shallow work done; and after finishing them, she used to return to me to play along. In fact, she had to follow the same many times during our game. Such was the affection of Mona for me, the dedication to her work and the love for her father. She was, in fact, a perfect daughter any father would dream to have.
Chapter 2
Our play went for more than an hour when Mona implored me to let her spare for 5 minutes to check up on her father; and the way she was pleading with a caring love for her father clearly visible in her eyes, I couldn’t say “No” to her. Once I said “OK”, she ran hurriedly towards her shoddy hut, settled nearly 40-50 yards away from our garden, which her father had built with trunks of trees of our own backyard, the thing that my dad wouldn’t allow others except Mona’s dad as his ancestry was considered the most loyal servant to our family. And when Mona ran towards her father, I recalled my own childhood days when my mother used to run after me in our big mansion as if I would get lost somewhere in it. I was easily able to figure out motherly qualities that Mona possessed which she possibly had inherited from her late mother.
I was totally surprised when I saw Mona stepping down upon loosely gripped wooden stairs of her tiny hut after nearly 4-5 minutes with a cute smile on her face. When I asked her the reason behind that precious smile, her impulsive response had really overwhelmed me.
She said, “My dad has just fallen asleep after taking the medicine and….” Unfortunately, the moment she wanted to express her joy furthermore, my mom called us both. She informed me that my private teacher had arrived, and he was waiting for me in my study room. However, she yelled at Mona and ordered her to go to the ground floor bathroom and wash clothes. Like her father, Mona nodded in a very reverent way and started to walk back when I too decided to head towards my study room.
Chapter 3
After finishing just two lessons for the day, I started to feel thirsty and instantly my eyes began to scroll around the room from one corner to another. But, my bad! I was only able to find an empty jug along with a glass and that too both placed at a very distant tea table. Looking at my enervated face, my teacher called Mona’s father (to whom he knew for a while) to bring water. But since Mona’s dad was off sick, Mona brought water herself in a new fully filled jug along with two glasses.
Once we finished drinking water, Mona collected empty glasses back from both of us, kept the glasses and the jug on the table and started to walk back to keep my teacher and myself undisturbed. The moment she began to step outside the study room, my teacher inquired Mona, “Child, you don’t go to school?”
Mona turned back and replied in a soft voice that her father could afford the education of only one child and as the heir of the family, only her brother Sonu could go to school, and she merely had to stay at home for housework.
This reply of Mona had really perplexed my teacher. When he inquired her again about her interest, I intervened my teacher to tell him that she was very good in sports and studies. I told him how she used to run swiftly and catch me every time whenever we used to play our favourite game and why I used to call her P.T. Usha. In an anxiety to exalt Mona more, to my bad, I told my teacher how Mona used to assist me in finishing my homework as well. I didn’t mean to let him know how careless I used to be, especially about my studies. It was actually a slip of the tongue which I realized when he turned towards me and just simpered.
When he asked her to let her father have a word with him, Mona ghastly replied, “No.” When my teacher asked her about the reason, she responded that her father was already going through a lot where his plate was already occupied with Sonu’s education, her marriage; and with the cost of her studies, she didn’t want to trouble him anymore.
This response of Mona had literally brought tears to my teacher’s eyes and compelled him to get off the chair and hug her. Though my teacher was overwhelmed to see the affection of Mona for her family and father, he was startled to see the way girls being treated as nothing but a doormat in the backward-classes in the 21st century as well. In fact, after living with Mona for so many days, I too thought that providing at least basic education to Mona along with her brother could have been a better decision.
Then suddenly, from nowhere a harsh, loud voice came and summoned Mona to return to the kitchen and assist other servants to prepare dishes for the lunch. Mona responded hurriedly and started to walk back to the kitchen.
After a minute or so, we too, both my teacher and I began to touch upon next few remaining lessons for the day.
Chapter 4
Now, I desperately wanted to get done with remaining lessons and play my favorite game with Mona again. However, even when my teacher tried to get himself indulged in explaining those lessons, I was easily able to figure out how tense he was, after hearing about Mona. I thought it would be wise to keep my desperation aside for a while now and ask him to share his feelings. When I actually asked him to alleviate his pain, he immediately closed my books and said, “Son, the best lesson that you can learn is from your own life and especially from the people you are surrounded with”. Those were very strong words and very abstruse for me. When I asked him to expound that very phrase, he replied in dismal, “Son, it has been more than 60 years India got itself freed from the hands of British but still, there are many areas India is yet to lay its eye upon. India is still captive to parochial mindsets of nothing but its own people.”
The way my teacher was illustrating, I was totally succumbed to his words, though I didn’t get the meaning of ‘Parochial’. When I intervened and dared to ask him what does that exactly mean? He answered,” India may have stepped into the world where earlier aliens like globalization and industrialization have been no strangers to us now, the way our own girls and women are still being treated, it really makes every one of us sick.” He continued, “Though by virtue of fields like Science and Engineering, we may have touched upon everything that thought to be impossible to achieve few decades back, the way our angels have to sacrifice their life for the sake of their own family, whether as a mother or as a sister/daughter, it’s actually humiliating in itself.”
There was no doubt left in my mind now, once my teacher had corrected it with those long and heavy phrases. However, I noticed the outcry that was burning within him just like our martyr patriots to make India really free and a tinge of cry and fear in his caring eyes after seeing Mona. In fact, it really scared the hell out of me when he said, “And they say… India got freedom.”, “Do they know what that exactly means!”
The way my teacher was behaving and explaining to me now, I thought, maybe for India, freedom was still an untouched phenomenon and might be lying at very distant, far away from the reality. I tried desperately to empathize with him and made my fullest effort to let him be calm. Finally, my teacher held his emotions by rolling his hands on his swollen tearing eyes, and opened my closed books to continue with remaining few chapters.
After finishing those left ones, my teacher asked me to pack up for the day to which I responded “yes” immediately, considering the number of chapters and the kind of real lesson that I had learned.
Once he took his bag on his shoulder, he started to get downstairs. However, the way he was trudging down the stairs, I thought maybe, earlier conversation with Mona was still hovering over his head.
Chapter 5
It had been more than an hour after my teacher’s departure, but still it hadn’t allowed me to forget the real lesson of the day. In fact, it compelled me to contemplate over the analogy between other mournful girls/women of India and our Mona. I thought the situation via which Mona was currently going through; there wasn’t any difference between them either. I started to imagine how Mona had to be the mother of her family after the bereavement of her own mother, how and why she had to sacrifice her life as a sister for the betterment of her brother and how she used to be the buttress to her father by working in his absence in our family. Now, Mona started to surprise me with kind of different roles she had to play at such a small age. This had really flabbergasted me and made me feel really ashamed of myself.
With that thought, I dragged myself into the bed sleeping half across with my blanket covered over me till my chest and started to ponder over Mona. The thought of the way Mona being treated had now really made me feel sorry for her. I started to ask myself rhetorical questions like why Mona couldn’t be lucky, why she couldn’t go to school, and her brother sit at home, or better than that, why both Mona and her brother couldn’t have equal and fair treatment both at home and in the society.
In a search for the answers to those questions, I never realized when my eyes started to fall for sleep.
The moment I thought I was maybe half asleep, Mona entered into the room and stood beside my bed exactly in front of me. I started to feel that someone was there standing in front of me as Sun-rays, which were coming earlier over my face from the open window, were not coming now.
When I opened my eyes, I saw Mona standing just in front of me. She informed me, “Lunch is ready, and everyone is waiting for you downstairs.” The way Mona was saying in a subdued voice, I thought to behave and talk to her rather in a gentle way from now at least. When I told her that I needed to talk to her, she was quite astonished to hear that. She replied in a husky voice, “Can we talk after your lunch as everybody is waiting for you.” I replied her to let them wait for few minutes since I needed to feel myself a little bit lighter like I used to. I asked her to sit. When I saw she was trying to sit down on the floor, I asked her to sit on the chair kept just beside my study table. She was surprised to hear that as if no one ever had talked to her in the same regard. After sitting on the chair, I offered her a glass of water and started to pour water down from the jug (that Mona kept herself when my teacher was there). She was startled to see that and was behaving in a manner as if I had committed a serious crime. She quickly tried to take the jug back from my hand and reminded me that it was her duty to serve me and not the other way around. Then, after demanding her to give up on that servitude, I summoned her for the last time to be seated in her chair.
After letting her finish a glass of water offered by me, I asked her, “Why don’t you convince your father to let you go to school and be alike the other son to your father so that you both can support him and fulfill his dream.” Mona thought for a while as if she desperately wanted to let it happen. But, considering the impoverishment of the family, she may have thought that it wasn’t possible at all, at least not in this life.
When I asked her, if possible, to take help and money from my rich father, she hurriedly answered, “No.” She was, in fact, so unyielding not to be like a free bird as if it wasn’t possible at all. Finally, she requested me to drop the topic there itself and never ever bring it into the light again, either to her or to her father. She got off the chair in a little arrogant way and again begged me to come with her for a lunch as everyone was starving to death downstairs. I was a bit furious the way Mona had declined my offer. I asked her to go first and I would follow her. She paused for a while and started to get out of the room by looking at me in a very confused way. Finally, after holding myself up, I went downstairs.
Chapter 6
Before starting with my lunch, I went towards the basin, washed my hands and then sat over my usual chair. However, I was constantly looking at Mona the way she was serving food to all of us and side by side thinking about the earlier happening. Even when she started to fill my plate, I inquired her whether she had her lunch or not. However, before she even replied to it, my mother intervened and told me that she would have it after us. After hearing that kind of response from my mother, my anger went to the level where I threw my plate to the other side, pulled off my chair and went directly upstairs to my room.
My father and mother didn’t know what exactly could be the reason behind my rash behaviour and started to question Mona for all of this. After hearing Mona screaming for a while, I got down again to let them know that she had nothing to do with that and let her be out of the chaos. I asked Mona to leave for the day and return to her tiny hut to check up on her father.
After seeing my mom and dad nodding yes, Mona ran towards her hut, and I too started to climb stairs up to reach my bedroom. Once I stepped into my room, I furiously closed my creaking and groaning room door.
Chapter 7
In my room, I was sitting in the middle of my bed folding my legs and pondering over Mona and so many other girls in India who are nothing but slaves to the family, to the society and this very world. That’s when I recalled my teacher’s precious words and why he condemned India so much even when many things had changed, many advancements India had seen over the years and why he was crying a lot from inside. I started to cry like him where my tears began to roll down from my cheeks onto my folded legs. That was the moment when I remembered the very next day and what would be so special about it.
It would be 15th August again. Same as before. The only difference would be 1 more count would get added to the tally. Nothing more than that. One more year would pass to celebrate our freedom from the hands of mighty British. But still; I thought all such celebrations would hold no meaning and would be nugatory till the time India gets its real freedom - The freedom to be given to all our girls and women so that they would also be treated with parity and let them have a fair chance to pave the way and construct their own bright future. I guess my teacher was quite true – “If each year we treat our girls like the way we use to do till now and if each year we celebrate our so-called independence day like the way we are still doing, no girl like Mona will ever have freedom.”, not at least till the time I exhale my last breath.”
-- THE END --
