Life, Lilies and Surf

Chapter 2

Dame luck is fickle they say,

Damsel Money will ever play,

To make mind come under her sway,

To forget the way it was yesterday.

Latha silently went inside her house after a quick look at her mother. Mangalam looked proudly at her daughter as usual. But soon her eyes drew a film of tear. How neat and fair her daughter looked.  Fair complexion, she always proudly felt was her contribution.   Latha was of medium height, a little shorter than her mother. She had petite features and black eyes. The eyes were not dead straight as a careful observer would notice. But the result was it  gave now and then a dreamy result much to the allurement of the boys. Her hair was jet black and was made into single plait. She would have liked to let it down on the shoulders and back, so that it could move gracefully with every turn of her head and that would also turn heads.  She had worn on the ears small golden studs too small for her age , but it was there from her early school days.   She was wearing a cotton langda, a skirt with plaits covering her up to her feet. Her blouse was of matching colour of light blue. As was the fashion and custom of the times, she had three yards of cloth wound round her with one end tied to the skirt and then going round her waist and covering the blouse in the front and thrown over her left shoulder and flowing on her back like a sail. This piece of drapery popularly called as dhavani was the harbinger of her girlhood. This dress is viewed by poets and teenage boys as a very romantic and possibly by the wearers as not so convenient and some times not appropriate. Depositing her chappal near the door, she went into her room, rather the one that had no kitchenette.

Her mother came into the room and seeing her pensive daughter sat beside her. She fondly caressed her hair and pushed behind her ears the curls that were flowing over her face, and tried to guess what was in her mind.

"Don't you bother, Latha, you would go to  college and soon will be studying science course in subject you want." Mangalam assured her. Only bright students with high scores could get science course.

"No Mamma, I would not go to college. "I have already thought about it.  I knew whatever be the grade I get in the school final, I may not be able to enter the portals of any college."   There was a tinge of sorrow, which she could not suppress despite trying to be casual in dismissing the dream.

"No dear. There is still time and we may have better days."

"And then admissions will close for the colleges and I would sit at home for nothing. I have decided. I have spoken to our neighbour, Ranga, who is already working  from last year. He knows some one in his office and I would get a clerk's job." This was her strong point. She was practical and could take decisions for herself. Necessity is the mother of invention.

College admissions were not difficult those days. There was no reservations for large number of seats under different categories dictated by caste classifications. Even among the affluent, few girls made to the college. Stopping the brilliant girls at the matriculation or school final was generally done. This was to help find a suitable match for the girl at the same level of under graduation or graduation. No doubt graduates would ask for more dowry and grand marriage. It would not stop with the celebration of the marriage alone. For every festival that followed for one year after marriage, the girl's parents would have to send presents to the groom and his family. Cost of such presents which included jewels was directly proportionate to the salary, property and educational qualification of the groom and affluence of his family. The girl's parents may beg, borrow or steal, but these strict laws of exploitative largess should go on for an year. Subsequent occasions like child birth, child's first birthday, etc also demanded similar appropriate expensive presents from the married girl's parents. No wonder the birth of a girl baby was not greeted with gusto despite saying that Lakshmi had come to the house and worshiping God in the female form.