In the blazing heat of may, she set about playing with the smaller children of her neighbourhood; a game of marbles which was common to their class and age. They called it 'Kancha', because of the marbles being made of glass. As she aimed and hit perfectly, the kids around her shouted,
"Wah Didi, What a shot. You hit a perfect teench."
"Alrite, enough praises. Shell out two antis now. I am yet again going to be a winner."
They continued to play until sunset, when it was time for her to head back home for dinner. She had thought that given the time of her return the food must be ready to eat, but she was mistaken. Instead of hot chapattis she was greeted with a cane.
Sanjana's aunt started to berate her while hitting her continuously.
"Is this the time to come back home? Do you think you are the queen of some place? You are such an ungrateful wretch. Even I have to work 12 hrs a day so that I can feed your sorry behind. We are not rich enough to feed our own children and an orphan on top of that. Here we are providing food and shelter to orphans and all you can think of is eat and play. Who is going to cook dinner? Who is going to wash the dishes? Everyone is hungry and waiting. You better get to it and finish everything in half an hour, or there wont be any dinner for you today."
Crying furiously, rubbing her sore spots where the cane had hit her, Sanjana started to peel the potatoes for dinner.
She belonged to a lower class family which lived in poor conditions. Her mother had died when she was six months old and was then abandoned by her father. The only person to love her was her grandmother. Her father had remarried and moved to another city cutting all ties from his mother and brothers.
While kneading the dough for the chapattis Sanjana cursed her life. It was probably better to have died than to live a loveless life. She felt another presence and saw her grandmother, her dadi, working the dish ear s. She wanted to hug her and cry while hiding in the folds of her saree. However, They both knew that if the half hour mark crossed without the work, her chachi will hold true to her words and Sanjana will have to sleep empty stomach. Sanjana gave a forlorn look to her dadi who looked sympathetically back, and started to roll the chapattis.
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"Why do you evade all this work? You know very well that If you dont do it in time, you will get beaten up and will still have to do all the house work eventually." Sanjana was lying next to her dadi in bed late at night, while she talked to her.
"But I dont want to do housework. I am only 14. Vinni didi is 17, why is she not forced to do the work along with me? Only because she is chachi's own daughter doesnt mean her rules should be any different than mine. She is even allowed to go to a job for work." asked Sanjana.
"O my bawli Sanjana. When will you understand this. You dont have any parents. No other can love you like your own mother." said dadi in a light manner.
"But then what happened to my mother. You always sidestep this question of mine. Today Im not going to leave you until you tell me where she is." Sanjana crossed her hands and sat straight as if adamant to derive an answer out of dadi.
"Aww, My sanjana is sulking for no reason. Come I'll put some turmeric on your wounds. That will heal them. And then I'll sing you your favourite lullaby so you can sleep."
"No Dadi, I want to hear about my mother. I wont be able to sleep anyway. You know I'm afraid of dark."
"Some other day Sanju. When the time is right, I'll tell you about your mother myself. Please for now, come give me a hug and try to sleep. You still have school tomorrow."
With a huge groan, Sanjana gave in to dadi's demands. That is what she had been doing all her life, fulfilling the demands of her so called family, whether they were said kindly or put across as an order.
