A Life Of Your Own

One of the most heartening stories I have come across about women’s choice and freedom is from a mid-90s tele series, Thoda Sa Aasmaan, a story capturing the lives of three women from different age groups. The first one rebels against her parents to follow her dream job. The second makes the choice of moving out of a lonely and suffocating marriage. And the third leaves behind 40 years of conjugality after being betrayed by her husband, even though her kids refused to support her decision to move out. The situations of these three women are different, but the common thread in their stories is that they overcame oppressive social mores to carve out a life of dignity, one where they had the freedom to follow their dreams. The series was, of course, making a larger point, but the future of these women was left to the imagination of the audience. Real life, though, gives no such...