Where Eagles Dare

My attempt on a short story for a literary group...
Topic given "Where Eagles Dare""

The dawn of April 22, 1964 was awakened by the shrieking cry of a baby. ShantaBehn, the village midwife, placed the baby in Bilal Singh’s hands. It’s a baby girl….she said. This was the third daughter in a row for Bilal Singh and his wife Radha.  But unlike the rest of the village, they did not complain as the birth of a child is God-willing and they would do their best to bring their children up with the limited income they earned.

Years went by, and the baby girl named Pramila grew up to be a brilliant young teenager. But the luxury of going to the Panchayat school, came to a standstill for Pramila at the age of 10 in class five.  Limited income, detoriating health and two older daughters being married off had burdened Bilal Singh. Now that she turned 13 years, they wanted to find her a suitable groom who would take care of her and so from a very early age, her mother Radha, was focused on teaching Pramila the household chores.

At the tender age of 14, they managed to find her a groom almost double her age but who had enough credentials to keep their daughter well.  Not exposed to the worldly life, Pramila stepped into marriage, soon to be a mother at the age of 15.  Initial rosy days of marriage gradually turned to days of slogging and evenings of beatings & torture by the drunkard husband. Pramila still hung on as this was how she was brought up, to be an obedient daughter.  Soon she was mothering another baby with a two year old still tugging on to her pallu.

After years of hoping for a better turn of fate, she decided to take the bold step.  Holding her two little children close to her, without a word said to anyone, she got into the train heading to Delhi with a 100 Rs note in hand, which she had managed to secretly save in the rice bucket.  No friends, no acquaintances, she landed in a city unknown and spend some sleepless nights on the railway benches.  One fine day, a god-send soul; a Professor at the university offered her a job as her house-help, a gesture to provide shelter and food to Pramila and her little ones.

Over the months, the Professor noticed the brilliant side of Pramila, her keenness and an innate ability to grasp & learn things quickly which probably had been buried by the chaos of life.  Having realized this, the kind Professor took on the task of tapping this thirst for knowledge to give Pramila a second chance in life.  From then on there was no looking back.  Pramila went on to complete her high school and even acquired a bachelor degree through correspondence with the help of her mentor. Today Pramila heads the sales team of a well-known brand and soon to spread her wings across borders.  Had she not dared to board that train to Delhi….