The New Girl

Neelnagar is a highly modernized city on the western coast of India. A girl of class ten, Ruhi, Ruhi Sen, lives near a beach in this city .She goes to St.Marks, a prominent school in the area and is presently studying in class ten. This girl, in her early teens had developed a strong respect and interest for the Indian constitution along with the passion of her life geology. She lives with her parents as an ordinary child merrily. Today was the day of her first summative result which was satisfactory and Ruhi was relaxing on her bed, when her mother, Mrs. Sen came in.

Mrs. Sen:  Ruhi learn some manners. You are lying on bed in an awkward fashion. How will you manage to put up, when after marriage, your husband or in laws will feel annoyed to see you laying without any decency. You have no sense of what is expected from a girl.

Ruhi: My marriage will be after so many years. I have lots of stuff other than marriage to get involved in. If anyone after my marriage is annoyed of me, that is his problem and if he makes it my problem, he will be charged for domestic violence and beaten up in jail.

Ruhi is an open minded modern girl of the 21^st century with a great love in city life and a determination.

Determination for Geology.

 Also, presently she is determined for her talent search exam, i.e. ITSE, but her parents show no interest in her academics.

A week later… 

A week before her ITSE, her parents forced her to come  for a month trip in a village where his father was to establish a leather factory .She had no choice but to go with them.

She hated the atmosphere in the village and just couldn’t bear to be away from the city and stay in something less than a five star. She felt very uncomfortable there. She was scolded by people for not wearing a duppatta in public placesShe was scolded for talking to her friends from the city on her cell, especially boys and all that stuff. At a whole, she found the village chocking.

One day when her mother was watching one saas bahu serial, she took the remote and in a reflex, her father seized its control. Then her father began to view a news channel. Ruhi was very bored. Then she came to knew that her ITSE had been post pond. Today was the last day in the chocking village for Ruhi.

Ruhi and her family, in the car discussed about the trip. Ruhi criticized the narrow minded customs that denied equality to girls, and was opposed by all others and told that this was just a preventive measure that was useful for preventing girls from getting extra modern. Ruhi was not convinced for sure.

Coming back home, she prepared for her talent search and got selected .She was very happy as she no longer depended on her parents for her education.  The examination guaranteed scholarships for her education as long as she wishes to continue learning.

After completing her senior secondary two years later, with a very good aggregate, she got selected in ST. Stephen’s. She was not allowed to take admission by her parents. This was really too sad for her since she had worked very hard for it.

When nothing else suited her right, she ran away from home and got admission which was funded by the scholarship she got from the government after her ITSE. In Stephen’s she took her Geology honors.  There, she also met Avinash, a law student, who later became her bestie. They spent wonderful time together.

Soon she completed graduation and then post graduation from Stephen’s. She, got selected as a teacher in the very reputed university of Manchester as a professor of Geology. She was damn excited but she felt sad about the end of her college and more than that her friendship with Avinash. Anyways, she joined the college.

She taught the students with utter determination for a long time. Then, one year, the school went on a one week survey trip to some Indian village to study global warming, its causes and effects. Ruhi went to the tour with her students.

She came to know that this was the same chocking village she had toured with her family, fifteen years ago. Now, it was chocking in the real sense of the word .It was difficult to breath. The masks were compulsory to be worn instead of the dupattas now. Ruhi and her students came to know that this was because of a big company. After much research; she came back to Manchester with her students.

When they rechecked her research, she found that the air quality was too bad to breathe. She had made her mind to do something. Checking out the pictures of the tour, she noticed that the company had a name that she recognized well. She soon remembered that it was the brand name used by her father. She hated that man anyways and filed a petition in the Indian Supreme Court, flying all the way from England, complaining about the harm that factory has caused to the village, the case being fought with help of her lawyer and friend, Abhimanyu. He could not present any viable clauses and evidence and the case was not on their side at all.

Meanwhile Ruhi joined Stephen’s as a professor to keep money handy in her pocket. Gradually the case went on for three years along with Ruhi’s teaching .Ruhi and Abhimanyu were now not just friends. Ruhi fell in love…

The day had come when she was going to propose her friend.

This was the day before the fifteenth hearing of the case. At  night , Ruhi’s family visited  her at her apartment. Her father said that he was ready to remove that company if she came along with him, gets married to someone of their choice  and deserts her career forever so that their family’s so called “respect” was saved. Ruhi no longer bothered about that family which ceased to be hers as soon as she ran away from her home. No one had ever tried to contact her. However, she knew that her case was weak and she wanted the factory removed.

Ruhi had started to love Abhimanyu, but she wanted that company to be removed from that village for the welfare of the villagers. Ruhi’s heart was in a mess. She had to choose between her love and the villagers’ lives.  A passionate geologist, as she was; she chose the villager’s lives. She chose to make their lives better and ruining her own life for that was not a big deal for her. She told Abhimanyu how much she loved him and also that this love was of no use as she had to go with her parents.

The two lovers never met again. One can see Ruhi supervising the servants in her in laws’ house like any other typical Indian daughter in law. She likes it?

She loves it. She loves it because she has the happiness of enriching the lives of all those people in that village.

This was the end of the story of a modern Indian girl. However modern we become, our sense of sacrifice remains untouched. Our culture continues to be as it was and will go on till posterity. The culture not of the marriage forced by the goon of a parent; but of the sacrifice of this angel of a girl.