The story so far:A visiting missionary from Calcutta was impressed with the work done by the girls. Prizes were distributed.
Grandma’s teacher had a lovely needle-case of red velvet with needles, silk yarns in all colours of the rainbow and a silver thimble. Grandma asked her grandma for one. But grandma looked at her with twinkling eyes and said, “What’s the use? You are not going to school from next week!”
“Not going to school?” asked grandma, a lump in her throat.
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“No, my dear. You are getting married. Just think, you will have so many lovely new things!”
Disappointed
Grandma cried all the way to school the next day. Before long, everyone heard that grandma was getting married and would not come to school any more. As she was one of the brightest students, her teacher gifted her a needle-case just like her own. But grandma merely clutched it and cried. She knew that a joyful part of her life was over.
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Grandma married grandpa and within a month she left for her new home in a village in Jessore.
My 17-year-old grandpa rushed back to his college in Calcutta as soon as the rituals were over. Apart from missing her mother from whom she had never been parted, grandma found life in a village different. Everything seemed new and strange. Even the people spoke differently. And she hated the custom of having to keep her face covered with her pallu because she was now married. But she was determined not to cry in the presence of others however upset she felt.
There were no schools for girls in the village and few among the womenfolk knew how to read. Grandma felt miserable when she realised that there would be no learning from now on. Possibly no embroidery or sewing either! Life was just going to be one big round of helping in the kitchen and housework once she stopped being a “new bride”. But at least, she had been allowed to bring her dolls and play with her sisters-in-law who were around the same age and younger.
To be continued...