Keeping Corner

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Ba slipped the gold bangles from my wrists. The gold ones were plain, but I loved my milk-glass bangles and lakkh bracelets. "A widow can't wear bangles," she said. "They are signs of a woman's good fortune. When your husband dies, it's over." "What if my good fortune comes back?" "It doesn't." Pretty as a peacock, twelve-year-old Leela had been spoiled all her life. She didn't care for school and barely noticed the growing unrest between the British colonists and her countrymen. Her future was planned since her engagement at two and marriage at nine. However, everything changes when her husband dies. Now, she must behave like a proper widow: shaving her head and trading her vibrant saris for rough, earth-colored ones. Considered unlucky, she will be confined to her house for a year, mourning a boy she barely knew. When her schoolteacher learns of her fate, she offers Leela lessons at home. For the first time, despite her confinement, Leela begins to see the changing world around her. India is suffering from drought, and farmers struggle to pay taxes to the British. She learns about Gandhi, who leads a political movement practicing satyagraha—non-violent protest against colonists and the caste system. Could this quiet strength liberate her country and herself?