Jan 24, 2005 10:09 AM
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(Updated Jan 24, 2005 10:09 AM)
Story of a Good Indian Woman who is often heard & seen asking ?Life? what exactly is it suffering from after all ?
She is also seen asking the mirror ? whether its gone hazy or is it that her face has lost its identity?
Such questions are being asked by the lead lady of this serial Renuka Sahay. Her story in this serial Kora Kagaz is as follows :
Parents settle marriage by following age old rituals like matching horoscopes, and trusting a panda(matchmaker) ..like innocent trusting lambs, they give away their elder daughter , who they had given birth to and had brought her up with so much love, care, affection, educated her ? she went to school etc. was an educated woman.
On the wedding night ? after the marriage is over , and she is sitting all curled up on the bed decorated with flowers (thinking that hubby dear will sing like Shashi Kapoor sang to Rakhi ..oops sorry vice versa? in the hindi film ?Kabhi-2?) ? but fate had a cruel locha destiny in store for her ! Pray what was that? ? she found out that hubby darling is in love with a more bold and modern girl who is trendy, wears trousers, lipstick with lip liner, lots of mascara and kajal.. basically all the ladies? beauty product advertisements that is shown on TV and read about in magazines, boards & hoardings is used in totality by this hubby?s girl friend..lover.
Good Indian Woman sobs bitterly ? tears rolling down her cheeks ? she remains a kora kaagaz ? bole` to- chaste & wedded virgin bride - vermillion smeared good Indian daughter-in-law for the rest of the serial - serving her parent-in-laws who had, after all ,given birth to a great son, who, in order to make his parents happy had agreed to marry a behenji chaap Indian woman?in spite of having a steady modern & trendy girl friend !
Obviously the serial Director caught the common man?s attention, so he continued playing with her destiny??by giving her a ray of hope in the form of a handsome , young & hot blooded brother-in-law. Now begins the incentive game ? the carrot & stick incentive - Bear with the new set of parent-in-laws and you will get this handsome hunk to live with happily ever after?.
She obeys obediently. She was not modern looking, plump, dark & un-smart, unwaxed? to look at ?but here she had 60% chances of winning the heart of a guilt-conscious brother-in-law ? hereinafter called BIL - who used to feel utterly disturbed by seeing a poor wedded Plain paper loitering around their house ?serving them as servant.
Why could she not go back to her parents? Now that?s a million dollar question ? but Director has well taken care of that ? her family is poor ? already having to support a younger sister and a failure brother. Yes, her parents never saw the Family Planning advertisements where the Government is going on harping on family Planning and the use of condoms ? the father who although looked educated, in spite of poor financial conditions, went ahead reproducing one child after the other ? thus ruining his own life and giving unfulfilled livelihood to all his children !
Also society - that is the neighborhood people would have sneered at them and made fun of them for having to bring back their already married daughter ? as no body would have ever believed that she is a virgin ! ? Indian parents living with a non-virgin daughter is a social stigma ! although in hindi movies we often here songs like ?Duniya ki aisee ki taisee? (to hell with the world) ? but in real life it is not so ? it cannot be so ? it better not be so.Also since younger sister was not married ? they had this fear that younger daughter will never get a chance that a woman waits since the day she is born ? when will she get a new set of Parents-in-laws !!(a famous hindi film song worth mentioning here is ? Maa ne` to hamen janam diya, Sasu ne` diya hame` pyaara piya !(Daughter singing thusly : our own mother has but just given birth to us but dear mother-in-law has given us a lovly husband!!) ..well in case of Kora Kaagaz?Renuka will eventually sing the same song ..only after a few years of testing ? carrot& stick game !
Anyways, yet another twister in Renuka?s life ? BIL?s marriage is being fixed with his childhood friend, lover ? smart, vivacious, trendy girl ? and BIL has to go around with her, right in front of Renuka?s eyes?..she is sad again ? the carrot incentive theory was failing speedily !!
Then BIL meets with an accident - looses his memory (not the serial director?s fault actually ? he has learnt the art of making serials by watching hindi films ? and more or less all the hindi film have this common factor ? Accident-loose memory !...but these lost memory personalities (LMP) remember what to do when in the toilet & bathroom?.(sigh).
DIL (daughter-in-law bole? to Renuka) serves him. DIL goes back home and joins her parents. But by now BIL is in love with her ? BIL comes to meet her from the window?oh! My God ? DIL is experiencing Romeo-Juliet in real life ? she is happy ? the fairy tales she had read in childhood were coming true !! ? a lover meting her at her window sill ? parents are objecting ? sudden bouts of responsibility erupting?.in Indian parents ?
BIL is about to get married to The Other Woman(his childhood girl friend ? who in spite of being trendy & modern & also seeing clearly that BIL is in love with DIL ? still clings to him ?afterall Indian woman ? she can?t accept defeat from a behenji chaap renuka ! ? BIL regains lost memory ? they get married (Doodarshan authorities had given the ultimatum actually to wind up) ? Kora Kaagaz seen sitting curled up on a flower decorated bed ? this time we all hope that she will be written on ..and the ink will make her a ?Filled Paper?! ? the reason why a woman is born I guess !!
