The story is about a little girl, Rani, 10 yrs old who lived in a remote village, Sirsapur at the outskirts of Haryana. With a small population of about 50,000 people; the village was hardly seen on the map of India or even as part of Haryana or near it.

 

With small height, sticky oily hair with two braids going from behind the ears, she looked quite innocent but with loads of charm and naughtiness in her mesmerizing eyes.. She was the only daughter of her parents and did have a younger brother, Sarab. Being born in an orthodox environment, everyone expected her family to be strict with her, not letting her go outside late or play with boys.

She was also supposed to do daily household chores like her mother and aunt or any other woman in her village. Such was the case also.

She was put to do small daily chores like fetching water from well, feeding cows, milking from cows et al. she did not like to do this but her grandmother always said,” Girls are born to do household work, take care of their family, raise kids and stay at home.”

This was the thinking with which she had been brought up but she was different. She wanted something else from her life. Her thinking and dreams got wings when she started going to the school, just upon the insistence of the
Panchayat  Head as govt. had opened a school for children to study in that village.  That school was a ray of hope for the villagers that sometime soon; they would get the basic necessities.

The classroom had everything which she had seen in movies… benches, chairs, blackboard, and a teacher standing in front of the whole class -teaching. There was a big playground with lots of swings and slides. Everything was in front of her eyes and she could not get off her eyes from it. It seemed as if everything had become physical; whatever she had seen and dreamt of.

This is said in her context because she was not unlike other girls in her village who were bounded by orthodox thoughts of old people or just followed everything blindly. She loved to be set free. She aspired to become a lawyer. She wanted to study, study a lot. While being in school, she often had to miss school due to homely work but she never compromised on her studies.  As technology progressed and new opportunities started pouring in, her family got a PC for her younger brother. She learnt how to use it, operate it, and work on it. She also learnt how to use internet.

Whenever she would study a new book or read something online, she would get sarcastic comments from everyone that what she would do with education. Ultimately, she has to be at home; cooking for the family and raising kids. But she never paid heed to them. All that she knew was her aspiration of becoming a lawyer. The one person who supported her throughout was her younger brother, Sarab.  He knew that his didi someday would become a great lawyer and put the name of their village on the world atlas.

 

Days were coming nearer when she had to appear for her CLAT exam i.e. the exam of law for getting into prestigious college to study law. She had been preparing for it secretly for a long time as she knew, no one would approve of it. Instead, her books will be taken back and she would have to marry a stupid, uneducated guy.

Her exam centre was Jaipur and she did not know how to go there. She could not tell that she had to go there to appear for an exam. He asked his brother for help. He thought a lot and got an amazing idea. He said,”  Rani di, I will say at home that I want to go to Jaipur with my friends to hang out and  want to take you too as then you will get married and I won’t get a chance to go out.” Rani said,” But do you think that family will allow!! Leave family, will papa allow?? “. Sarab said,” You don’t worry about that, its my headache. You just go and prepare well for your exam. You have to top it and make all of us proud. Then when you’ll start working, do let me buy a sports bike. ;)”

Sarab asked his family, firstly they disapproved but on emphasis of him..finally agreed. Now was the real challenge laid for her.

The date for exam came; she was dropped off at her exam centre by Sarab and wished good luck. She knew that her family’s blessings were with her, she had worked hard a lot too but luck also had to be in her favour. She went, exam commenced, she had her exam done, came back and just waited for the results to be out.

 

After 2 months:-

She saw the results and could not believe her eyes..she pinched herself, asked her brother to re-check. What she saw was that she had topped the exam and along with that, had been offered a letter from the most prestigious law  institute to join them. She jumped, tears rolled down her eyes but her happiness was at cloud nine.

But soon she sat with her hands on her head and murmuring something. Sarab asked,” What happened di? Why are you sad? And what are you murmuring?”.

Rani said with a deep heart,” Bhai, results are out. Admission process can start anytime soon. I’ll need to apply. But the problem is how to convince everyone! I am pretty much confidence that papa will never allow me to study. He never liked me studying. He wants me to marry and look after the family as is the tradition.”

Sarab said,” Ohoo di! We will think about it later. Today, just enjoy your day. Don’t spoil your mood and
day.”

Least did both have any idea that something fishy and ugly was waiting for them.

The very next day, her photograph with her result was published at the front page. The whole village was stumped with it. No one had even the slightest of the clue about what all was happening.

Rani was questioned a lot. She did not know what to say and how to say as she feared a lot of her father. Then her brother came to her rescue. He said, “You all are interrogating her, asking weird questions.

Instead be happy and proud of her that she did what she wanted to. She just made our village proud. Instead, I have not done something good that you support me so much. Being a girl child, you always ignored her. You are questioning her when she needs your support the most.  Please recognize her potential and let her do what she wants to.”

This thing made Rani cry, she just hugged him and started crying.

Everyone agreed with his thoughts and Panchayat Head congratulated Rani on her accomplishment.

Later, a notice was issued that every family will let their girl child have the same rights as boys and will also let them study.

After a few years, loads of girls of that village grew up to be at top in one or the other fields. All the credit goes to Rani.

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