He sat brewing his coffee, with the past knocking his door, he felt that it was her curse which brought him this fate. He could distinctly remember the dream and an infant sobbing and telling Ranjeet "Papa! What was my fault ? Why did you disallow my birth? In which way sons are better than the daughters? You would learn it the hard way, Papa, that daughters care more for their parents than the sons. You would curse your self then, for I shall come back to teach you this lesson, Papa!"
Ranjeet could clearly remember that the year was 1978. Ranjeet, along with his wife had lived in a small village, near Palampur in Himachal Pradesh. He was a school teacher in a government school. The couple had two daughters.Ranjeet , his wife Ranjana and Ranjeet,s parents were very keen to have a male child. It was the month of August 1978 that his wife had been pregnant for three months. A friend suggested had that they better get an Ultra sound done to determine the sex of the child to be born. Ranjeet's parents also insisted.
Ranjeet and his wife came to Amritsar and got the ultra sound done in a private hospital. In those a lot of private clinics used to do sex determination with good fees. In the test, it came out that gender of the child was female. This put off Ranjit his wife. He came back home and told his parents. His mother was badly disturbed. She accused, Ranjana, Ranjeet's wife for not being able to conceive a male child. Ranjeet's parents were told by village astrologer that Ranjana was cursed and she can not give birth to a son. They wanted Ranjeet to go for second marriage.
This caused a lot of mental tension both to Ranjana and Ranjeet. A friend suggested that they they should get the pregnancy medically terminated and then visit Swami NITYANAND at Kangra, who had godly powers to mitigate their ordeal. Accordingly, Ranjeet and Ranjana came to Amritsar for abortion. Though Ranjana did not want to do so, but she had the threat of Ranjeet's second marriage looming over her head. So, she reluctantly agreed for the termination of pregnancy.
On the day abortion was carried out, Ranjeet had this dream, where a young child had cursed him. And today, sitting at a way side tea stall at Nurpur, on road Pathankot-Dharamshala, Ranjeet was wondering if this was the revenge! He was on his way to his village along with his wife---to the same old ancestral house which had become almost ruins. He had nowhere else to go because he had spent all his savings on the marriages of his daughter and settling his son. He was in a deep remorse. This was the time he went into flashback mode.
********************************************************************************
After the medical termination of pregnancy in August 1978, Ranjeet and his wife ,on the friend's advice, had gone to Swami Nityanand's Ashram. They stayed in the ashram for seven days. Swami Nityanand used to give them some medicine, which put them both to sleep every night. Ranjana felt something fishy and told Ranjeet but he was in no mood to listen. On the 8th day, Swami Nityanand met them and asked them to visit 21 Temples of Goddesses to be blessed with the son.So, they went to all the nearby temples of the GODDESSES to pray to them to fulfill their wish.
As luck would have it, in the month of November 1978, his wife delivered a male child. As soon as Ranjeet was told by the doctor that his wife Ranjana had delivered a male child, he had jumped and fisted into the air as if he was saying, “Eureka, I have done it”.
When his son Randeep was five years old, he had shifted to Yol Cantonment, near Dharamshala. He had put him in Sacred Heart School. He could hardly afford the fees of the school but the couple made this sacrifice for the good education of their beloved son.
As Randeep grew up, he graduated as an Electronics Engineer. Ranjeet had to withdraw Rs 20,000 from his provident fund to pay for his admission to an Engineering College. In fact, Randeep was in the waiting list and Ranjeet paid Rs 10,000 to a middleman to arrange his seat in the college. In June 2008, Ranjeet retired. Fortunately, Randeep had picked up a job with ICICI BANK at New Delhi.
At New Delhi, Randeep fell in love with a Guajarati girl from a very big business family of Mumbai. The parents of the girl initially did not agree but had put certain conditions for the marriage. Randeep had agreed, because of his deep love. Randeep also, had rented a house in Vasant Kunj at the rate of Rs 10000 / per month and had asked his parents to move in there. The parents were delighted at this gesture of their son. They left their dilapidated ancestral house and moved to New Delhi to live with their son. It was the 23rd day of January 2009.
They had been living with him for two years when day Randeep told his parents of his love affair. With great reluctance but for the sake of their son's happiness, they had agreed for this economically mismatched marriage. Ranjeet tried to explain to his son of his background but Randeep would have none of it. Marriage took place. Reception was at HAYAT REGENCY and Ranjeet bore all the expenditure. He finished his last penny.
Just one month after the marriage Randeep got a job with HDFC bank at Pune. He moved there. In fact, this was the precondition lad by his in-laws that he should move to Mumbai or Pune after marriage. His wife had stayed back with his parents for sometimes. A fortnight later, she went to meet her parents in Mumbai and never returned.
When after a month and a half on 30 August 2012, they complained to Randeep, he curtly told them that she was staying with him. Also, Ranjeet told them that he couldn't afford hiring of houses at two places. He advised them to take a loan from Ramta, his elder sister at Gurgaon, and clear the rent arrears of the Rohini flat. There couldn't have been a bigger shock than this.
Ramta's husband did help them to clear their debt. Ramta asked them to move into their house but he knew his culture did not allow him to stay with their daughter indefinitely. Despite his daughter's pleading and requests , they had decided to go back to their ancestral village.
*******************************************************************************
Conductor of the bus was blowing the whistle.-----Ranjeet was not concerned till Bus conductor came to him and said<" Janab, UTHO, CHALO CHALIYE----KEHDI SOCH VICH HO---JO SAADI WHISTLE BHI NAHI SUNAYI DITTI --( Sir, Get up, Let us go----What are you so seriously thinking that you could not hear my whistles). Ranjeet was shaken out of his trance -------he was reluctantly, with shaking legs moving towards the bus and thinking------"-Oh! the unborn child's curse has come true!" But he did NOT know whether that child was Randeep or his wife !!
No comments:
Post a Comment