It all started when I was still in high school. I had thought of a way to get around my curfew. I’d start sleepwalking, not for real, just as a way to cover not being in my room if mom or dad checked up on me. To set up this cover I would make it a point to sneak from my room to the guest bedroom or the living room two or three times a week. I even had an excuse for developing this behavior. Mom and Dad were having some sort of problem. I found out about this one night as I was going to the guest bedroom, which took me right past their door. “Well if that’s the way you feel about it then GO!” Mom said with a half sob in her voice. I got out of there fast, just in case dad was about to do just that right then. I wasn’t sure what it had been about but it was a good cover for my plans. Family problems can cause teen to act in all sorts of strange ways. About a week after graduation Dad moved out. All mom would say about it was that they had been having some problems and were trying a tri...
This is the story of Prerna, a newlywed Indian wife, who is taken against her wish on an overnight train. HER: My name is Prerna. I was a newly married 24 year old woman. Married just three days ago, I was on my way to our honeymoon to a nearby hill station. Sitting on the lower berth in an AC 2 tier compartment of an overnight express train, with my husband sitting beside me, I was staring at my reflection in the train's huge glass window. The reflection in the glass window made me reflect on my life till then. Born in a typical middle-class Indian family and being an only child, I had been raised like a princess. My mother said that I was the apple of her eyes. Although slightly pampered throughout my childhood, I had grown into a fine mature girl by the time I was eligible for marriage. Praised for my beauty from the time of my birth, I had developed into an attractive woman after puberty. And adolescence had put the icing on the cake. By the time of my last teen birthday, I had...