Free Life Is What You Make It A Story Of Love, Hope And How Determination Can Overcome Even Destiny by Preeti Shenoy

what was happening. I wanted to go and see, but Abhi pulled me back.
    “Let us wait here Ankita, Trust me, it won't be a pretty scene.”
    “How can I, Abhi?! We can't just sit here.”
    “Yes, we can. I think I know what is happening out there. Look, there is nothing you and I can do. You can't reason with cops. Let us stay here. Now listen to me and don't protest.”
    I did listen to him. We stayed on that bench for almost two hours till the noise and confusion died down.
    Destiny had indeed changed in a matter of moments. The next day was a nightmare for everyone in Agnes and everyone associated with Agnes. Splashed in huge blazing headlines across the pages of almost all Malayalam dailies and a few English newspapers too were screaming headlines that said “Agnes girls caught in hotel rooms,”, “Agnites show a talent of a different kind,” and many more such sarcastic one liners. It was mudslinging at its worst.
    We had been the celebrities of the moment and now had fallen. The rival colleges were pouncing upon it like vultures. The mighty Agnes girls were shamed. We would later find out that it was one of the office bearers of the host college who had connections with the student wings of the political parties, who had engineered this whole police drama. We would also later find out that the naval cadets who were involved had punitive action taken against them too.
    Sanjana and Suja's photos were splashed across the newspapers with unpleasant and unnecessary details and also the names of the naval guys they were with. In a place like Kerala, it was a fate worse than death. The fact was that they were all over eighteen and what they were doing was entirely their business was forgotten. But conservative Kerala had no place or tolerance for such things. Good girls simply did not go to hotel rooms with men and get caught in police raids. Only prostitutes did that.
    What hurt me most and disillusioned me completely was the reaction of the college authorities. They promptly expelled Sanjana and Suja. Sister Evangeline released a press statement saying how just two girls had tarnished the reputation of the college. The college had a history of more than a hundred years and never in its history had such a thing happened. They blamed the girls and their parents. Then after a hurried conference and closed door meeting with other faculty members, they announced that they were reinstating a new chairperson for the college whom they had unanimously agreed upon. Their choice of chairperson was someone the rest of us would grow to hate—she was a spineless coward who could only suck up to authority. She had no opinion of her own. She would never even have been nominated, let alone won the election, had she contested for a million years. She was plain, unglamorous, had no clue what to do and did not even know how to speak. She was a stooge not a leader.
    Priya, I and all the other office bearers went and met Sr. Evangeline privately. We voiced how strongly we felt about it and that we were representing the thousands of voices of students of the college who wanted to say the same thing. Sister brushed our protests aside.
    “We gave you freedom and you misused it. These girls have brought disgrace to the college. You girls have no choice but to obey,” she said.
    I could not help thinking that as long as the girls kept winning and bringing the laurels home, they were adored. As long as they were ‘useful’ and they ‘performed’, it was great. But the moment things went a little awry, they were dropped like hot potatoes.
    Later I told Suvi bitterly “How then is the treatment meted out to these girls different from the treatment that is meted out to prostitutes? Both are used.”
    “You're perfectly right,” she said. “At least they get paid for it.”
    The rest of the year was not the same. Without Sanjana to lead the team of office bearers, the entire essence of what it was all about had disintegrated.
    The college