Short Story: Wild Prayers by Swayamsrestha Kar

Swayamsrestha Kar’s story with its engaging narrative showcases the ugliness of a patriarchal society.

One day, the youngest daughter-in-law of the house went missing, apparently on her way to the temple. She wasn’t a model woman by any measure: often dozing off while minding the mud stove at the back of the house, not paying attention to the dhenki when milling rice or wheat, so her mother-in-law would often chip a tooth on a little pebble. “The woman eats like a pig, she will eat whatever she can find in the pantry,” her sister-in-law announced to the neighbours who had gathered around to discuss where to look for her. “I break my back in the fields all day, I ask her to massage my legs a little and what does she do? Just sulks and walks away!” exclaimed her husband. But a wife was a wife, after all, so they had to go looking for her.