I still remember the first day she came to work at the workshop that produces what we sell at my craft and textile shop in Santiniketan. Very young - just 18 - and very shy, Siuli was recommended and brought by another colleague in the embroidery unit. They came from the same village, about seven kilometres from our workshop. This was about three years ago. Siuli's face was so covered with her black synthetic dupatta you could hardly see it.
We soon discovered that what Siuli lacked in experience she made up for in skills. Her embroidery was of an exceedingly high order and I say this after 12 years of working with Muslim women, who are all very skilled. I and my colleagues would look at Siuli's work and wonder how her small hands produced what they did.
As she spent more time in the workshop, away from her village, Siuli's demeanour changed. Her dupatta, which used to cover her face almost entirely, became more and more an adornment, till it disappeared altogether. Her shiny synthetic clothes gave way to cotton garments in muted shades. Although she spoke little, clearly she was observing and learning from all the people who visited our workplace. Her sense of responsibility was high as was her sense of design and colour. I was increasingly leaving a lot of the planning and distribution of work to her and would even depend on her aesthetics.
Through all this of course, her parents wanted to get her married but Siuli was picky. Her two younger sisters were married off in the time that she had been working with us. Then two months back Siuli came to me and said her marriage had been fixed and that she needed a loan to pay for her dowry and wedding expenses. She had saved a lot herself - her parents had no money to spend on her wedding - and was only asking for a top-up loan. I said I was fine with lending her the money but wondered how she would pay it back if her in-laws did not allow her to work after her marriage.
She said there was no question of her not working because she had apparently made that clear to her fiance and in-laws, and she was not ready to compromise. The wedding date was fixed and we were invited. All transactions were complete, the wedding was over, we had our sweets and returned home. Siuli was supposed to go on leave for a month and would return to work from her new abode.
Just a week after Siuli's marriage, Mariam, the woman who had introduced Siuli to us and was from her village, came to me and said that Siuli had decided to annul the marriage because the boy was not physically okay. Not wanting to delve deeper into the matter, I asked what would happen to the dowry and the gifts that were exchanged. Mariam told me that the boy had already been taken to a doctor and it had been decided by people from the bride and groom's villages that all the money, jewellery and furniture taken as dowry would be returned.
Siuli returned to work much before her one-month leave was to get over. Just as I was admiring her spunk for speaking up and taking such quick action, she came to me one day and said she wanted a day's leave. I asked her what was up and she said she was getting married, this time to her cousin. Her voice was steady and matter-of-fact, revealing none of the emotions I thought she possibly felt.
How did he agree, I asked, alluding to her broken marriage only recently. He asked for a bike was all she would say.
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