Nirmala by Premchand

My first ever hindi novel, and it had to be a soap opera style! Well for all those people who love the saas-bahu sagas on air whether truly or for comic relief, you are in for a treat! Although this makes a little more sense than the ones aired.. and well this does have an ending.. and you'll get to read it within this year, unlike the K-series that run for generations! And no! there are no 20 year leaps.. so try not be disappointed too much!!

Nirmala is a story set in the 1960's Benares, of a poor little girl by the same name, who has the world falling apart and the sky falling on her too.. and yet she lives through it all misery after misery and still hopes and waits for those fabled "better days" to come by.

Nirmala is the eldest daughter of a small time lawyer, Udaybanulal, and the story begins with preparations for her marriage. Nirmala has a sister, Krishna and two younger brothers. Marriage for girls in general is a big event, its one of those things in life that many girls look forward right from 'teenhood'. Ahem.. pardon my language, but could not find a better word for late childhood and early teenage! So getting back to the story, Nirmala felt nothing like that, she felt desolate, disheartened and sorrowful. She's just over 16, not yet mature to get into a marital relationship, and naively thinks - 'why are my parents so bent upon driving me out of the house? Am I so bad that they are so enthusiastic about driving me away' . In a conversation with her younger sister atop the terrace over her house she complains..'why are we girls treated this way? Its as though we don't elong to a house anymore, the moment we age, they think of marrying us off to someone as though we were a burden on them' .

Thinking of which I wondered.. do women of the current generation also think the same way? May be my question is more directed towards the parents..do parents still feel a girl child is a burden to the society? We are living in an age where a girl can go out earn as much and take care of her parents as much the sons do. There are many educated families that send their daughters out into the world to live their lives.. but do all of them give them the freedom of choice when it comes to marriage? Not just over the guy they want to marry, but the time they want to get married? And ofcourse the time they want to bear kids! Well I wont go too deep into that.. but looking at my friends and their families, I would say.. nothing has changed from Nirmala's time to now.. Its all the same, girls are still considered a burden.. and have to get married as soon as possible!

I'll leave the story at that note, more will come soon!