It had been building over time.

The fire collapsing into the water pulling it upwards till the difference blurred.

And then the heavens opened up with deluge of an eternity’s wait, awakening the parched earth.

Thus she was born.

“So, its true. It is a she.” Her father smirked, replacing the speck of pink flesh back into the cradle. 

“Yes.” Her mother answered, head bowed in acceptance of an unforgivable transgression perpetrated in her womb.

As ‘Sita’ grew up, the seed of light burst out of her in brilliant flashes of innocence, briefly illuminating the murk around. It worried her mother to know that ‘Sita’ was destined to fly. And fly so high that even if she stretched her hands and tried to hold ‘Sita’ in her arms, she wouldn’t succeed. She felt a sense of duty and reverence towards this curious fruit of providence. So in her own quiet determined way she attempted to hide ‘Sita’ from the evil eyes of the predators surrounding her.

Besides, her own life had been snatched away from her and held hostage to the whims of men. She didn’t want the vicious cycle to be repeated again for she knew how precious ‘Sita’ was.  She remembered the day when she first learnt that her dignity of existence could be ripped to shreds for no reason. It was the day she felt the searing hot hollow of nothingness, as she was accused of being a sinner, a rotten characterless whore bound to sleep with the entire village, a slut without any respect for the family name. All this because she had flying kites with some boys and had been better at it than them.

....To be continued...