Give me a break!

(pulished in Microw Summer 2011)

Early morning I went out of my one bed room flat and bought a bagful of peas.
While shelling them one by one
(these soft green beads) started telling me tales of my grandma’s days.
Such as once upon a time there were two sisters Tula and Teja,
One beautiful one ugly.
I asked the peas to stop at that.
What is the point in repeating the same oldwives’ tales, a step mother, two daughters, they get married, one to a prince other to a pauper.

Give me a break.

Tell me something new like there was this girl, early morning she would get up, do her studies till the clock struck nine and hurry to school, coming back she’ll study again till one day she grew up and no, she was not married off.
Instead it was the turn of her dreams to take off.
This tiny little girl in a petite frame goes to a college in a metropolitan city.
Behind her thick rimmed specs she again weaves dreams, for the thousand and odd girls she teaches, moulds, transforms, prepares for a tough survival each day.

Give me a break.

Tula and Teja are characters from a folk- tale collected by noted Assamese littérateur Lakshminath Bezbarua titled as Grandma’s tales..