There’s a plan afoot. And I am not sure what to make of it.

My cook came in today and announced that she is thinking of getting her second daughter married. This is a lady (the cook that is) who at 35 is the grandmother of 2 children by her eldest child who is 18. She is also a widow. The daughter in question is 14 years old. I looked at her aghast. You are getting her married so early? She had her answer ready – “We don’t send the girls to her husband’s house now. We will send her after 5 years. (That’s a consolation – she will be middle-aged by then, I suppose, I thought). This will be just the ceremony so that all is fixed.” “But who is the boy?”, I asked. (Like that mattered.) It turned out that she had just given out the tip of the iceberg.

“A couple of boys from my village (in Bihar) have just come here to find work – I like one of them very much. We have all gone one by one and seen him last night without him knowing.”

Now, wait a minute. What was that? Why without him knowing?

“Well, we can’t tell him, we are interested in him marrying our daughter,” she said.

“How old is he?”, I asked suspiciously.

“Must be 17 or so. Just two years older than my daughter. They are perfect for each other,” she replied.

“17? But will his parents agree to get him married?”

“No, they won’t, but we can’t really tell them,” she said with a smile. “If we tell them, I will have to pay at least 2.5 lakhs for the marriage. Otherwise, I can manage the whole thing by paying just 1 lakh. Then, my headache is over.”

In fact, my head was just beginning to ache by listening to her elaborate plan. Another question struck me. “But why will the boy agree to marry without telling his parents? And he is only 17 – he will still have ties to them, surely?” I was proud of an angle she probably hadn’t thought about, the poor woman.

It turned out that I was the one who had been had.

“He won’t agree,” she said, sheepishly. “That’s why we won’t tell him.”

“Then!!?, I asked shocked.

“We’ll just have to take him by force, marry them in a temple and then leave him. Once they are married no one can do anything. His parents will also agree and he will also be okay.”

I sat down quickly before my spinning head completely did me in.

Did I just hear a complete plan of kidnapping a minor, coercing two minors to get married illegally and giving and receiving dowry? Any sane person can find at least 3 instances of breaking the law here. And several more instances of breaking trust, a complete lack of integrity and anything decent that we believe in. But why would this woman – who is otherwise a very nice and wise lady, a good cook, someone whose head is screwed on tight to her shoulders, contemplate such a thing?

I can guess why. Her daughter is pretty (she said – but what she meant was she is fair). She is probably worrying each day about leaving her alone at home while she works long arduous hours cooking in people’s homes. The house they live in, the society and company they keep, though largely made up of people from their own village, still cannot be trusted to leave her daughter unscathed. And she happens to have saved some money – which if not used now, could be frittered away on something before the said girl reaches the age of consent. And she is saving money by marrying without anyone’s consent. (which she doesn’t really have at this point – not 2.5 lakhs, that is).

I know the theory that we live in our own cocoon of safety, hygiene and relative happiness and constant cribs. But what is actually seething in the cauldron that is the world occupied by economically weaker sections of our society is quite startling.

To me, it sounds like the story of a Hindi movie which I have often scoffed at for not being in touch with reality. Maybe, just maybe they are actually based on some people’s real life stories.

Like the story of this desperate mother’s desperate plan to save the honor of her daughter and secure her future happiness.

 

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