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The Bitter Truth
Far from the crowd, one man saw me and came towards me. He consoled me and took me towards my father. I asked about my mother, they said she was dead inside the house. I am unable to move and all of a sudden, I can’t hear anything, people are moving here and there. I walked into the house and went towards her, I shook her and called “Ma, please wake up”. Slowly I can hear noises where people were saying “she is no more”. I have no idea what to do now, I stuck myself to the wall and was staring at her and my father’s body.
People were saying “at least you came at the right time, we tried to contact you, but we were unable to reach you “They started preparation for the last rituals that need to be performed by me for my parents. When I asked about my sister, they said she was not traceable for a week. I am in a dilemma with a lot of questions in my mind. While I am moving towards the burial ground, all I visualize are the moments that I had with my parents. I am unable to digest the fact that my father who is so positive and with no haters committed suicide.
We reached the burial ground and finished all the formalities. Everyone started leaving one by one. I sat there looking them burning. My life is now a blank paper, there is nothing to read and write here. I started thinking about my sister and her whereabouts. I am searching for reasons what made my parents to take such a big decision.
It is dark, I am still sitting in the burial ground. An old man came from backward and put his hand on me. I turned around and asked, “do we knew each other?”. He smiled and sat beside me and asked “what is the valuable thing in your life?”. I replied, “you are already seeing them in Infront of you”. He looked at me and said that my eyes are dried and offered me something to eat. He understood my hunger, I guess. He offered me some food and said he has something to say to me. He asked me again” what is running in your mind? I replied “My father is not a person who gets down with the problems in life, I have seen him passing through several hard times. I am unable to figure out what led him to take such a decision in his life? I worked hard for them but now I don’t even know the purpose of my life.
He replied “the one thing that haunts everyone is a question without an answer, most of the people end their life without finding the same. I can’t help you with the question of your life, but I can help you by answering what happened to your father.” I asked, “do you know what happened to him?”. He replied, “Yes, I do”. Then I requested him to tell me the same. The old man replied “Your father used to come to our town to work daily with some contractors. Sometimes your sister used to join with him. I worked with him for a few days. He is a good person and he says a lot about you. In the meantime, he went to work under a contractor named Kumar. He is known as a good person in society, but his cruel intentions were not seen by many. Once your father took a loan from him and later, he was unable to repay it as crops didn’t grow well. Kumar is a womanizer, no one knows about it. He asked your sister in exchange for fulfilling his desires in exchange for waving his loan. Your father didn’t agree with it, he stopped working under him. Kumar is an influential person as his brother Nikhil is a politician. He didn’t let your father get a chance to work under others and spoiled your crops by adding some chemicals in it. He spoke to me once and told me that he wants to save your sister.”
The old man continued “he cannot go against him legally, he spread false allegations on him in the village using his caste and made him separated from his community members. That is the reason why many people didn’t pay last respects to him today. Later someday I heard the news that your sister is not found. I guess your father asked her to run away from here. One thing I can say is that your parents suffered a lot and the only reason behind it is a society where they didn’t listen to his voice against that Kumar. All are blind in seeing the truth in their words.” I got so angry and wanted to kill that guy. Then the old man replied “this is not your father want, I said this so you won’t suffer in silence. He wants you to be a person who inspires others”. I said that his wish will be fulfilled, but I won’t leave that Kumar, who is behind all this. Then the old man replied,” If you want to take revenge, Kumar is not the only one, you have to face his brother, Nikhil and his enemies too.” I replied “I will make him undergo everything I went.
I asked the old man,” are you not scared of telling truth to me, if they find you, they will kill you?”, the old man replied, “ I am no different than you, you and I have nothing to lose, but the only thing I see in you is future your father had dreamed off for you.” I replied, “Thank you”. The old man replied that he will take a leave and gave me the address where I can find Kumar. He moved into the dark and I can’t see him.
The next day, I collected the ashes of my parents from the burial ground and reached my home. I took whatever is left in the home and sold everything in the nearby town and left my village with their memories. I went to town, where I can find Kumar and started working there. I wrote a letter to the temple administrator that I can’t come there for a while and explained everything that happened here.
I am unable to see Kumar moving around as if nothing bothered to him, I put a close eye on him and came to know that there are many other girls affected by him. One night “I decided to kill him”.
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Regards
Avinash Reddy.
directionless writings 