Happiness , the Punjabi way

Punjab is always in the news for everything that is going wrong drugs, drama, corruption, Dalit bandhs, no Wi-Fi, dwindling forest coverage, sinking water table and one of the most colorful set of politicians and the best display of water tanks decorated to even give Gaudi a run for his money! However, last week it warmed my heart to hear the story of a young widow who decided to stay back in good ol’ Punjab than go back to her home state of Bihar. She is 26 years old, has four children, the oldest being 6 years and the youngest is 3 years old. She has them enrolled in a private school and two in the primary government school.  Her story is the same as of many, where the husband dies drinking agriculture pesticide spray in a fit of anger and the young girl is left to fend for herself at the mercy of her in-laws for what ever time the meager compensation that was given to her in lieu of her husband.

I know it sounds straight out of Bollywood potboiler depending whether Shyam Benegal directs it or becomes a tearjerker by Rajshree productions. Sadly, there is no villainous zamindar that ruins everything for his greed and for lust. In fact, she loves the freedom of living here. She says she is safe here! I loved her expression. She is young, uneducated and knows one thing, she can live here freely without being judged as a widow, as free game to a strict patriarchal society where she would either be married off to someone older or she would have to embrace the strict rules of widow-ship.

Punjab for her, lets her begins that amazing? We don’t know the value of freedom till it is taken away from us. She walks to her walk, is an ayah at the local private school (thank god for the mushrooming of these private English schools)!

We take a lot of thing for granted, especially something that is always there, when one doesn’t have limits and it is always assumed that the rest also have it in the same way. Punjabi s, in their large hearted selves are one of a kind, no I am in no way promoting my state even though I am unabashed believed that Punjab will rise to its former position just like the Phoenix rises from its ashes.

Nevermore, is Harry Potter and the wizardly wisdom more true than ever, ‘Youth cannot know how age thinks and feels. But old men are guilty if they forget what it was to be young ‘.

We all weep, woe and despair over little things it is only when are we older do we realize what the value of things are that are taken for granted. And the biggest of all of them is freedom, and we got it at the stroke of midnight and how we misuse it. Ask them who are not allowed to step out of their homes without a veil just because she's a woman. Even, the Saudis are allowing baby steps! In fact, this incident has just warmed me all over and I have hope that Radha, Lakshmi, Arjun and Vishnu (that is what she named them) would be the true examples of Punjabi grit, and bravado!