A Decision Made

Eyes that would have been seductive without even trying, now frowned upon the fashion magazine. Scanning page after page too quickly, to be actually reading anything. They seemed to be searching for something, an answer that this book certainly didn’t have.  For with a soft sigh she tossed it away indignantly.

The room was cold but there were beads of perspiration on her arched brows. Clutching her legs she frowned at the empty space. “No, this won’t do. I have to speak…but how?” the thought ate her away again. Since the day the 12^th board results had been out and her ecstatic yet rational parents had made the decision for her, this thought had created deep worry lines on her forehead.

She wasn’t the IIT material with eat, study, tuition being her daily agenda.  But she liked her studies anyway, a rarity that she found common with no one. Every one of her friends had been tensed about the future, with the AIIMS or IIT tag attached to them. Studying was a burden, an enemy they had to subdue & conquer. Prove that they were the masters & not the slave. For her it was a friend, an interesting friend who had loads of stories to tell. Each book she opened would enthrall her with the exciting knowledge it held. She never cribbed about homework or upcoming tests. It’s true that her grades were not the correct types in this competitive world, but she managed fairly well.

For she had no such futuristic plans. She belonged to a conservative family where getting married was the ultimate goal. They allowed her to study because now, everyone wanted an educated wife. Not that they made her do all the housework & didn’t allow her to study. Rather she knew how perfectly to blend in everything in her schedule.  The knowledge of the fate that she had to meet someday, never left her upset. She rather hoped to find someone as her life partner who would understand her quest for knowledge and help her quench her thirst.

But this was a bolt from the blue. Her 12^th marks had been satisfactory; in fact good enough to bag a seat in any college for a Bachelor’s in science. But her parents had other plans. “Go for commerce beta?! See, you will eventually have to get married after that. We can’t keep a daughter home for so long. And with a B.Com degree you can help your husband in his business too.” Her father had rationalized. Being the meek, obedient daughter she didn’t know how to argue. Talking back was not accepted. She had bowed her head and left the room with the college application form in her hands.

Now she stared at it again. Everything had been filled up, except the little box indicating the stream. Arts, Commerce & Science. They stared back at her. It was impossible for her to imagine a life without science. She would miss Chemistry the most. The complex formulae that she was so good at.  The organic part that she found the easiest of all. Or even physics for that matter. With the various laws and mathematical derivations. How much fun it was to relate to daily activities with the laws she read about. No, she didn’t know commerce as well as she did science. She need not cheat her friend.

They had to understand. They had to know. And she wasn’t just sure though how she could make that happen.

She now walked to her parents’ bedroom to get the form signed. As her hand touched the door knob, she paused to stare at the resolute face in the hallway mirror. The face smiled back encouragingly. The form in her hand had a little blue tick mark on the box labeled Science.