Artwork by: Saumya Pankaj
Editing: Ashish Mccune
Legend Of The Buri Ladki
A long, long time ago, there lived a girl who had trouble fitting in.
When girls her age were competing to ace the society’s expectations of them in every aspect of their lives, she had a tough time behaving the ‘adarsh’ or normal way.
She grew up believing she had a loose screw somewhere in her head.
Why else would she cackle loudly to dirty jokes even though she had been told it was 'improper' for a girl?
Why else would she sit with legs comfortably spread, when she was repeatedly told that 'good girls keep their knees together'?
Why else would she find it creepy that a man stalked her despite her NO's, when everyone swore it was just 'romantic'?
She did not dream of an ‘adarsh balak’ to settle down with – instead, she competed with them, in the classroom, in sports, and in every sphere of a 'man's world'.
That didn't go down well with the ‘sanskaar ke thekedaar’.
How could they allow a girl to challenge the status quo they had been strictly maintaining for centuries?
“She is a bad girl! She will corrupt the others too!” cried the Apostles of Patriarchy.
The Verdict was passed, and she was married off to a stranger (cause that’s how you straighten out a girl gone wild.)
Finally, she realised it wasn’t her, but everyone else who was the problem.
So she said, ‘F**k it. Imma be a bad girl.’
She ran away from the mandap on the day of her sham wedding!
And that was how the Buri Ladki was born.
Bura na suno? Bura na dekho? Bura na bolo?
“To hell with that,” she said.
She wore whatever she felt like.
She drank like a fish.
And cursed like a sailor.
Did she live a happy life? We can’t say. But she lived it on her own terms.
Generations passed, and her legend was skipped over in the ‘Book of Myths’ passed down by the Apostles of Patriarchy.
But word has it that even today, girls who dare to put their own choices above others’ expectations, get blessed by the spirit of the Buri Ladki.
<The End...Not>
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)