#SoCS Jan 9th-2021

Your prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “sky’s the limit.” Write about something that has or seems to have no end. Enjoy!

I am reading a fascinating book, The Book of Indian Essays; Two hundred years of English Prose edited by Arvind Krishna Mehrotra.

Today’s prompt reminded me of an essay by Sara Rai, On Not Writing. She writes about her father who encouraged her to write and told her that sky is the limit. He had full confidence in her. She writes that her father was very happy when she showed an inclination to write and told her mother, ‘She will go far.’ He believed that fiction could only be created in one’s mother tongue. So, the writer wrote mainly in Hindi. Sara Rai is the grand daughter of Munshi Premchand. We read his stories in school. It has been a long time since I have read Hindi books. I think I will start reading them again.

I remember the young family who came as tenants to the small house in the compound of my parents’ home more than a decade ago. They were not very well off but they strove to give a good education to their daughter and son. They encouraged their children to believe that sky is the limit. Both are doing well. I was happy to see that they treated their son and daughter equally.

More than fifty years ago, girls did not study beyond primary school. They were married at a very young age and education was not thought necessary for married life! My Doddamma’s elder sister was married at the age of seven. Doddamma told me many years ago that her mother put her foot down when it was time for Doddamma to get married. She wanted her daughter to go to high school. Doddamma did, before getting married.

And then there are girls who have to fight to follow their dreams. A senior friend of mine told me how she had to struggle at every stage to complete her graduation. Her parents did not encourage her. It was a waste of money to educate girls. She fought with them, completed high school and went on to complete graduation in spite of all the obstacles. She had to give up many of her dreams. But she did not despair. Sometimes life does not give us what we like. We have to learn to like what life gives us. She became a teacher and even now her students remember her and come to see her.

Encouragement is important in life but we have to believe in ourselves, have confidence and follow our dreams. We have to believe that the sky is the limit for us.  

Premchand – Wikipediahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Premchand

Sara Rai – Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sara_Rai