Small town girl

“Hi! Going for some tuitions, are you?” The lady, dressed in red and golden saree asked when she saw Richa coming out of the house. She was struggling to balance her bicycle on the two steps outside the door, along with a school bag on her shoulders. The lady looked so beautiful. She was probably going to attend someone’s wedding and was waiting for her friend, a neighbor of the girl.

“Yes, I am preparing for the engineering entrance examination,” Richa said proudly. She must have thought that this is her moment of shining in front of this beautiful woman. Richa was an average-looking teenager. Her tender physique was almost always hidden behind a baggy dress and brown eyes behind spectacles.

Her self-confidence was shattered the very next moment when the lady said, “My brother is an engineer. You know, he studied really hard to get into the topmost college in the country. He never attended any social gatherings. But I saw you at yesterday’s party. You better work hard if you want to study in a nice college, else the regional colleges are all that you will get.”

Richa gave her best smile and went ahead. She appreciated such inspiring advice, but only when it came from the horse’s mouth, not from its relatives. The lady’s brother was a very good-looking guy. She had a crush on him and she dreamed of marrying him someday. This too was a common thing about this place. A girl dreamt of marrying a boy from the same street, even if she had huge career ambitions.

She had never met him in person though and now she didn't even wish to meet him. 'He must be even more arrogant,’ she was thinking aloud when a typical street Romeo brushed her hand and very confidently winked at her. Richa did not and could not react because this species is in abundance in her town and judgemental uncles and aunties, who take a girl's reaction as wrong were also not on the verge of extinction.

It was a motivation class at her coaching center today where the mentor was listing the benefits of studying hard and getting into the top colleges. He said something about getting a job in metropolitan cities or abroad, and her mind again wandered to the lady she met an hour ago. Would it not be better to go far away from a place where people judge you all the time? Would it be better to move to a place where they don't brag about their achievements in life, and definitely not of their relatives? She didn't know about her friends, but this motivation class worked for her like a charm.

She went back home in an excited state of mind, to find her mother busy in the neighbor's kitchen. She could sense that something was wrong. It took her an eternity to get her mother's undivided attention. She informed Richa that a 2-year-old boy, who lived 3 houses away on the same street had jumped into a pot of hot milk. His grandmother is a heart patient and must not know about it until the boy is back from the hospital. So these divine women took the responsibility of taking care of the grandmother by organizing a rushed kitty party for all the old ladies on the street. 

Everyone except the grandmother knew, so the ladies were pretending hard to be happy and not sympathize with her. It is a tough job for them, to not speak about a tragedy and give their valuable suggestions. It made Richa happy and sad at the same time. She is not feeling so bad about her town now. She almost had a change of heart and might even feel nostalgic when she gets admitted to a college in another city. The dream of marrying the lady's brother also resurfaced, provided he is as beautiful from within as he looks.

She started helping her mother prepare snacks. When she went to the old ladies to serve them tea, she saw them as their best-animated selves. She understood that the grandmother would now not suspect anything at all, because the awkward small talk zone is gone and all these ladies have now entered the gossip zone.