the story of my parents as I recount it…
“I want to continue going to school. I do whatever it takes for me to finish school,” Andalu pleaded.
Andalu is very calm, and studious 11-year-old girl from a small village outside of Hyderabad. Her father works as a daily laborer in a rice mill nearby. He returns home drunk every evening to cope with the work stress. Her mother is a daily laborer too. Andalu is the eldest of the children, with two little sisters and one younger brother. The family’s earnings are very less, and they often struggled to make their ends meet. The mother constantly insists Andalu to drop out her school so that she can also join her to earn some extra cash for the family. Even though Andalu is the brightest of all the kids in the entire school, she never received any support from their parents to pursue her dreams. But, she persisted. She joined her mother to work early mornings before school and late evenings after school until midnight so that her mother allows her to go to school.
Not so far from Koheda, the place where Andalu lived, a young boy in an even smaller village is struggling with almost similar conditions. His name is Prabhakar, and he is a clumsy 16-year-old, youngest of all in a 7 member family. He has three elder brothers and a sister. His father is a farmer who is inherited with a small piece of land to cultivate crops and earn a living. Prabhakar and his brothers usually work on the farm when they are not at school and during the weekends. Prabhakar managed to complete his tenth standard and planned to join college. Even though, he is not the brightest of his class, he works really hard both on the farm helping his father and in life. By the time he is 20, all of his siblings got married and migrated to the nearby metropolitan city for their survival. The eldest with his family, the youngest and the parents stayed back in the village, having faith in agriculture.
Andalu is now 16 and as a responsible father, her father started searching for a probable bridegroom to get her married. Meanwhile, Andalu topped the tenth board exams, securing first place in the entire district. She aspired to study more and get a job. Her aspirations soon vanished as her father succeeded, both in finding a partner for her and a dead-end for her dreams. The marriage proposal came as a result of a common connection between the families. Jumping onto the opportunity, Andalu’s father paid a visit to Kappapahad, the village where the now 21-year-old Prabhakar lives. Prabhakar abandoned his college as he can no longer afford the expenses. He joined his father on the farm and started looking after the cattle, and selling milk. Andalu’s father got impressed by the sincerity and hardworking traits of Prabhakar and left the place only to return with Andalu to marry her with him. That’s how the story began…
to be continued…