Making right of a wrong

I sat there on the beautiful veranda of a pretty ancient patriarchal home, the wind blew with a tinge of Tulsi and some wild flowers the names I never knew. I could not tell...

The storm is over or yet to come or is it a damn calm before the typhoon. It was not easy for any one of us especially Sharada my sister, who wore her large red bindi, her nagha phata necklace made of emerald green and gold, and her beautiful face, lotus petal-like eyes, and the proud Visage... everything that made her a woman of class ...very unlike me who had my hair trimmed, my nose with hoops, various piercings and strange tattoos ...but both of us were not the topic today ..it was our baby girl ..she was and is still who just has come out ..yes come out in before a large mob of furious relatives ,,,

I did not know how my sister was going to react. Anamika has really dropped the bombshell. The boy who came to see her and his parents had just walked out. It started raining a bit. I looked at her brothers my sister's elder sons, and they were so dear to me once, both settled and now behaving like aliens, whose wives, were pretending to be sad but musing in mind about the huge ancestral inheritance now they could acquire if the black sheep is thrown out...

When I got up and started to say a word or two to loosen up the situation, my brother-in-law retorted "don't you ever speak Neetu, you are the first one who started it all, you are Outspoken, your irreverence to culture is on your look itself ..and now you don't give a sermon."

Vinay my husband looked at me with anger but a sort of helpless love that he had for me. My brother-in-law..now was turning to Vinay ".Don't you read what your wife writes, her reckless pen and attitude are now poisoning our children too. You are lucky, she never conceived..."

I wanted to fix him for good, but my heart just ached with punches taken without giving back. I wanted to see my sister ..who had closed her room for a while now. I knew she was too traditional to even when she was chairperson of a women's empowerment organization and a doctor.

Is one's gender a stigma...I would have asked her. When Anamika told me she is asexual ...I knew she was not meaning that and that she meant much more when she told me she is in love with Shivani. I could see Shivani sitting in corner of the dark shade alone, not knowing what was in store for her or Anamika. Still, she had the courage to walk in to spill it out before it got worse and destroy everything they had ... at least according to me.

Is love a crime, is one's existence one's inclination a perversion a disease a sin, I wanted to ask my sister ..but here I was the family's most hated odd one out and my presence even was not welcome. A woman with a brain and pen was dangerous ...did dad repent the way he brought me up...I doubt. But my sister was shut in the room.

I saw Anamika, lost in her thoughts, packing her belongings, my soul churned, being oneself and saying it out is not a mistake. Anamika was always best, best in everything she did, she had the grace her family always shouted in vanity ..but why did I even not recognize the pressure of ocean brewing in her soul not knowing what she is ...getting scared of society ...getting scared of parents, siblings, friends not able to understand what she is seeing in the mirror is not who she is and not able to reconcile with the stranger in her own skin, gulping down her pain, the guilt and shame overpowering her.

I took hold of her shoulder and whispered baby girl, she hugged me tight as though in a fit and wept ...am I wrong ..did I fail everyone.

"No, no...I told her there is nothing wrong with being who you are. It is you. Your body your mind heart and soul honey bunny ..."

I could hear my brother-in-law shouting my husband Please take your wife and leave ..and Vinay for the first time ..said ..it is her house too, she has the same rights as Sharada di.

I" know I am going to lose it all," she was referring to her civil service posting that is to happen, and this is going to ruin it all, a lesbian IAS officer is not yet a truth that our society can so easily swallow. It would shake the grounds of realities. Altered and confused. But I knew Anamika would make the best official who would bring justice, as she knew justice being thwarted hurts, human rights denied burns ...

Anamika could be locked up in her room. Shivani could be thrown out and I knew the power and influence our family had which could threaten the girls and get rid of their fascination as the family put it and showed it under the carpet forever.

What different I could do here..How would I establish it is okay to be in your own skin, to be who you are you identify yourself to be. Was that not the great question sages asked who am I ..knowing one is the greatest knowledge and it illuminates one.

The rain befell on earth, quenching the dryness making it moist and nurturing ...it had the aroma of nature and in nature, every atom vibrated with its own frequency not questioned not challenged not accused of one's feelings.

Anamika changed, during her IAS training where she found Shivani, she felt she could smile authenticity naturally and know joy as it is, she learned she could love to be loved ...and here she came out now.

Before the girls left the courtyard I saw my sister come out, in her silk saree embroidered with silver her anklets tingling ..as ever .while she walked and I admired...she caught her daughter ...and made her close to her heart...

My brother-in-law...was shouting the sons could not hide their fury and their wives, fuming. But my sister was there holding Anamika...

For what she is despite our relatives in total bewilderment...

She kissed Anamika's forehead and just caught Shivani with the other hand. There was no abandoning, no contempt ..in mother's world ..no passion of hate or crime of honor..but acceptance.

Sharada was a wife mother and social figure, whatever was asked of her ..but here she made the difference.

Anamika was and is our baby ..her choices, who she is her truth and here we won ...Sharada looked at me and my sister smiled at me and tears swelled in both of our eyes ..making her wrong a right this time...She saw me walk out, I always admired Sharada...and I now know she did realize me and the fire in me ...which we shared..people who want it different for all, love harmony and peace.