Chapter 2: Plant response to elevated CO2 - DRUM - University of ...

it. But that means I can never step out of the home for I have to be there when they work.
You might think I’m just really idle and spoilt having the luxury to complain about
maids and cooks. Except I know you will never think like that about me. It really binds
me down all this — I can’t go out like we used to walking through the fields, going for
movies, going to the market looking for hair clips and bindis, studying when we felt like
(except we never felt like). Mother says that’s the difference between married and
unmarried life as though marriage is that one single life‐changing event. As though the
life of a woman can be compartmentalized only that neatly — married / unmarried like
on govt. forms. Then Shobha stopped. She knew she wouldn’t write to Shilpa now,
not just yet. Perhaps some time later, much later when she would sound better,
like before.
A small girl with radiant black eyes and a bright red frock, torn at the
edges, was advertising her wares: small stone earrings, plastic combs, clips and
other such brightly coloured baubles, in a high‐pitched voice. She pushed her
way across to the next berth, upsetting a woman rubbing tobacco in the hollow
of her palm. The next berth was full of young college girls singing a popular
Hindi pop song in loud, excited voices. Shobha picked it up and started
humming, her thoughts drifting to the sunny languid afternoons of Pithampur
and the gentle breeze beneath the mango groves. She drifted off to sleep and
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