Seeing her go into the washroom, she came out of her room and went into hers. She had become pretty good at spying her daughters activities lately. Picking up her pillow which she noticed was wet with tears, she got hold of her hone and started checking her messages. Even though her motherly nature and emotions chided her for doing this to her daughter, her instincts overpowered them easily. Seema knew that Shravanee was immature and naïve. Hence she was firm on her decision. It made her ignore even the heart wrenching sobbing of her daughter which the bathroom’s walls failed to hide.

Next day, Shravanee woke up very late. The reason being she had nothing left to do. A month back she used to get up as early as six and go for her PHD classes which started at seven, 24*7 surrounded with her thick books. But now being forced to drop her PhD classes, she was not even allowed to leave the house- a total house arrest.

Her freedom sucked out, she was left with only words that she used to let out through the app of the age-whatsapp still hiding it from both her parents and brothers. Swaraj her elder brother saw her texting from the slit of the door. Enraged he went inside and started shouting at her, “Shravanee! What the hell you think you are doing??” Shocked by her brother’s sudden loud voice, shravanee started to cry but she did not lose the grip of her phone. Even then her brother managed to snatch it from her hands.

For two hours, her parents gave her the same old cast – creed lecture the umpteenth time. She was fed up by her family’s rigid ideology and the boundaries set by them. She wanted to run away from her home with her beloved Ramesh- her other half. If this continued it would be not long when she would decide to take her life. Tears couldn’t stop running down her face.

Her house bell is ringing. Her brother called out from the washroom, “Someone please open the door. It might be the postman.”

Running to the door she opened in a hurry. Failing to look at the man’s face she took the letters from his hand, but he was not ready to loosen his hold on those letter. Looking up she saw his face. It was Sarthak- a mutual friend of Ramesh and her. He had risked his life and had entered the bungalow to give her his letter. She couldn’t stop her smile but he signalled her to control her emotions lest her parents see them. Giving her friend a small smile she safely kept the letter in her back pocket and closed the door.

At night, when everyone was asleep she read the letter. Afraid to switch on the lights she leaned against her room’s window and used the light coming from the street lights to read it. It contained a plan to rescue her from her family and to marry Ramesh. Reading his words she couldn’t help but cry for an hour. She didn’t think about her past or future. She just didn’t want to marry the apparent perfect guy found by her parents for her who matched her religion and caste.

Monday morning and she was ready for the run. She managed to grab the scooty key from the shelf the night ago. Going outside she managed to take her scooty and drive it out of the gate of their house. Seeing the sleepy lethargic guards she felt lucky. In the next half an hour she reached Hotel Saundarya where Ramesh had called her.

For two hours she waited, but he didn’t come.

Then somehow her elder brother came there and stopped his car. Her throat went dry and body enervated .He just pulled the glass down and said, “He is never ever going to reach here. So no point in waiting. Let’s go home.”

Stunning silence. Fear groped her whole body. She just felt the drag she had and then she was in the car. The sorrow…the emptiness…everything crushed her …and that’s how it ended for her.