ABSTRACT
Rajeena stood staring at me with a resolute look in her eyes. She had come alone all the way from her house to see me on her mother’s instigation. Her father had told her the previous night that he had no money for her notebooks. It was his way to say that she now ought to stop going to school. With her 11 years it was inappropriate for her to walk all along the main road alone to the upper primary school. Men would start staring at her soon and the neighbours would gossip, so he feared.
