HUMAN STORIES
Feathers will be clipped after marriage
The wings were clipped the day you came here
(The clinking sound of glasses)
Ma: The tea lacked a bit of sugar today.
Roop: Oh! I might have not tasted it while preparing.
Ma: Listen to me when I guide you. You are becoming careless and your concentration has taken a big hit.
Roop: Sorry Ma!
(Someone walks inside the kitchen door)
Roop: Why did you come late today? (Venu, her husband hugs her from the back)
Venu: It was work.
(Venu hugs Roop from the back and closes his eyes, takes a deep breath, holds her hand and kisses her neck)
Ma: Venu call Baba! Please. I prepared the food for him, he needs to reach the office early tomorrow.
Venu: Baba…Babaaaa… Your food is ready.
(Roop takes her plate adds a bit of rice and pours in the mutton made with coconut on her plate)
Ma: What are you doing?
(Venu stares at his mother)
Roop: What? Ma..
Ma: You cannot eat now.
Roop: I have early school tomorrow, I need to prepare my lesson plans. I need to have food now.
Ma: No you can’t, wives can only have food after their husbands.
Roop: But Ma I have work tomorrow. (Roop looks at Venu)
Venu: Ah…aaahhahah! Aai, what’s this, let her have na?
Ma: Bani has been married to this home for 9 years, she never does that with Valli.
(Roop looks at Venu, while Venu gulps through his neck as the sweat drops from the side of his head onto his shoulders and cheekbones)
Venu: Come baba! You always work so much, I need to wake up early tomorrow.
Roop: You care about me now? I have a lesson plan to work on.
Venu: You can get up early morning and do it na?
Roop: I have work, Venu.
(Venu comes and throws himself on Roop’s back and holds her by her back)
Venu: Please!
Roop: Okay.
(As Roop turns her back, Venu opens her hair and kisses her passionately. Venu picks Roop up and gently drops her in her bed. As he disrobes her saree gently)
Ma: Roop! Roop! Roop!
Venu: Ma!
Ma: Oh! No, No, No! Where is Roop?
Venu: Ma, this is my room how can you not knock and come?
Ma: It's 9 a.m. You have to reach work in half an hour.
Venu: So, you should knock or do I have to lock the door?
(Ma leaves the room after turning her back to Venu)
(Roop wakes up and hits Venu)
Venu: Hey! Why are you hitting me?
Roop: Why shouldn’t I? I told you, please let me work, you did not listen to me. I know I can’t do work in the morning. Now I would go another day without working on my lesson plans.
Venu: When you are like that, without clothes, it's hard to listen to.
Roop: Get up. I have school today. I need to even check the sessional papers of my class.
(Venu and Roop get out of their room)
(Venu sits while Roop goes to the home temple on the opposite.)
(Ma catches Roop’s hands, and tells her, “So are you pregnant yet? It's been a year after marriage”)
Roop: (She laughs) No Maa, I don’t want to have kids now.
Ma: What? Then when.
Roop: Well I am working, Venu is busy, and the kid will be all alone.
Ma: So, you can always leave work. Venu is earning right?
Roop: What? I cannot leave my job. teaching is my passion.
Ma: Yeah! Teach your kids then. Give birth to at least 2.
Roop: No I mean professional teaching. We have a plan that we prepared considering our finances.
Ma: Screw it. Listen to me! A baby is the true happiness a woman needs, trust me.
(Roop stays silent and proceeds to pray inside)
(Venu drives the car. He looks at Roop)
Venu: Roop, you okay?
Roop: This was not on table Venu. Your mother is trying to talk me into having kids.
Venu: So, we do need kids?
Roop: Not now! We talked about this.
Venu: I mean with a body like yours, you don’t expect me to wear protection all the time while we have… you know?
Roop: Well, I do, and I am not birthing any baby until I get promoted to high school teaching or the post of Principal.
Venu: Yes, do that, but have kids too.
Roop: No you don’t understand Venu, we talked about this.
Venu: Well, I am not saying you can’t do all that, but having kids was all on the table and you will like them once they are around.
Roop: So, what now you want me to be your housewife. So that I eat after you eat, or wake up first thing in the morning and serve you tea?
Venu: Wait where is this coming from?
Roop: I can’t handle your mother Venu, she wants me to fulfill my passion for teaching by teaching my biological kids.
Venu: So what’s the problem?
(Roop looks at Venu angrily)
Roop: Stop the car.
Venu: No I won’t.
Roop: Venu, I said stop the car.
(Venu locks the door, slaps Roop, and slams her head on the car window, as she starts bleeding)
Venu: I am sorry.
(Roop fearful, watches him)
(Venu takes her to a nearby clinic and gets her head stitched)
Venu: Roop? Roop? I am sorry.
(Roop watches out of the window silently)
(Venu reaches the school parking spot and stops his car)
Venu: Roop I am sorry!
(Roop’s eyes were misty as tears drop from her eyes)
(Roop silently leaves the car)
(Roop opens her tiffin as the teaching staff starts having lunch)
(Meanwhile, a fellow teacher asks, “What happened on your forehead Roop, looks like a bruise?” Roop replies, “Yeah! no I mean, I’m okay Neelu.)
(Neelu looks at Roop as she makes her way to the bathroom)
(Venu comes inside his room, his mother calls him for food)
(He moves wobbly and falls thrice before reaching his room)
Venu: Roop, Roop.
Roop: What?
Venu: Come to the bed, baby.
Roop: I have a lesson plan to do today.
Venu: Come here sweetheart I will teach you better lessons.
(Venu comes and grabs Roop by her hand)
(Roop yells, “Stop it Venu!”)
(Venu’s mother hears sounds from Venu’s room. She looks at the room and smiles)
Venu: If you do not come to the bed, I will drag you there.
Roop: Stop it Venu! Are you nuts? Don’t touch me.
(Venu pulls Roop’s hair and slams her on the bed.)
(He tears her clothes from the back and starts pounding on her)
(Roop cries as her face gets red from all the heat and teardrops drop in the satin slippery sheet. He grabs her head and neck from the back as he pounds her)
(Roop under the sheet holds her body by her hands on the other corner staring at the wall after the episode. She looks at Venu with hesitation at all intervals)
(Venu and Roop move en route to Roop’s school)
Venu: Roop? Roop? I am sorry! Please forgive me. Why do you make me angry? Just don’t make me angry.
(Roop is silent and does not look at him)
(A group of teachers seated together discusses some of their favorite students from a particular class. Neelu watches Roop from the corner and watches her eating alone)
Neelu: Roop! May I sit?
Roop: Yeah! Please.
Neelu: Is something wrong?
Roop: Nothing what do you mean?
Neelu: I mean you don’t speak or talk with us, its so unlike you. And you look pathetic today.
Roop: Uhhh!! I am not well you know.
(Neelu says, Well!!!…)
(Roop utters interrupting Neelu, I will just come from the washing room)
(Neelu is looking at Roop’s uneaten tiffin meanwhile Roop goes to the washroom)
(Roop holds the sides of the wash basin and splashes water on her face. As she washes her face, she cries her heart out while keeping her voice low. Neelu watches Roop from the washroom door)
(Neelu moves ahead and holds Roop by her back)
Neelu: What happened Roop? Please talk to me.
(Roop cries on her shoulders while Neelu brushes her hair)
(They both stay seated in the school playground)
Neelu: Now tell me what happened?
Roop: Venu raped me.
Neelu: What? Your husband?
Roop: And the cut that I have on my head, it's from him. Lucky to be married right?
(Neelu stares at her in utter silence)
Neelu: Grab your bag, Roop, we are going to the police.
Inspector: What’s the issue mam?
Neelu: This is my friend Roop, Inspector! A demon raped her. And even bruised her head.
Inspector: What? Please give me the details of the culprit.
Neelu: Yes, it's her husband! Please note.
Inspector: What? Husband?
Neelu: Yes.
Inspector: Mam, we will lodge a complaint against him for domestic violence, but marital rape is still not a crime here.
(Neelu stares at the police while Roop looks outside the window like she was doing the whole time Neelu was talking with the inspector)
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