Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Shattered

Image source - Google Image Search
Rajat sat at the window and gazed at the street below. His age children were playing cricket, bathing in the summer sun. He had not joined them during this summer holidays. Just a few days ago, he had boasted of going to Shimla during the holidays. Rajat believed that joining his friends for cricket now would be an insult to his pride. The cancellation had come as a shock. Rajat did not understand a word when his dad told him about the trip being canceled. "Stocks fall, Lehmann brothers", nothing made sense. He cursed his father for planting a dream in mind and brutally murdering it.

Raksha stood in the crowded bus stop. All the buses came full. As she squeezed in awkwardly into one such bus, her college bag handle snapped. She managed to cling onto it, with a couple of fingers. This was not new. Raksha commuted 25 kms everyday in such crowded buses to her college from home. Her dad's promise of buying her a scooty had been broken. "All money is lost in stocks", he had said. Raksha just cursed her father for the false promises.


Geetha did not get sleep. She got up from bed to the loud sound of TV. She shouted at Raksha and Rajat to reduce the volume. Rajat reduced the volume, to let mom sleep. Still sleep eluded her. Even a whisper in the living room would appear loud in her bed room. This house sucks. Especially after checking out a new apartment. She would have moved to the new home by now. But then Sudhir lost everything in stocks and other investments. She cursed her husband wholeheartedly for the dingy house.


Sudhir sat in the bar with a vodka in hand. "Why did I invest all my money in it?", he pondered. Lot of thoughts flooded his mind. Is it wrong to think of buying a scooty to his dear daughter? Should she travel in the dingy buses hearing lewd remarks from passengers? What is wrong in planning to take the family for a vacation? Should his son always hear about other kids tours and never speak about his? Is it a mistake to think a own roof on the head? Don't his wife and grown up daughter deserve some privacy and personal rooms? For all this, the quick money was stocks. He did all the investments for the sake of his dear son, daughter and wife. Instead of building hearts, he had broken them.

Tears rolled down his cheeks as he started his walk towards his home.

3 comments:

Ravi said...

athi aase gathi kedu

Anonymous said...

That as touching .. Simple-y beautiful ! A reality with many would relate to .. I loved the second last lines , its damn true !!

Prashanth Pedduri said...

You are one short of reaching 400 blog posts in total...! Kudos Manju! :)