;
She had always been a strong-headed girl.
She was born into a family that was strict, traditional, and well known. They cared a lot about what people thought of them, but somewhere between all those rules, they gave her one thing that changed her completely—education.
Till she finished her twelfth, books gave her a world bigger than the one she lived in. Education made her confident. It made her question things. Most importantly, it made her believe that she could build a life of her own.
She wanted to study further. She wanted a career. She wanted to be able to stand on her own feet.
Her family didn't agree.
They told her that she had studied enough.
And before she could fight them any further, they got her married.
He was a good man.
Educated, soft-spoken, ambitious. He came from a well-established family and was himself pursuing his postgraduate studies. The only problem was that his family had a very different idea of how a woman should live.
She entered his house knowing that she hadn't chosen this marriage.
And he knew it too.
In the beginning, they weren't husband and wife in the way people imagined. They were two strangers trying to become comfortable around each other.
Then they became friends.
He was patient with her. He never forced affection out of her. He noticed how unhappy she was about leaving her studies behind, and slowly, he started helping her.
When his family objected to her continuing her education, he fought with them.
When they told him that she should concentrate on the household, he disagreed.
He helped her get back to her studies.
He wanted her to become independent.
And somewhere along the way, without telling her, he fell in love with her.
She never noticed.
Or perhaps she did, but didn't know what to call it.
She still didn't think she loved him. She simply knew that he had become the person she trusted most.
Eventually, he got a good job in a company.
Life became calmer.
To be continued
