Bhani ...

Seeing her daughter in the blood red wedding sari sitting in the mandap with her to be better half made Bhani smile wide and wipe her tears of joy. The scene took her to 30 years back to her own wedding night. She was just a ten year old bride, wearing a sari and jeweler which was double her weight. She hailed from a poor family and because her parents couldn’t afford to look after the five kids, she was forced to marry a man who was thrice her age. Then she didn’t know what was happening. One fine morning she was been pampered like a doll and by evening she was all made over as a bride. She remembered crying her eyes out when the man who sat next to her in the mandap took her away from her family and siblings. And she remembered trying to kick him when he touched her. But as days passed she understood that this was her new life, her destiny. Then after years of miscarriage at the age of fifteen when she herself was a child she gave birth to baby girl. And that infant changed her life. Those little eyes gave her new light to live. Her husband died when their child was just a year old. And after that her life was a constant struggle to live, to let her child live and to maintain a roof above their heads. But she fought all the odds. And today she is a proud mother of a beautiful woman who is independent and capable to stand on her own feet. Bhani made sure to give her daughter those entire she was denied. She made sure to teach her little one to fly and survive on her own before giving her a new family.

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