Shared by a friend.
First of all, I want to share with the readers that this story is not just for women to draw inspiration but also for men to help fuel the passion for creativity in women around them-the passion which might have been suppressed due to social pressure or unfavorable circumstances.
This story is about a lady whom I know from my college days. Prabha was my roommate in campus hostel during my graduation in Bihar. She hailed from an orthodox middleclass joint family where education was not a word for women. Literacy for women in that family was restricted to just reading and writing of letters and knowing how to put down signature instead of thumb impression. Surprisingly, she was the first girl in that entire family to do graduation and that too after much struggle.
I would often see her reading some fashion and glamour magazines like Gladrags, Cosmopolitan, Femina etc. I thought that she might be quite fashion conscious but then her own outfit was very simple and there was no sign of her being a fashionista. One day I happened to see some pencil drawn sketches lying on her table and unbelievingly they were not just sketches but masterpieces. It seemed that models in designer dresses had turned live on white sheets. I asked her- what was that? She said that she wanted to be a fashion designer and had nurtured the dream right from her school days but then all of a sudden her face sunk in deep sorrow just like a damaged ship in unfathomable ocean. Perhaps the reality back at home reeled before her eyes. She knew that her parents and the older members would never allow her any further studies now and that too fashion designing-what is this? But somehow Prabha was still not able to kill that passion and undeterred by what was stored for her in future, she was on to get closer to her desire.
It was our final year of graduation and she seemed to be busy most of the time drawing some sketches or solving some sample question papers (those were definitely not graduation exam’s papers). One fine day, I found her filling NIFT entrance exam form. I was surprisingly happy for her. She told that she didn’t know what would happen to her in future but she just can’t stop nourishing her dreams. She finally took NIFT exam and was relaxed that she had given her best. After a couple of months, she got a letter from the institution saying that she had cleared the written exam and was called for a discussion cum interview. She hadn’t informed her parents about all this and didn’t intend to till she was finally selected. She asked me if I could accompany her to Delhi for the interview. I was more than happy to help her in any possible way. Finally we were on the venue for the interview. I wished her all the very best and prayed that God may help this struggler to see her dreams come true.
We were all busy preparing for our final year exam when on a calm Sunday she got a message from the warden that her brother had come to meet her. She came back after a few minutes and hurriedly started packing her bags. She told that her mother was not well and she had to go home. After a few days, I gave her a call at her residence. She cried badly stating that her mother had been detected with cancer. She told that her mother wanted her to get married soon and people at her home were looking for a groom. Her voice was choked with tears. She told that she would come now only for the exam. It seemed that God was playing a different game with her.
It was the first day of our final year exam. I was standing outside the examination hall when I saw Prabha coming towards the hall. I was surprised to see an altogether different Prabha. She was completely changed. She was wearing sari, lots of bangles, and a bindi on her forehead, a mangalsutra and a line of vermilion on the partition of her hair. She told that she was married 10 days back only and it was a haphazard affair. Her in-laws lives in Durgapur and her husband ran a small business there. While she talked about her marriage and her new life, I didn’t find a single line of happiness on her face. She seemed to be speaking mechanically without any enthusiasm which generally a newlywed has. Then I remembered that I had something to handover to Prabha. I took out a letter from my purse and gave it to her. It was the final selection letter from NIFT which I had received a few days back. Prabha was overwhelmed with joy to her see hard work bear fruits. She had been dreaming of this for years. She was again the same Prabha with dreamy eyes who stayed with me in the hostel. But perhaps this happiness on her face was momentary. The joy faded immediately. With teary eyes and melancholy face she said that it was now of no use to her,”Fate has been very rude to me”. She said that her new family is no less than her parents in being orthodox. In fact, they are more conventional in their thoughts. Women in that family couldn’t even think of doing anything else except for domestic chores, having babies and supporting their husbands.
A few months later, I talked to Prabha and got to know that she was expecting. As time passed, she got blessed with a daughter. Now, she was a dutiful wife and a mother. Everything seemed perfect in her life. But was actually everything perfect, dreams had been reduced to smithereens and passion had been forcefully buried by the circumstances.
7 years later…
I had lost Prabha’s contact number. The number she had given me had stopped working after sometime. Then one fine day I got a call from an unknown number, I picked up and she was Prabha, calling from Mumbai. She had managed to get my number from some common friend. We talked for hours. Then what I heard left me absolutely speechless.
Few months after Prabha’s daughter was born, her father- in- law passed away and in the next few months her mother in law also passed away due to heart attack then immediately family feud for property started among the brothers. Her two brother-in-laws were hell bent upon the division of property and then everything wasn’t good even in the family business. She along with her husband and child shifted to Kolkata as her husband decided to operate his business separately and peacefully but perhaps peace was not there in store for them at least in the near future. Their business didn’t kick off well in the new place and with some new people around and very soon it was in huge loss. All their savings were gone in clearing the debt, they were penniless and her husband couldn’t expect any help from his brothers. All hell broke loose when her husband was detected with some major lung problem and required an immediate surgery. Poor Prabha had to sell all her jewelry to arrange money but even that was not enough. She then approached a moneylender and borrowed money on interest. Surgery was successful but her husband couldn’t go out for work as he had grown very weak and moreover he was told not to move out and to avoid dust for some months. There was no food in house, the child cried and then all the conventions and traditions of the family was broken, the housewife had to take charge of running the family. She thought, she decided and she stepped out in search of a job and landed with a job in an export house. The salary was fine enough to somehow run the house. Her landlady was kind enough to keep her daughter till the time she was out on job. It took over a year for her husband to recover. In that mean time, Prabha had done quite well in that designing and merchandising job.
Her husband took a job in a manufacturing firm and now the family was in a better condition but that pathetic time which had already passed had completely changed her husband’s mindset. He was all praise and grateful to his wife who with her unwavering courage managed things so well. He had known that Prabha always wanted to be a fashion designer but her fault was that she was born in a family which couldn’t even think of supporting her dreams. It was circumstances and her penchant for designing that took her to an export house for a job. One fine day, Prabha’s husband brought a form and asked her to fill it. Prabha was surprisingly happy that her husband wanted her to apply again for NIFT entrance exam. All his support and she hit the jackpot perhaps she was born for it.
Prabha did her post graduation from NIFT, Kolkata. Her degree and the exposure at NIFT gave her good opportunity to work with some top designers. Both husband and wife had shifted to Mumbai for work. After gaining experience and some good bucks, she felt that an entrepreneur hidden in her was jumping and shouting loud to come out. She quit her job and took loan to set up her own export. She had all the things right in place, her contacts in the fashion world, money, skills and above all her great supporter always by her side, her husband.
Today Prabha’s export house is doing extremely well and her own line of clothing is already in market. Off late she has been thinking of giving a shot at Lakme Fashion Week. I hope, soon I would see my friend unveiling her new designer wears in the fashion show with some top models walking the ramp and flaunting her dresses. It won’t be wrong if we twist the Shakespearean adage and put it this way. ”Multitasking and Unflinching spirit-thy name is woman”.
