The Convicts

Shubha Mangala Nuptial Musings 2012-the end of the world, they told us. And it looked like it because people around me were getting married left, right and center. That was still ok. I was stunned when my father told me it is time for me to think of getting married! Now that we are all of the “marriageable” age, my friends and I have discussed it over a thousand times. Almost each one of us has a different opinion about it. Everytime we talk about it the scene looks similar to one of the sessions of parliament. Each one of us tries to convince the other. And at the end of it, we hold on to our opinions the way a fanatically religious man swears by his holy book! One of my friends, a girl, let us call her A, is of the opinion that we should leave it to our parents. They will look for a good life partner for you. And if something goes wrong, you can obviously blame it on your parents! Now, I must tell you the premise behind her judgment. A and I (that is me, and not a th

Harry potter-the boy who lived, made news for quite a long time. Here is a story about the lady who lived- real and hitherto untold. The story is old, very old- It is so old that no one knows the exact year of its beginning. It starts somewhere in mid 1950s. A little girl, 16 years old, lived in a small village in Maharashtra. Her name was Hira. She was fair, beautiful but really short- 4 feet 9 inches tall. She had failed 4 th class and had never travelled beyond her village. She was soon married off to a handsome, young boy named Nana. At this point, I should tell you a little about Nana. Nana grew up in a small village close to Hira’s. After his father’s death, his uncles took away all the farms. That is how Nana happened to go to Mumbai. He worked somewhere in Mumbai. I don’t know what exactly did he do for a living then. He stayed in a chawl-one room was all that he had to himself. He had a younger sister.  His sister and mother stayed back in village. He was 21 when he got marr