Empowered

"Aama?"

Tara murmured as she woke up. She just had a bad dream about something disastrous about to happen. Tara got up from her bed and went to the kitchen to wash her face. She didn't have a toothbrush or even a pot to warm some water to wash her face in the month of poush, when it is generally cold. After freshening up with what she had, Tara looked around the small kitchen, which was barely a kitchen because of its poor conditions. Walls were coming off, a broken down chulo to cook food if they got lucky and still practically nothing in there to fill up the space. Her tummy was growling with hunger; she hadn't had a good meal in the last few days since her parents couldn't really work because of the chilly weather. It was even colder than usual these days. Tara envied those rich people who had a good roof over their house, warm clothes, blanket to sleep with and heaters and still took it all for granted. After looking around and checking every little nook of the house, she managed to find some leftover tortillas which we usually save to feed the dogs. Wow, Tara thought. Either my parents left it for me or they were just too blind to find this delicacy.

After making the most out of the stale tortillas, Tara really began getting worried about her parents. "They usually tell me where they're going or leave after I wake up, I wonder if something's wrong..." Tara pondered. It was her 12th birthday and she wanted to meet her parents the first thing in the morning. That's when she heard a lot of shouting and murmuring outside her house. She draped her mother's shawl around her shoulders which was torn in places and headed out the cracked door. Just a few yards away, she saw a huge crowd and a lot of murmurs. Tara squeezed in through the crowd and what she saw there would bruise her for life; her beloved parents were dead! Everyone was patting the young girl's back and showing pity on her, 'What a loss for this helpless little girl...' But Tara was oblivious to the chatter going on around her. She felt the earth disappear beneath her feet, her parents...WERE DEAD!! She wanted the ground to open up and swallow her. How could it be, since just last night her parents were snuggling up to her and asking Tara what she wanted for her birthday?! Tara had replied with a chuckle and had asked them to spend the whole day with her. Her parents had wanted to give her something special and in order to do that they, of course, had to work extra hours for it.

Tara's father, in her 10th birthday, had given her a necklace, which had been in the family for years and they believed they couldn't sell it because apparently the spirits would be angry. Their family might not have been able to live like most people but they were still the happiest. Cuddling up to each other, laughing and making their hut together, which had so many memories carved into it... Now what would happen to her hut? Surely since Tara was underage they would send her to some legal guardian and break her house down. But she didn't care about any of that at the time. All she knew that she had gotten the worst birthday present that she would ever get.

You see, although Tara's parents couldn't send her to a real school they taught everything she needed to know at home. Her father used to make her understand how nature can teach us many important lessons which we people simply cannot. He also reminded her to follow the right path of life. Her mother taught her all about housework, chores and other basic things which at the time mothers usually teach their daughters for life after marriage but her mom taught Tara about everything so she wouldn't have to depend on other people for basic needs. They even taught her that if she feels like something is wrong or if she's being treated unfairly, she has the right to speak up. Tara parents had always wanted for her to lead a better life than they did. Her biggest motivators were her own parents. She'd always wanted to be an Independent and Empowered young woman but this was not the way she wanted to be. She wanted her parents on her side, cheering her on while she proudly stood there, to make her parents raise their heads and proudly say that 'Tara is our daughter' but with them gone, she felt hopeless, helpless, depressed and couldn't think straight.

Some people then pulled the shocked Tara up and dropped her off at her aunt Sheetali's place. But unlike her name, Sheetali was a very short-tempered old lady. The second she saw Tara, she started shouting profanities at her and her late parents, "You all were a bunch of scoundrels! Ever wonder where your maternal grandmother is? Guess what, your mother left us just to marry that good-for-nothing poor father of yours!" Sheetali paused for a breath, "I always knew he had bad intentions like all poor and worthless peasants do and I was right—your father decided to steal some of the very important jewels of the Chaudhary family and now... he's dead. And that's exactly why your mother died too—she decided to follow the old fool along." Tara couldn't bear to hear insults about her parents, especially after they just died. But what could she even do? She was just a 12 year-old girl who felt like she didn't even have the right to speak. She felt really angry at god. Her parents were dead, her own aunt despises her and she has nowhere else to go.

Sheetali let Tara spend the night at the barn outside where the cows stayed. Even the cow, Mali was feeling bad for Tara. The whole night she tossed and turned replaying her parents death, their body splattered with blood, lying there senseless to the world, senseless to people carrying them, senseless to their daughter's cries and screeches. Tara thought she wouldn't be able to sleep the whole night but somehow, she did.

The next morning, Tara woke up to the sound of Mali mowing. She lazily sat up and stroked the cow's head. Tara thought for a second that everything that happened yesterday was just a dream, a nightmare that she woke up from. Her parents will pop up from the door and hug her; She wants to believe they will. But they won't... Because she knows they're dead. Tara knows that one for sure because Sheetali thuli ma, rushes to the barn and grabs Tara's hand, yanking her out the door. "Now, there are some important guests coming, so you better behave yourself in front of them or else I'll make sure you'll not even have a barn's roof over your head, missy." Sheetali said in a menacing tone. "You got me?"

"Yes, thuli ma." Tara said in a plain way, not caring about anything.

Tara spent rest of the morning feeding Mali and playing with her. During mid-afternoon, Sheetali came to fetch Tara for the meeting with the apparent "guests". When she entered the room she saw that the people there looked so... sophisticated. They were draped in either extremely classy or overly flashy clothing from head to toe. It was all kind of new to Tara, because in their village, even if a person buys a new sock, the whole village worships them like crazy. Tara felt extremely awkward and simply nodded at them. One of them then got up and asked Sheetali, "Do you think she'll do everything as she's told to?" The guy wearing a suit and glasses asked the old woman.

"Yes, Yes, of course. She'll be yours to command. Unless you... backed out of the deal, Mr. Rajbanshi?"

"Of course not, we are short on people. We got to make the most out of it, right people?" The man calmly and deliberately replied.

Several people behind him nodded. Including Sheetali, who was sweating from intensity of the situation.

"Then let's go."

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