Story

GUDDIYA

My story delves into the mind of a woman called Gauri, who cannot give birth. She blames herself for all this and thus continues to suppress her maternal feelings. The story also talks about how Adoption is another beautiful method to start a family.

Gauri belongs to a middle class family who after marriage discovers she can’t give birth to a child. She misses the feeling of mother hood and craves for a child of her own. Inspite of her regular visits to the doctor to cure the proelem and also her infinite visits to the temple, she couldn’t bear a child. God had different plans for her. Soon after all the treatments, the couple gave up. But her husband chooses a different path. He left the house, leaving behind papers of divorce for gauri. She didn’t complain, she knew that was to happen at some point of time, after all she couldn’t give the most important happiness , the happiness of being a father.

She owns a big shop of dolls, dolls which she stitches herself at home. She mainly spends her days making dolls or staring outside the window in the evening when little children come out to play. She feels happy when she hears their voices in the evening, giggling and laughing out loud. She had abstained herself from any kind of social gathering and hadn’t spoken to her own family for long. She was tired of the regular questions her family or other relatives would ask.

One day when she is in her shop, she makes a very pretty doll. Once completed she looked at it with envious eyes and caresses it. Suddenly the doll comes to life and calls her “mother”. She gets very surprised and hugs the doll immediately. She feels like god finally heard her prayers. The whole day she plays around with her new doll daughter till the time they get tired and fall off to sleep. suddenly the shop door opens and 2 customers come inside. Gauri wakes up with a jerk, looking around for her doll daughter. The doll is in her arms, but now an inanimate object. She stares at the doll, tear trickling down her cheek and then smiles at the customers.

Soon she shuts her shop and starts to walk back home. While walking back home, suddenly a ball hits her leg. she turns back. A little girl (around 4 years) comes out running from the house, for the ball. To Gauri’s surprise this girl looked exactly like the doll she had made, who had come alive in her dreams. She stares at the girl in astonishment. The girl picks up the ball and stares at the doll in Gauri’s hand with envious eyes. Gauri bends down and gives the child the new doll. The child happily takes the doll and runs inside the house to play with her new toy. Gauri smiles and starts to walk back to her place, when suddenly her eyes fell on a board, old and rusted, which was kept at the side of the house, as if it had been ignored for years. The board read, “Adoption center”.

Gauri was shocked, she thought why would anyone leave that beautiful child behind for adoption. She stands there for couple of seconds and then the screen turns black.

The last shot is the starting shot of the movie, where she is staring at her family pictures. The album is open at the same page ie. she and her husband’s photograph. She then flips the page and there are pictures of her and the new adopted daughter of hers. She flips further; we see the pictures of her and her daughter, with her parents or relatives.

VO: I learnt that Anahita suffered from a weak heart, one of the reasons why she was left behind by her birth parents and also why she didn’t get a family till now. It was as if we were meant for each other. Both suffered from heart aches…..but not anymore.

With such pictures at the side the credits flow vertically.

THE END