Maya-Story

Synopsis:-
Maya, 8yr old thin girl stays with her father in a small village in east India called Purnia (West Bengal -Bihar border). She dreams to be a well educated working women not like the other women folk of the village , but her father cannot afford to send her to school as he is already in debt and his farm is outdated to earn enough to meet ends.
One fine day, Maya goes with her father to the city of Patna and Mr Jha’s house which was referred to him by a friend who said that they were ready to keep Maya with them and give her the education required , in return they wanted her to help them out with their household work. The family had agreed upon the fact that they would be paying Maya a salary and a part of it would be kept by the family to look after her and the rest would be sent to her father. Her father agreed upon this as this was the only way he could get Maya out of this miserable life and generate some income.
Her father happily left her in Patna with Mr Jha’s family and returned to Purnia. She was allotted a room on the terrace which was part of their store room. As the days passed Maya was asked to do all the household work. She was told by her father that Mr Jha would educate her and when she was done with her school she would have to help Mrs Jha with the household work the rest of the day. Maya was treated badly by Mr Jha’s family and in the course of time the treatment got worse. Day and night they complained of her work and physically tortured her. The only time Maya got for herself in the evening when Mrs Jha would take the children for a walk in the park. During this break she stared outside the window into a school compound where she saw children of her age playing. This sight disheartened her but as she always dreamed of her life like that but at the end of the day this was the only sight which still kept her will for a better life alive. As the days passed by her treatment worsened and the household work seemed never ending. Maya lost all hope and was ready to accept this as her fate.
One year passed and now it was the month of July. Monsoons had arrived and in Bihar and one evening it rained heavily due to which Mrs Jha’s routine evening walk was disrupted and she decided to stay home. This meant that she would be home and Maya would have to work. She asked Maya to heat milk for her son .Maya left cleaning the house went ahead with the assigned task. Although it was raining but she could still hear children playing in the school compound. She tried not getting distracted but finally gave up and went to the window to watch them play . She got so engrossed in watching the kids play that she forgot about the milk . Suddenly she heard a loud scream and she saw Mrs Jha standing in front of her furious. Then she noticed that the milk had boiled and it spilt all over the stove. Mrs Jha started cursing her and dragged her to the stove and asked her who would pay for this loss and took the vessel full of boiling milk and threw it right at Maya. Maya screamed in pain and the screen fades off. She opens the door and escapes from her misery.
After few days, she is seen sitting surrounded by other children, studying and playing with them.