Fiction: Stories by Kannada writer Kodagina Gouramma Gouramma, who wrote of dowry and widowhood

When I was a little boy, my neighbour’s son went to England to sit for some exam and came back after touring Europe. Then, the respect the villagers gave him, his car, his new fashionable clothes, the way he walked, the way he spoke, all this made me long to go to England and come back like him. This desire took root in my childhood, and became stronger as I grew up, instead of being forgotten. It was because of this fierce longing to go to England that I did not fail even one year in school. I was the class topper; I was a model student in school. There was no one who did not hold me in high regard in school and at home.

After finishing high school and joining college, my desire to go to England became so strong as to trump every other desire. My father had enough income to lead a comfortable life, but he could not afford to send me abroad. I did not know this then. That year, I had sat for my BA exams. The holidays had started. The exam results had not yet come. I did not have any worries over the...

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