A for Anamika

Today The A-Z Challenge starts.I took it up for one reason only. Because I am a bloody glutton of punishment. But now I have and will live through this commitment. I am creating short stories or rather snippets of stories which I will later develop into an anthology. Still a bit unsure of it and would really welcome your feedbacks.A special thank you to  Arlee Bird for bringing this to us. I’m so looking forward to this month of April.

Name of the Flower: 

Acacia

Symbolic Meaning: 

Beauty in Withdrawal

Name of the Woman

Anamika

Her Association with the Flower

Hidden strength and withdrawl

Anamika

Aanamika – neighbor, childhood friend and advisor of Rewa. Her Bestie during her college days. Always pushing Rewa to excel. Her one-woman-army cheerleader.

There was a time when Rewa wanted to marry and settle down with a guy she had met at college. She was doing her Masters then and reaching the finishing line did not look so peachy. She was in love after all. When Anamika heard about her plan, she became a screeching banshee. Screaming at her, pushing her to her limits and even begging her not to marry. But it was her threat of permanently kicking Rewa out of her life that did the trick. Rewa, went ahead and finished her Masters and got a job at London University as a researcher.
Rewa returned home after two years and much to her surprise did not see Anamika come running out to meet her, as she had always done. Rewa’s mom saw her looking longingly towards their neighbor’s house.

“She is married now.” Mamma told Rewa quietly.

Rewa was stunned. Anamika was married and that too without informing her? How come even her own mother had not told her?

Her mom understood her silent question. “Anamika asked me not to. It would’ve disturbed you, and you were all alone there.”

After  a night of fitful slumber, Rewa went to Anamika’s house hoping to get some answers. Anamika was not there and her family seemed a bit uncomfortable answering Rewa’s questions. Dejected Rewa, left the house only to come face to face with Anamika, and a man in his late forties, obviously her husband,. Rewa was stunned. Anamika’s silent plea in the look she gave her, touched her heart. She kept quiet.

The Hubby left them to chat, and finding comfort in their usual haunt, they leaned against the boundary wall, and stood silently for some time. Anger bubbled inside Rewa.

“Why?” she challenged Anamika. “Why the hypocrisy of giving me a speech on education and then doing the same thing you stopped me from doing?”

“Because, you had a choice and I did not,” Anamika told her quietly. “I couldn’t tell you before it happened because even I didn’t know.”

“Didn’t know you were getting married? Or that you were getting married to an old man?” Rewa could not control the acid in her voice.

Anamika looked at her steadily, her head slightly lifted, her small fragile frame held proudly together. “My parents took me to Dharward, their village. My grandparents had arranged the marriage and they made sure no-one told me about it, since they knew that I didn’t want to marry so soon. Everything was pre-planned and when I protested, my mom threatened to commit suicide if I didn’t agree.”

She stopped for a minute before looking steadily at Rewa. “What would you have done if you were in my place?”

Rewa gasped. This only happened in the movies, didn’t it? But the big question was what would she have done, if her own parents had done the same thing.

That night, Rewa added a new entry into her diary.

21st June 10

Dear Diary,
I pray to God that I will never blackmail my kids in the future. Especially, if I have a baby girl, who wanted to be educated and free….like Anamika.

And then, Rewa quietly pressed an Acacia flower between the pages of her diary—that she had picked from Anamika’s house.