A FRESH PAIR OF WINGS

Ruchi and her mother-in-law were sitting in the verandah, sipping on their evening tea and chatting away about life and its intricacies. After an hour and a half of discourse around topics from around the world, Ruchi’s mother-in-law suddenly inquired about her work and her career aspirations, which left her confounded. This was the first time in the six months of her marriage that her mother-in-law had asked her about her career.

Ever since she was a teenager, Ruchi had had high aspirations; she was clear about what she wanted to do—first, she would pursue a bachelor’s degree in linguistics; then an M.Phil, followed by a Ph.D, and finally a career dedicated to the philosophy of linguistics. After completing her M.Phil, Ruchi started working as a research associate at a reputed university where she met Tarq, her now-husband. He had been extremely supportive of her ambitions since the beginning and, in fact, had been pushing her right after they got married, to resume her education.

Ruchi was pulled out of her reverie when her mother-in-law called her name for the third time. She somewhat hesitantly expressed her desire to resume her education and once she was done, expected a kind of rebuke. Instead, her mother-in-law’s eyes brightened up like two suns against the dusky sky behind her.

Though well-educated herself, Ruchi’s mother-in-law wasn’t able to continue her education after marriage owing to the deep-rooted patriarchal practices that were running in the family at her time; however, she had resolved to not let the same happen with her daughter-in-law when her son was born. And it was for this very reason that she decided to live separately from her in-laws and raise her son as a single mother. 

Ruchi felt a concoction of several emotions at the same time—overjoyed on knowing that her mother-in-law had her back, blessed on having gotten a mother-in-law as hers in the first place, and veneration on finding out why she decided to raise Tarq as a single mother. Before she could realise it herself, she got up from her chair and hugged her mother-in-law tightly who reciprocated by wrapping one arm around her and the other caressing her hair.   

While, on one hand, Ruchi was elated with a rekindled fire to pursue her dream of dedicating her life to research, on the other hand, her mother’s words, the responsibilities of being a married woman, and the rebukes her mother-in-law would have to deal with from the family and the society worried her. But both her mother-in-law and her husband encouraged her to go after her dream without worrying about anything else.

Finally, the day came when Ruchi had to leave the country to pursue her Ph.D. As she and Tarq were about to leave home for the airport, Ruchi and her mother-in-law shared a couple of emotional moments—Ruchi’s eyes were moist with unfathomable love and veneration for her mother-in-law, and her mother-in-law’s were filled with immense pride for both her daughter-in-law and her son. She made Ruchi promise to give it everything she had and prove that marriage doesn’t mean the end of education for a woman. And thus, Ruchi and her husband left for the airport, filled with excitement for the life that awaited them and a new-found desire to make their pillar strength proud of them.