So it happened when I was young , just out of school .I had been a bright and disciplined young girl in school always abiding by rules .My teachers had loved me for being a sincere and earnest student .
College, on the other hand was a completely different world to me .Here there was no one to check your uniform .You could wear what you wished .Girls could wear small skirts and let their hair loose .Nobody took you seriously and neither expected you to be serious .I soon formed my own small gang of girls .
There were four of us and out of this lot ,Ruby was the most adventurous and outgoing .She was the daughter of a bureaucrat and hardly gave a damn to anything .I was half-perplexed and half in awe of her. So one day when Ruby proposed that all four of us bunk our class to go for a movie,I was scared and at the same time thrilled .
This was something against authority and something quite novel .I was filled with a sense of revelry and abandon as we sat inside the dark theatre , munching and giggling away.
I had been thrilled but when we sat in the auto-rickshaw and the theatre faded out of sight , I was filled with guilt .My Father had high hopes from me, I was the eldest and also the most promising child in the family .He was very proud of me .I was also scared .What if somebody saw me at the theatre and then told my family ?How it would embarrass my family that their eldest and most responsible child was found loitering and having fun at a theatre watching an English movie when she was supposed be at college studying for her degree .I came from a very humble background .My Father had taken adversity in his stride to raise us in a city and provide us with good education and amenities .Amenities that he never had had the luxury to use when he himself was a child .He had started earning in his childhood itself and never really had a proper childhood .he had always been my hero , my inspiration .How could I let him down after he had gone through so much for us?
These thoughts kept tormenting me as I said goodbye to my friends and walked my way back home .I was late that day .Mother opened the door and said that she had been worried for me .My Father looked at me kindly and told my Mother to make tea for me as it was very cold outside .
I broke down ,it hurt me that while this man was showering concern upon me I had been making merry with my friends .My friends belonged to a different background and I had to use my judgment before blindly following them .I confessed the truth to my Father .He looked fallen but gained his composure and said , It is better late than never .I am happy that you understood your responsibility yourself .Conscience is the greatest teacher in this world .”
That day I felt like a big burden was off taken off my chest and I slept peacefully .
Kitna chain hota hai na sachchai mein ! I felt just like this girl in the Kinley commercial…
Leave a Reply