KALI (A SHORT STORY)
KKALI;
A 19 year girl with 19 million dreams.
A generous smile, long black hair.
This beautiful girl belonged to a remote village of Nepal.
Her eyes open up at 5 AM sharp and that’s when her daily schedule begins – carrying water from the nearby river (Kaligandaki river),
feeding animals (cows, buffalo, goats) and preparing breakfast for everyone in the family. This is her recurring schedule and this accomplishment ensures her way to school.
Being the eldest child of her parents, she has always
believed in hard work. She was the eldest among the
8 siblings out of which seven were daughters. Her father
was a laborer and earns Nrs 300 per day (3$) . Her mother
was a traditional housewife. This family scenario had
always added a sense of responsibility in Kali.
But despite all the responsibilities she shouldered,
she was full of life and positivity.
Kali’s Semester End Exams were now near.
She was preparing for it and was also going through
the emotional distress attached to it. Like other girls,
the society expected her to be a mother of two or three kids
already but she had other ideas. She wanted to pursue
higher education. She had a dream of uplifting the living
standard of the young girls and women in her society as
this whole scenario was still very miserable where she lived.
Every year 9-10 girls die of snake bite, and rape in the course of CHHAUPADI (An isolated place where a woman stays throughout her menstrual period). It was something very disturbing to Kali. She was not happy but was always optimistic- she knew that one day, she’d be able to eradicate this Socio-Cultural stigma forever.
Amidst this chaos, Kali topped the district with 3.4 GPA in her exams.
However, the pressure of getting married never stopped.
The pressure grew more and more intense but with courage every so strong, Kali stood firm with her decision and kept fighting against the society single handedly. She joined the high school nearby, and started getting involved in the “Child and woman society”.
She always believed that changes should start from an individual, from herself and her own family. However, the chhaupadi stigma had strangled her family so much that her 14 y/o sister died in CHHAUGOTH.
This left Kali completely broken. However, this incident inspired her to fight more intensely than ever.
Not much later, Kali went to destroy the Chhaugoth.
Society believed it to be a brutal attack against their faith and culture. People started abusing her. They started questioning her character, her intention. Even a case was filed against her. But nothing broke her, nothing stopped her. Instead she started running an awareness campaign amid the many threats from people against it, which she never bothered about. She went through a lot of ups and downs. It took time, but then people slowly started believing her. Her efforts even started
getting national and international attention. Different institutions started helping her campaign. It was taking time, but her society was changing.
Today, there is NO MORE CHHAUPADI, NO MORE CHILD MARRIAGE in her society. Educating girls is now seen as normal as educating boys.
All thanks to Kali!
Kali is now a program coordinator in an INGO.
There are still many Kalis in our society waiting for helping hands. They have the same spirit as that of kali, but are lacking support and opportunities.
Let’s discover and support these Kalis.
– Naresh Sharma Awasthi
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