Source: Humans of Bombay
“I was very young when my parents passed away, so I’ve been brought up by my aunt and uncle. Before they died, they would always talk about me getting married to the son of a family friend–and I was only 5 years old!
As time went by, this family took care of me in every way possible and treated me like their own daughter. At the age of 16, I got married to their son and I have no regrets — all my life I wanted parents and I got them in their form.
My mother-in-law has raised me to be the woman I am today – taught me values, oiled my hair, shared my sorrows and sang me to sleep. My husband worked in an airline back then, so he was gone for long periods but my in-laws were such that they never let me miss him.
I was young and short tempered so I would get angry with him really easily, but he would always smile and do things to make me happy. He’s taken me all over the world and shown me things about life that I never knew. This one time, I was very upset that he didn’t buy me a gift, so he started singing, ‘gussa chodo, rani thoda thoda hasso’ and I just started smiling!
They used to all call me Rani and really, they’ve treated me like a queen all my life. In today’s day and age we keep talking about child marriage, arranged marriage, mother-in-laws but all these are just terms–once you find a family and a home within a marriage; none of these things matter. No place will matter. No age will matter.”
