Pride and Prejudice

December 16, 2025

So many Pride and Prejudice reels on my feed today! Apparently, it is Jane Austen's 250th birth anniversary! There is no time like present to write about my obsession with Pride and Prejudice!

Though I did not step foot in any library until college and did not really have access to any books other than what we read for school, I always knew I enjoyed reading, learning about different people, circumstances, and their stories. The daily Telugu newspaper (https://eenadu.net) was my single thirst quenching resource in those days, a habit that got ingrained in me to this day. I used to feel all fancy on those occasional days I was able to borrow and read the MISHA and Soviet Union magazines from one of my cool friends that had the subscription. It was when I switched from Telugu to English as first language in my 11th grade that I had the first introduction to novels. An abridged version of Pride and Prejudice was on our curriculum that year and my antennae were in full reception mode, absorbing every thought, every character, and feeling every emotion. 

Every guy I liked was put next to me on a wedding altar instantaneously in my imagination, because you know, "A lady's imagination is very rapid; it jumps from admiration to love, from love to matrimony in a moment."

Every guy I liked that did not like me back was a Mr.Darcy telling me that I am "tolerable but not handsome enough...". 

I saw an Elizabeth Bennet in every girl that was able to say exactly what's on her mind even in the most challenging of scenarios. 

When watching Kareena Kapoor's Geet character unabashedly declare "मै अपनी फ़ेवरेट हू|" in the Hindi movie, Jab We Met, I could not help but remember Elizabeth Bennet declaring the same “I am the happiest creature in the world. Perhaps other people have said so before, but not one with such justice.”

I saw a Charlotte Lucas “In nine cases out of ten, a woman had better show more affection than she feels” in every well-meaning friend suggesting to compromise and feed to a man's ego.

I was fully convinced that I was great at initial judgment of men. (“It is particularly incumbent on those who never change their opinion, to be secure of judging properly at first.”)

And of course, there's those killer lines from Mr. Darcy- 

• “In vain I have struggled. It will not do. My feelings will no longer be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you.”

I fully expected the man I was to marry to say those exact words like Mr. Darcy before I would even consider the marriage...but alas I did not have the patience and resolve of Ms. Elizabeth Bennet (“If a woman is partial to a man, and does not endeavour to conceal it, he must find it out.") and ended up proposing to my man first! 

There is something I did learn from Elizabeth Bennet and her creator, Jane Austen- to continue to be fearless and rise above every challenge life throws at me. 

"There is a stubbornness about me that never can bear to be frightened at the will of others. My courage always rises at every attempt to intimidate me.” - Elizabeth Bennet

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• Jane Austen may have never married or had a serious relationship in real life, but her novel, Pride and Prejudice, is a timeless manifestation of a woman's deepest feelings and thoughts on marriage and relationships. I take pride in the fun fact that I got married to my husband on the same day as Jane Austen's birthday!

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