Tale of a girl and a city (Part 1)

Almost two years I have stayed in a Cosmopolitan city with my husband. I was teaching in a college then. My husband had given me all possible comforts that he could afford from his salary. He works (he is still there) in an investment bank. We used to  stay in a rented 3-bhk flat with semi-modular kitchen, a nice balcony, a nice drawing room that I had decorated in the way I wanted. I had a maid to do household works, washing machine to wash clothes, a person to iron my clothes, I ordered grocery over phone and it arrives at my door. We went for movies in weekends, sometimes hanging around with our friends. Above all I enjoyed the freedom of living my life.

Its not the end. We have friends and neighbors who have better lives than us. They own cars, their own flats, frequently going for foreign trips. We wish to get a life like them and for that we need to work harder. All of these  were happening because we were not in our native, we were in this advanced city with expensive malls, efficient cab service, excellent home delivery for groceries, Life was so good. 

But the question is : Is this the real picture of the city?????

Well if you work in the corporate and you have all corporate friends who had come from other cities, then the answer is yes.

But for a person like me teaching in a college with local people as my colleagues, the answer cannot be Yes.

I was 27 when i got married to a boy of 28. Then I went to that city. What I found was that most of my colleagues were younger to me, in fact much younger to me. Some were married, and some were not. Those girls who were not married, their parents were desperately looking for the perfect guy as their daughters were growing old. Growing old means they were turning to 23 from 22. They were ready with tonnes of gold and lot of dowry for their unknown and would be son-in-law. Also a girl of 24 was eligible to get married to a 32 years old guy, she could not get a boy of 27 or 28 because she herself was too old. It was so difficult to get a boy because he should not only belong to the same caste, he should belong from the sub-caste also. Well some people had been liberal on the last criteria I mentioned.

Well its an over all picture but i want mention one specific girl.

I am talking about a girl who was my colleague as well as my neighbor. She was filled with life. She used to crack instant jokes to everyone, used to fight with anyone whenever needed,students loved her as well as were scared of her. She used to love her friends and family a lot. Family, she used live with her husband. It was love marriage. Parents disagreed due to religious difference and also because they did not like the guy and his companions. According to her parents, he was not a responsible boy and family background was not at all good. But she was young and more importantly she was in love. She was studying at that time and the boy was doing some job, which I am not sure about. She ran away with him and both of them got married. Her parents stopped talking with her. Her siblings were in contact.

The initial days were like movies, romantic, both of them supporting each other and complimenting each other's lacking. He used to love her in the way she is. He used love her jokes, her smiles, her laughter, her personality, her smartness....in a word everything. 

Situations turned around when she started working that too in a college as a lecturer. The reason was he probably expected that after studying, she might start staying at home like a typical Indian middle-class housewife, cooking for him whenever needed, taking care of whole house, obeying whatever he said, satisfying sexually whenever he wanted, attending social functions with him as his wife etc etc.....and the list goes on. But this was not happening. She was teaching and being a teacher she had to study a lot. Its not that she was not taking proper care of him and his house but she had her own world, own friends, own life apart form being someone's wife. She was also looking for better opportunities in life as she was ambitious. She deserved it. But her husband was not happy.

He started verbally abusing her. He was wondering how can she being a woman could have ambition. She should be serving him 24x7, she should be submissive. He told her that it was not good for both of them if she studied at home. He also told how could she deck up in morning with all perfumes and lipstick and go out of the house like that, so many men would be staring at her. He started to hate the fact that she she could speak in English so fluently, read English story books or watch English movies. 

To prove her parents wrong, she started to adjust even if all these were deviating her from being her. She used find time in college to prepare for next day, she stopped reading all her favorite books and watching her favorite movies. But she could not stop people from staring from her. So this issue was alive after sacrificing so much.

This continued. After three years of marriage they wanted a kid. She wanted because she wanted to be a mother. He wanted because he wanted to prove that he was a real man in front of his stupid friends. Of course stupid people will have stupid friends. They started trying, something was wrong. He made her do all possible test but did not do his. All reports were alright. Logic says this was time he should have undergone some medical test. But how could he do that, he did not need that because he was a real man. He started to try more, sometimes against her will, and this made her weak physically. Doctor told her to be happy, but he used to tell how could she be happy in such a situation. this made her weak mentally. 

One day, they had a fight. He said "What kind of woman you are, you cannot bear a child". This had hit her like a spear in her heart. She raised her voice. She said "Why don't you do your medical test".

Any guesses...................what happened after that??????