Literature repeats itself?

When time gets tough and all leave your side, the only people that you can rely on is your family, though it doesn't happen too often these days, at least in the times that Nirmala's saga was based, families did stick together in crisis, or so is my assumption. Nirmala's family did come to her rescue when her marriage came to a sudden stop, but was it for her good?

Kalyani was bent on getting her daughter married no matter what happened.. she could at no cost have a unmarried girl in her home for long.. even though her age was only 16! and adding to the misery was lack of funds. Kalyani's favorite Panditji would bring matches from near and far, but they all asked for money.. some thousand, some three thousand..but I should say there were some interesting ones that seemed a reasonable, like a zamindar's son, 20 years of age.. good looking; then there's an owner of a printing press, 18 years old.. for a minute there I thought, may be there is something better in store for her, like the famous saying goes, 'Jo hota hai, acche ke liye hota hai'...But I think Premchand (the author) was in chronic depression or was in a sadistic mood of making all others depressed when he penned Nirmala so he continued to add to Nirmala's woes. Kalyani was a very concerned mother, when it came to her sons' future, their studies but wasn't so concerned when it came to her daughters' lives, the ill-fated girl child syndrome! I can't believe the lady gave up good suitors just for a thousand rupees.. Perilous times those were, only for women though.

Finally the lucky one.. a certain lawyer named Munshi Totaram, I am sure the author has some good explanation for the choice of names (remember Rangili?). And so Nirmala was to wed the Lawyer who was more than double her age and had three kids!!! Deja-vu? yes its a la Devdas. Come to think of it, Nirmala was in the same position as Paro was in Devdas, not just that Munshiji's first son was a year or two younger than Nirmala, doesn't that sound like Mahender, Thakur's eldest son in Devdas? Similarity ends there though.. Nirmala did not have any childhood friend providing 'love-relief' in her life . Nirmala resigned to her fate, accepted Munshi Totaram as her pati parmeshwar.. well at least she's married now, I thought as I closed the book for the day, but on an after thought is being married to a man who is good enough to be your father better than not marrying at all? If I had a choice I'd choose latter unless he's insanely rich! or looks like Sean Connery or for that matter even George Clooney. But in this story, the women don't have choice as a part of their vocab!

Cruel Destiny

ESP.. extra sensory perception.. we all have it.. the sinking feeling, the knots in the stomach.. just when something really rotten is going to happen.. Nirmala did feel that when she went to sleep the night that Udaybanulal stepped out of his house in fury, but resigned to the fact that she was to get married, can't help it.. and made her mind up to face the music! You might argue though that process of marriage is anxiety prone.. and definitely if you don't know whom you are going to get married to! But this wasn't a case of cold feet... something happened that night that changed the entire course of life for Nirmala... her dad died!

How he did I ain't going to reveal here.. lets just say.. lonely lanes aren't safe for a lawyer! The news devastated the family.. but more than anyone it was Nirmala's loss.. why?.. I'll explain. When Udaybanulal's news of death reached the next village, to her would-be-in-laws, they were in a dilemma as to what to do about the marriage.. until the fated day that a letter arrived from Nirmala's house, that Kalyani had written, pleading the in-laws to continue with the marriage as much money has been spent already on the preparations.

The messenger who carried the letter to the in-laws was sent away and babu-saheb as he is known popularly and his wife Rangili discussed the marriage.. Rangili.. though her name sounds very filmi.. was not the typical saas-type. She supported Kalyani and said.. they have done a lot, we should get our son married.. but Babusaheb had second thoughts.. devious ones at that. 'Udaybanulal is dead, there is no one in his house who can earn.. until he was alive there was at least hope of getting dowry.. now that he is dead.. these people can't give us any more, why can't we get our son married into a richer family, after all my friend Udaybanulal is no more.. so there is no obligation'. At this point of the story, I thought the father-in-law should be shot dead! What was he doing.. ruining a girls life with his menial thoughts about dowry, not even dowry.. extra dowry! I know these were times when the custom of dowry was eating up the very institution of marriage, but one can't help thinking that a family who had settled marital ties would then sever them, in a time of utter confusion and despair just for a sake a few thousands of rupees. Where was his conscience.. and so I waited for the verdict to be given to the messenger.. but the sane ma-in-law.. with her filmi name said "Lets wait for our son to come, let him be the final judge, left to your means, you'll disregard the condition the poor family is in, the relashionship we were to establish with them, all that matters to you is the money"..

I cheered for the lady..I hoped and waited for the knight in shining armor to come and rescue Nirmala from the depths of misery.. The groom-to-be comes home and is made to read the letter from Kalyani. His mother, the lovely lady that she is, looks at her son, half expecting him to be tearful after reading the heartening letter. A cold glance is what she gets in return.. she asks him.. 'So what do you want to do son? Should we not continue our alliance with Udaybanulal's family?' The son answers, gives the verdict.. 'I'd rather marry a girl that can give me more dowry, you see I am just out of college, I need time to get a job, till then I need money, what I get from this house is not enough.. now that we have an opportunity to move away, we should do so'..and I thought the father should be shot! The son's worse! Poor Rangili stuck in a family like that.. But I must agree, this was unlike any other saas-bahu type saga I had ever seen or read, the apparent ma-in-law was the sanest in the family!

So the messenger was sent back to Nirmala's house, with her destiny in denial...many a times when things go bad.. and you can't really explain why, you feel like looking up at the invisible forces of nature and crying out loud.. why me? .. I pictured Nirmala in the very same frame...just when she was ready to commit her self to marriage, it broke!