One line I will never forget, it remains embedded in my subconscious:

“Ladkiyon ko to waise bhi sirf shaadi ke liye padhna hota hai” (Girls only need to study for the purpose of marriage).

We have five sisters, and one of my cousin’s brothers once said to my mother, “Aunty, why are you so concerned about their studies and degrees?”. “Ladkiyon ko to waise bhi sirf shaadi ke liye padhna hota hai “(Girls only need to study for the purpose of marriage).

Almost every memory of my childhood faded as I grew older, but his words stayed with me, and I vowed to prove him wrong. But it hurt me even more when I realised in my life that these views were the realities of the culture in which I was living.

As we used to live in a joint family, my eldest sister married at the age of 23, and I was very disheartened because she was the school topper and the only girl in school who won a cycle in a math Olympiad, and She didn’t object to the fact that she wanted to advance her career but seeing this that line (“Ladkiyon ko to waise bhi sirf shaadi ke liye padhna hota hai “) upset me more than hearing them the first time.

The remark began to echo louder than anything else when my topper sister became a full-time house maker and my hopes began to fade when she exhibited no remorse for who she had become, but I was trying to keep these kinds of thoughts out of my head because I don’t want to go through this.

But two years later, history repeated itself, and another sister, two years older than me, married in the same manner, and my heart began to sink, and I almost began to believe those words of my cousin’s brother because neither my mom nor my sisters were opposing anything, and they were happy, but the voices inside me and the light of my soul were not ready to accept this.

After two years of my sister’s marriage, I also completed my graduation, and I knew that being born as a girl in the Haryana household and graduating meant you are now eligible to marry. I used to be a rebellious youngster, but ideas of marriage and becoming a full-time housewife began to plague me, so before those thoughts completely consumed me, I began to look for a job through my friends and other contacts.

Although there was no Internet in those days, I managed to land a job at a pharmaceutical company in Baddi, Himachal Pradesh, however, the subject of marriage did not go away in my family.

However, following many disputes and arguments, I managed to go away from home, but I also discovered the path to my freedom, independence, and happiness. That one decision, that one act of stubbornness, proved everyone wrong, brought me great joy and satisfaction, and those voices stopped echoing in my head.

But I couldn’t get away from the subject of marriage, and after three years, I married, and the same dilemma arose, balancing home and work. But I made it through by prioritizing tasks and dealing with all my family and others’ painful comments.