This was Romi's mother shouting at her and this was how her day began every morning. Instead of a warm 'Good Morning', she was always greeted with hard, coaxing words from her parents. Lazily she would drag herself out of bed, finish her morning chores , and trudge all the way to school with a 'sack' of books, attending classes for seven hours with her concentration anywhere , but in those dull letters and numbers inside the text books and on blackboards. Like any rebellious teenager , Romi refused to do any household chores, which greatly upset her mother. This was a major cause of trouble. She would always lament over her luck for begetting a daughter who was apathetic and lackadaisical ( unlike Mrs. Sharma's daughter). To work the whole day without any help from her only child can be really upsetting!!
Romi's exam results had been apalling and at home she was being heaped with more and more scoldings, and accusations of ruining her perfectly brilliant ( as foreseen by her teachers and parents) future.(Incidentally Romi was a ninth grader). What could be more important than studies for a 14 year old!!! A very pertinent issue to make resolutions about. According to her parents, Romi had very little interest in academics and stayed miles away from it. She would rather use her time gainfully, reading story books, taking frequent naps, and of course, entertaining herself with the ubiquitous Television,a wondrous discovery of man ,whose charm was simply irresistable with "Superhit Muqabla", "Mirch Masala", Dekh Bhai Dekh" and so on. How could these boring grown ups call it the "idiot box"!!!
Romi's cousins added further to her woes. Being of the same age, they were brilliance, and goodness incarnates, besides being Einstein and Shakespeare rolled into one!
One can well imagine, what a formidable task it was for Romi to transform herself into a "good girl" as her elders wished her to be. She was fed up with the unsolicited sermons, pontifications and sighs of her parents and being a subject matter of endless discussions with any guest and relative who instantaneously came to know of Romi's deficiencies aplenty.
Romi is different. She wants to remain different. She doesn't want to get bogged down by peer and parental pressures.She wants to do her own thing, live life her way, and find happiness in silly, mundane stuff.
Should becoming an epitome of hard work, top scorer in school, an ascerbic T.V. viewer, and a polite submissive girl full of virtues make it to Romi's list of resolutions for the new year??
You decide...
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