MOTHER

MOTHER

I pass through that path every day, irrespective of my odd office timings. Going there is a mandatory task for me and every time I have tears rolling down my face when I return from the graveyard. My mother’s grave has been a place of deep sorrow, sorrow, in the purest sense of that word.

It all started when I was just four years old. A childless couple found me on the road. My original parents were able to support me due to their poor financial condition. This couple could but resist adopting me, who could when they heard the innocent cry of a hungry four-year-old child, but the fact remains that it was them who had enough sympathy and kindness in their hearts as to not allow hunger in that child after the very moment their eyes fell upon him, and still many others had apathy enough in their heart to ignore that hunger.

My foster father worked in a firm which made cement. He just earned enough to support a family of three. I was put in the local high school. Just when I was about to finish tenth grade, was when I received the first heavy blow of grief in my second life which had begun just over ten years ago. A strike was being organized in the factory where my father worked. All the workers including my father were taking part in it to demand a rise in wages.

The factory owner got wind of this and bribed the police to teach the demonstrators a lesson. The police thus struck down heavily with the ‘lathi’ charges. Many were injured and some were killed. Among the dead bodies lying there was the corpse of my father. His eyes were wide open due to the last emotion of fear and pain and the rest of his face had bruises too. I could not stand that horror-struck face so with my burning out of grief, I left the cemetery as soon as I had entered it.

How we even managed to bear the pain and grief is now even beyond me. My father’s sudden demise left us extremely poverty-stricken. To overcome it, my mother started working in people’s houses. She held the belief that I should keep on studying so that one day I could get a decent job and relieve us from this life.

As soon as I graduated, I started searching for a job like a hungry lion searching for its prey. I tried every nook and cranny of the city, and for days and days on end I kept searching. I went here and there, talking to people, and looking for a job, but all effort went in vain. After my mother’s decision of continuing my education, it became an everlasting desire to rid my mother of the hard work and pain she was bearing for me. At last, after a search lasting weeks, I found a job at a call centre.

When my mother heard of it, she hugged me out of love and happiness. There was a gleam of joy on her face. That night she prepared the best meal she could afford out of our current finances. We hoped the feast would be better next month when I would get my first salary.

After one month, the day arrived when I would be handed down my salary. It was not much but much more than what my mother was able to earn. I carried the money safely to my house. When I reached there I saw the most terrible sight of my lifetime. There a crowd had gathered. What I then saw and heard was something that I cannot forget till the time of my death. My house was ablaze with flames pouring out everywhere. I could hear my mother screaming from inside, her voice distantly calling my name. I stood there frozen with horror. When the voice died out, I knew my mother was dead. All her tears and the hard work she did for my sake were now flashing before my very eyes. I do not know which emotion overthrew me but I started running towards the burning house with the intention of burning myself down with the house but the crowd seized me. I tried to break free, but couldn’t.

I have asked myself countless times after that incident, about what is the point of my earning if there is not one person for whom I did all this, but then I always get the answer that this earning is not meaningless. It signifies the dream of that mother who wants a bright and happy future for her son, what does it matter even if it is an adopted one. Now I work even harder to make her dream come true and give her the satisfaction if she is watching me from heaven, that she longed for till her last breath.