Strength to Say No Read Online Free Page A

in plain sight of the two sets of parents. Josna was half turned away, and her veil covered almost all of her head. They spoke, or rather whispered, for several minutes under the amused gaze of the village children.
    Later the meal was served, and the men took their places around the table that my father had borrowed from his brother. The women served them the midday meal. The mother of the proposed groom praises the qualities of her son. ‘He is a hard worker, young, intelligent. He could have gone to school and become someone important, but somebody had to help cultivate the fields. After all, that’s why you have children, isn’t it?’
    Ma laid out Josna’s strong points: her beauty, her youth, her culinary talents and her ability to take care of children. Josna had already been raising her younger brothers and sisters for several years now.
    By the time we have
chai
the union is sealed and the dowry fixed at ten thousand rupees. The ceremony will be paid for by the father of the groom. Baba is delighted because he was thinking that he would have to stump up fifteen or twenty thousand rupees and pay half the wedding costs. But it is true that his son-in-law has not been to school nor even been to a town, and so it would be foolish to pay more, especially as he has neither a vehicle, nor personal inheritance, nor rich parents, nor great agricultural lands that could generate comfortable revenues.
    The wedding will take place in a month. Everything has been organized during the course of one meal. In around thirty days my older sister will be the responsibility of her future husband and one mouth fewer to feed for Baba. Josna is sad to have to leave the house and to go to live with a man she didn’t even know existed this morning and with who she is going to spend the rest of her life.
    On the day of the wedding my sister is radiant. Her sari is dotted with sparkling sequins and her hands are decorated with intricate designs in henna. She is swathed in a large piece of white fabric. As for every wedding the whole village is involved. The musicians are Baba’s friends, the old carts for the procession belong to the neighbours and the cooking pots that are used to prepare the food for the guests belong to Ma’s parents. The rest of the village makes up the wedding procession.
    The Hindu priest, facing the couple, celebrates their union and recites their duties for the rest of their lives. The crown of flowers presented to my sister by her husband marks the beginning of singing and dancing that will last for several hours. For reasons of economy the wedding lasts for one day only. Josna’s father-in-law can’t afford to offer more than that.
    During the whole ceremony I saw my sister’s fear at the idea of leaving her family. She seemed lost in the middle of all the congratulations, and all those eyes looking at her disturbed her more than they made her happy. We knew each other so well that I didn’t have to talk to her to know what she was thinking. She realized that she would never again be a child and that she had just abruptly entered adulthood once and for all – although she was still only an adolescent. I promised to visit her as soon as it was possible. She undertook to come back to see us everymonth. Her in-laws did not have any objection to that on the condition that Josna didn’t stay more than two days and one night.

    I couldn’t have imagined that after one month of marriage my sister would come back to live with us.
    â€˜What’s going on?’ my father asked when he saw her return, loaded down like a mule.
    â€˜He left!’
    Ma ran to meet my sister, shook her like a mango tree and asked for explanations. ‘What did you do? Why did he leave? And where did he go, anyway?’
    â€˜I don’t know, Ma. He disappeared two weeks ago. His parents haven’t had any news either. They think that he went to join his brother in