Teenager Sanya Runwal’s debut book Ten Dollar Bride is a brave attempt at showcasing the harsh realities of women’s lives

After reading Ten Dollar Bride, you will be forgiven if you think the author is a grown-up. That’s because 17-year-old Sanya Runwal’s short stories are unlike any other teenager’s expressions you might have come across.

Inspired by true events, the short stories in the book deal with the dreams and desires of young girls in the country. Each time they try to achieve their heart’s desire, they have to battle it out with patriarchy — whether it’s the girl who dreams of becoming an engineer but ends up getting married off in Broken Wings or the girl whose dreams of living a happy married life with her husband are cut short in Honorable Disgrace.

These stories might remind you of countless tragedies you would have come across in newspapers or on television. But that, seems to be the author’s effort — to remind you of those stories which you might have forgotten. And although all her stories do not have happy endings, it’s a deliberate choice she has made. Says Sanya, “I didn’t want to write about that happy ending because the truth is that most of these women don’t get a happily ever after. The truth is ugly but it’s still the truth. I hope that my stories strike a chord deep enough within and sympathy leads to action, because together we have to change this environment that has trapped both men and women in a vicious cycle of suffering.”