Faint Light of a New Dawn
Close to the city of Paithan, in a small village called Sauviragram, which lay along the banks of the great river Godavari, lived a woman named Ilaa. Being cotton farmers, her family was well to do, but not among the richest in their area. It was the harvest season, and cotton had to be picked from the plants. The wholesalers and traders from Paithan would be arriving in just a few weeks, carrying gold and goods for barter. They would exchange what they carried for the cotton that the farmers grew. The bales of cotton had to be ready in time! Work was at its peak!
But Ilaa was not to be found in the fields. She wasn't working. Instead, she was sitting by the banks of the great river Godavari.
'I am sick of this!' she grunted loudly.
But there was no one to react to her grunts except the wave of the river Godavari that playfully echoed back her words; no one carried her words like the wind to a far-off land. The river, the waves and the wind calmed her down, like always and Ilaa felt a faint happiness lingering within her. "Now what was that for?" Ilaa thought. Was it the chirruping of the birds or the game of the small squirrels that made her feel happy? Or was it the small victory that she had over her husband today when she denied to go to work in the fields and he couldn't but smile. But her happiness begun to disappear at the thought how every time she has to ask for a little respite, while the boys get it for free.
But this was not the case in the ancient Vedic days, when women were considered as a form of power and energy and were worshipped. She remembered from her few years of schooing she had received before her marriage that women back then had the right to choose their husbands in a gathering called Sayambhar and they were considered as the Queen or the Mistress of the house. The bringing up of a girl child and her education were taken great care of in those days as it was considered that without women, men could not progress. But her heart sinks every time she thinks of her daughter and her innocent desire to study as she watch her brothers to go to school, leaving her behind to do the household chores.
While Ilaa was knee-deep in her thoughts she heard a clicking sound and looked round and found the same group of young squirrels, playing with their siblings. "Do the parent squirrels think their girl-child to be inferior?" wondered Ilaa and the drifted off in watching them play. The way they ran about and jumped and leaped, climbed the trees twisting and tumbling made Ilaa feel delighted. Their playful free-spirited behavior made her become oblivius of all her woes. Just when she was keenly observing a squirrel carefully bury nuts under a tree, she heard her friend call.
"What Happened Ilaa? Why haven't you go to work in the fields today?" she asked.
"Because I don't like to work in the fields," she replied, in a care-free tone.
"Then why don't you do any other household works instead of sitting here and idling away your time?" her friend asked, as if they were the only work a woman should do.
"I don't like to do those either. Moreover, I have already completed today's work. Besides, I love to sit and spend, not waste, my free time here. It calms me down." Ilaa replied.
"But…"
You tell me, what made you leave the field and come here?" Ilaa asked to change the topic.
"Oh yes! I have nice interesting news for you," replied her friend excited.
"Really? What is it?" asked Ilaa, in her curious excitement.
"You know today I heard my husband speak to someone about the whites—umm, what they are called…ah! The Foreigners…" she replied and paused to make the suspense grow.
"About the Foreigners?" Ilaa asked, raising her eyebrows.
"Yes! He was saying that this year, the whole sellers from Paithan would come along with them," her friend replied adding more suspense.
"But why?" Ilaa asked, confused.
"I heard that this time, they too are going to buy our cottons and may even offer double as much the usual price," her friend replied with enlarged eyes.
"But what are they going to do with all our cottons?"
"Why, they would carry it with them to their land."
"But what will happen to our people then? What would they wear?" Ilaa asked worried.
"Don't worry about that, Ilaa. My husband said that out in their lands the foreigners have a machine that can do all the weaving on their own that we do here with our hands and the cotton that takes hours here to be woven takes only a few minutes there. So they would do the weaving part at their land and send the finished clothes back to our country for us to buy."
"But won't they be costly then?"
"Yes, may be. But then, they will be foreign clothes after all!"
"They are our cotton, after all!"
"Yes and so they are paying us double the amount, right. Anyway, forget these and tell me about your children," her friend replied with the intention to change the topic.
"They are fine. My husband said the teachers are quite impressed with my two sons. Only if they allowed my daughter too," Ilaa sighed.
"Oh! Come-on! Girls don't need education. What use will it be when she will go to her in-laws? Instead, teach her to do all the household chores right from the start and that really works," her friend advised, as per the common belief of the times.
"But I don't want my daughter to end up doing only the household chores like her mother and depend on her husband for every small desires. I want her to be self-dependent and not a puppet-in-hand of her in-laws," Ilaa shouted.
"Calm down, my friend, and try to understand this is exactly what the society expects from our girls—to serve others. One just has to accept it," her friend sighed.
"Wow! So we are the slaves to their expectations too," Ilaa mocked.
"Women are destined to live like this Ilaa. One just has to endure it."
"You know, back in the Vedic age, their destiny was different. They were regarded equally and sometimes greater than men. Their education was taken good care of as they were deemed as a great source of power, peace and knowledge. And now they are not even given the respect of a human being," Ilaa sighed again.
"Really? Were it so back then? Where did you learn this from?" asked her astonished friend.
"I used go to a school before my marriage. A teacher there used to teach us about Vedic Period. See this is why educating girls are so necessary. You don't even know what in reality our true rights are!" answered Ilaa.
"But then you got married off at 13 and that ended all. See this is what happens finally to our girls. Education is of no use after that," her friend tried to convince her.
"My education was meager, and so I couldn't make good use of it," Ilaa replied sadly.
"So do you want your husband to send you to school along with your daughter like the whites are doing nowadays—sending their daughters and even wives to school?" her friend mocked.
"See that's why they are so developed and rich. A country can never progress without the development of its women," replied Ilaa.
Just then, someone called her friend from behind and she rushed to help her husband with a quick good-bye to Ilaa.
Ilaa again dived in her deep pool of thoughts as she watched the waves dashing against the banks. In her wild thoughts, she imagined the waves as human desires and hopes that keep on rising and falling just like the waves. But they never die—they rise and fall and rise again, until finally they dash against the bank and break completely. She remembered how she had always dreamt of becoming a teacher when she grew up but was married off forcefully even before the process of growing up could be complete and then all her dreams smashed and she became nothing more than a wife, a daughter-in-law or a mother. But then, she reflected, when a dirty black soil can give rise to beautiful white bales of cotton, then why can't a half-literate ill-fortunate mother like her give birth to a well-educated self-dependent daughter? "Of course she can!" thought an excited Ilaa, as she again began to dream to fulfill her unfulfilled desires through her daughter.
With an excited face and a pair of brilliant twinkling eyes, she stood up, burning like the setting sun, with a new desire, a new hope. All the way back home, Ilaa thought of curving her daughter's life just as a plain white bale of cotton is woven into beautiful designs. Before entering her house, she looked at the setting sun which marked the end of the day and today it will mark the end of all her plights. Tomorrow would bring a new morning a new hope for her and her daughter.
As she entered her room, her daughter came running to greet her. "Mother where were you all day? I couldn't find you in the fields," she asked innocently.
Ilaa knelt down in front of her child and kissed her on the fore-head. And then hugging her replied, "I was sitting at the bank of the great river Godavari and you know what I saw there?"
"What mother?" her daughter asked curiously.
"I saw a mother sparrow teaching her babies how to fly. And do you know what I learned from them?"
"You learned something from the sparrows too, mother?" she asked, felling more curious.
"Yes, my child. When I saw the mother sparrow teaching both her male and female babies with equal care I learned from her how her mother should never discriminate between her children, especially when it comes to teaching as both the sex have an equal right to learn. So, my child, I have decided to talk to your father and then send you to school along with your brothers," Ilaa smiled.
"Really, mother? Will that really happen?" asked her daughter, jumping up and down in excitement. Ilaa replied by nodding her head and smiling.
That night, when her husband returned, Ilaa presented him with all his favorite foods, for years of experience have taught her that if you want anything fruitful from your husband you will first have to take great care of his stomach. This formula had often worked earlier and she hoped it worked this time as well.
"How was the food?" she began as soon as her husband entered their bedroom. The children have already fallen asleep by then.
"Why, very nice indeed," he replied, smiling to himself as he guessed where the conversation was heading.
"Then I want a gift from you," Ilaa replied immediately, and her husband couldn't but smile at his right guess.
"A gift? Well what could it be now? A saree or a new set of bangles," he asked, quite impressed with his guessing skills by now.
"None of those," Ilaa replied.
"Then, it must be a pair of new shoes you saw someone wearing today," he replied back, not agreeing to give up.
"No, it's something I saw the sparrows doing today," she replied, a bit coldly now.
"Now you want something that the sparrows have?" her husband tried to laugh but stopped mid-way seeing her unusually serious face. "Okay, fine. Tell me, what is it this time?" he asked, trying to figure out what it could be.
"Equal treatment for each of our children."
"I treat them all equally, Ilaa. What made you say…"
"No, you don't," Ilaa cut him short, "for if you had do then why don't you send our daughter to school along with our sons. She too has an equal right on education," Ilaa said firmly.
"Send girls to school! But… but… that's… that's not right, Ilaa," he stammered wondering what explanation to supply as to why it is really not right.
"Why isn't it right for us when it's alright for the sparrows? Weren't we—the humans—were supposed to be the intelligent and rational ones?" Ilaa argued.
"They don't have a society to think about, Ilaa, we have," her husband tried to reason with her.
"What society? We have created the society. If we change ourselves our thoughts will change too," Ilaa replied.
"But, how can we alone…," her husband began.
"If every individual say that they alone can't do anything then they will stay alone forever. We always start alone but end together. Let it begin from us and a lot more will follow later," she cut him short.
"But we have to maintain certain rules of life, Ilaa. It had been so from the beginning. We cannot forget our tradition," he replied.
"No, there were no such rule in the beginning for then how come the Vedic period gave rise to female scholars like Ambrni, Romasa, Gargi, Khona and lot others?" Ilaa argued. "In those days girls' education was given much priority. These rules came at a very later age and they were made just to satisfy the male ego by suppressing the women."
"Again your lectures on Vedic age. Ilaa, that was the past. Certainly they had some problem with the rules of those times and that's why they were changed. So, we mustn't argue on this but simply follow it," her husband replied firmly.
"Problem? What problem? The problem is this that a society can never progress without its girls and this bitter truth had really hit hard on the face of men and so they changed the rules. But I cannot follow any rule blindly without simply knowing the reason behind it," Ilaa replied, more firmly.
"Ilaa, why don't you understand…" he began again.
"Because I don't want to understand any silly logic of the society. I want my daughter to be well-educated and self-depended and not end up in chores like her mother and I will make this happen even if I have to stand alone for that."
So saying, she pushed the small closed window of her room open and at once a strong breeze rushed in filling the room with its coolness.