Bela took a deep breath to try to calm her jangling nerves. She could not hold her excitement down anymore as she threw a glance at the three packed bags standing proudly by the door. She almost speed dialled her best friend Shalmali, dying to share her excitement with the one person she knew would be just as proud of her, when she remembered :
It was past midnight in India
This had to stay a secret for the next two weeks
Thank God Sangeetha her roomie wasn't here. Being the scaredy-cat that Sangeetha was, she would have never let this happen if she had the slightest whiff of what Bela was up to. Thanks to the pandemic, she was with her parents in India, 'making the most of the extended Work-From Home period'. Bela could only chuckle to that.
'Enough innerwear to last two weeks? That place does have a washer- drier doesn't it, but why take chances?'
'Airbnb login code?'
Closing her eyes, Bela ran through the checklist of items in her head once more, just to make sure she had covered all grounds, and then feeling mighty pleased with her meticulous planning and systematic execution, she turned off the lights in the apartment, took out the bags one by one and locked the main door.
Downstairs, the white Porsche Bela had especially rented for this trip, for a princely $750, sparkled in the bright late morning sun. She quickly loaded her luggage and got into the driver's seat. She entered the address in the GPS and changed the settings to avoid highways. A wide grin spread across her tinted lips as she looked up at the sun roof. 'FUCK THIS IS ACTUALLY HAPPENING', she pinched herself.. 'THIS IS CALLED LIFE and I HAVE FUCKING EARNED THIS FOR MYSELF', a life as free as a bird's, where she got to call the shots herself and no one from her small minded Kanpurian joint family got to lecture her on what was or wasn't appropriate for her ,' Bela thought.
She turned the ignition on, put on her seat belt and for one last time chanted 'Jai Mata Di' before pressing on the gas and hitting the road.
******
It was a historic day - not just for Bela, but for the entire United States of America. For the first time a woman, and a woman of African Asian origin was going to become the Vice president of America.
After the violent attack on the US congress a couple of weeks ago, the capital Washington DC was completely locked down and people including those in the neighbouring states of Virginia (where Bela lived) and Maryland had been advised to stay at home and follow the swearing in ceremony on TV. And this is exactly why Bella had chosen this very day to embark on her adventure. There would be little or no traffic along the way, allowing her a smooth drive to Rohrersville through the long but picture-postcard worthy country roads of Maryland.
Once Bela had ridden through the initial few anxious moments, and gotten her hands steady on the steering wheel, she relaxed back in the seat and exhaled deeply. As she let loose her taut shoulders and stiff back, her mind began to wander off ....
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Bela always believed she was born to do great things, even though no one else saw any potential in her, least of all her 24 member family. They decided on a fate for her, one as regressive as her mother's, even before the lines on her palms could fully form. She was to grow into the standard template of the perfect Indian bride (slim –fair – pretty and virginal), be wedded off by 21 to a typical wealthy Business man from the same caste (half bald – potbellied – and sex deprived) and raise 3 children to adulthood while thanklessly slaving day in and day out at her sasural.
But the more rules they threw at her, the more she broke...the more they clipped her wings, the higher she flew...Bela was a wolf in a herd of sheep...a dynamite in a pack of soggy phuljharis (sparklers) and a rebel with or without a cause. She was the only girl in her entire clan to score an 85% in the boards, and then push her way into studying science. Then she became the first in three generations to get a full scholarship to study engineering in a Govt college, which meant she got to move out of Kanpur and spend four blissful years enjoying the perks of hostel life while her female cousins continued to spend their lives under constant curfew.
If this wasn't a testament of Bela's strong headedness, then there was more. When she finally graduated from college, her family desperately started searching for a groom, but this time too she ruined their efforts by throwing an offer letter at their faces. Once more she left Kanpur to work at a multinational in Pune and then took the first opportunity she could find to fly on an onsite assignment to the US. This was a big set-back for her family. While her cousins grew green with envy, even and especially the male ones, the older lot were plain angry. They could no more wave the 'Family ' wand over her, no more coerce her into following their rules, no more keep an eye on her, basically they could do nothing but browse through the pictures she posted on Facebook and burn in shame (publicly) and envy (privately). Bela couldn't wait to post the pictures from her two week long solo vacation and rub more salt to their already rotting injury.
Just then the sudden and loud honking from a car yanked Bela out of a near fatal lapse of attention. A car was heading her way..HEAD ON! Her heart jumped into her throat, and blood started rushing into her head. Her eyes shut by themselves as she slammed the brakes as hard as she could.
