Renuka was sitting in the canteen and eating a Samosa. A young lady sat beside her. Her name was Sanju. She was eating a Samosa hurriedly. On seeing that, Renuka could sense that she was hungry.

Sanju was frustrated. She said to Renuka, "What do these useless people think of themselves? They give just a small packet of tomato sauce with a samosa worth ₹10. How can we eat the whole samosa with so little sauce?"

Renuka sighed and Sanju continued to eat with a sulky face.

"By the way, I heard that you are getting married. When is the wedding?"

"The wedding is after fifteen days."

"Won't you invite us?"

"Actually, we have only invited our relatives to the wedding."

"Okay then. Anyways, how is the groom?"

"He is handsome and he works in a private company. What about you? When are you getting married?"

"My family members are looking for a groom. Let's see what the future holds for me."

Sanju winked at Renuka and went to throw her paper plate in the dustbin. She went to the washroom and washed her face. Then she took out a handkerchief from her pocket and rubbed her face. While doing so, she gazed at her reflection on the mirror. With the known maiden of the unknown world, she exchanged a glance. The lady screamed at her face, "Do not dream high, witless creature. Do not do that."

"My family members are looking for a prospective groom. Let's see what the future holds for me."

Those were the exact words she had said to Renuka.

Marriage - it was a dream of Sanju which would perhaps never come true.

Sanju was the daughter of a rich businessman. She was in the last year of her college when she fell in love with Akash, a high school teacher. Her love was reciprocated and she started building a castle of dreams. Akash loved her. Truly or not, I do not know. But I do know that she loved him more than herself. She did not want a lavish life, but a simple life with a government school teacher in a simple house.

Her dreams were nearly shattered when her parents got to know about the affair. They forcefully brought her to Mumbai. Her mother refused to talk to her and her father said, "How dare you choose a beggar to be my son-in-law? You are my daughter. Have you no shame? What will the people say if you get married to a school teacher?"

They locked her up in a room and arranged her marriage with a wealthy man's only son. "My daughter will live like a queen," her mother said to her father.

The day of the wedding arrived. The groom was sitting in the wedding altar but the bride was nowhere to be found. Sanju and Akash were on their way to the railway station from where they would escape to Bangalore, the city where their love had started.

But as fate could have it, they did not reach the railway station. Sanju's castle of dreams collapsed right in front of her, when she saw that her father's minions had stopped them on their way. An influential man he was. Could he not hire men to go after them? They thrashed her lover and left him on the deserted road. Then they took her forcefully to her father.

Her father slapped her hard and said, "The groom has left because he did not want to marry a girl who ran away with her lover. Ungrateful girl! How could you run away like this? From now onwards, you will not leave this house. Within one year, you will get married to the man of my choice. That's my final decision. And one more thing. If you take that Akash's name again, he will be dead for sure."

But look at the turn of events! The arrogant father fell from his throne of pride. He went bankrupt and lost his entire property. Unable to show his face to the world, he committed suicide. With a school-going brother, widowed mother and an ailing grandmother, she started living in a rented house. Her job was the only source of income for her entire family. The meagre amount of money she received in lieu of her hardwork, had to be spent on the four members of her family who were dependent on her. There was no escape. What increased the burden on her shoulders were her mother's taunts. "Ill fated girl! You were the one who cursed your father, right? Your curse led him to death," she used to say.

It had been three years. Akash was married to another school teacher and had two children. And where was she? What was she doing? If only her father had allowed her to run away on that fateful night, she could have avoided such a life.

(That evening)

Renuka reached home and found her sister crying.

"Naina? What happened? Why are you crying?"

"I don't have any good dress for the wedding."

"What are you saying? Didn't Baba buy a lehenga for you the day before yesterday?"

"That lehenga is not good. It's too simple. How can I wear that at the wedding?"

"Why can't you? What's the problem with that lehenga?"

"Don't I have a choice? Can't I dislike a dress? I don't want to wear that."

"There is nothing wrong with that dress. If you don't want to wear that, you can wear one of your old dresses. That's final. We are not going to buy a new dress for you."

Renuka left the room with anger. She could not understand why Naina always had such demands. Naina always wanted more than they could afford. Her constant nagging and stubborn nature was extremely disliked by Renuka.

She switched on the fan and changed her clothes. When she opened the almirah to keep the money from her purse, she decided to count the total amount of money that she had with herself. She started counting the money that she had kept inside her almirah the previous day. She knitted her eyebrows while counting the money. She counted them thrice.

She kept the money inside the almirah and went to her mother who was working in the kitchen.

"Aai, I gave you some money yesterday and asked you to keep it with yourself. I also had some money with me. I clearly remember that I kept the money in my almirah. Today, five hundred rupees are missing."

"Oh yes, Priya wanted to buy earrings. So, I gave it to her."

"Earrings? But why? Doesn't she have earrings?"

"What is the problem? She just wanted to buy a pair of earrings. She was crying for the whole day as she did not have good earrings to wear at the wedding. That's why I gave her the money."

"How can you do that, Aai? I kept the money there. I work hard for the whole day to save money. It's my money. How can you give her the money without asking me?"

"So it's your money? So whatever I did for you till now was worthless? I gave birth to you. I brought you up. And now I need to ask you before taking money. It has become 'your' money now. Do you know how many sacrifices I made for you? You have forgotten everything."

"Aai, try to understand......"

"How can I understand? You are an educated woman who earns. What am I? You know everything. Why would you even need someone like me?"

Renuka's mother left the kitchen in tears.