As the alarm started ringing, I woke up to a beautiful and shiny Friday morning; weekend was just a day away now. Having newspaper in one hand, I started brushing my teeth with the other. Shail, my 8-year old son, entered the drawing room half awake, where I was brushing. Rubbing his eyes, he was staring at me.
“Dad”, he called. Busy reading an interesting article, I didn’t notice him. “Dad” he screamed to get my attention. I looked at him. My mouth was still busy brushing, so I was unable to answer him. So, I looked at him and asked with my facial expression “Why did you shout, son?”
“What about our new computer? Ours is too old and slow for me. I can’t do my homework or play any games at home” he said demanding an answer. I didn’t say anything; instead I went to the bathroom to wash my mouth. Having napkin in hand, I just said to him, “I know son, it's just that I am not getting enough time to visit the dealers and ask for good deals”. “We don’t need any deal, dad. I told you my friend’s dad is a computer hardware dealer. He is ready to give us a latest PC at very good price. Why do you need to think so much for just a PC?”
Shocked to hear this, I thought “This generation is really beyond me. We are still driving a cycle, while they are driving jet planes directly.” I didn't want to get angry so I answered calmly “But, I need time to compare prices, otherwise how will I know that your friend’s dad is giving us the best deal.”
“Sheh...you will never buy me that computer...you're just giving excuses” disappointed he stamped his feet and left the room.
“What happened, Shail beta?” Nayyani, my wife, shouted from kitchen and came running to the drawing room, having a cup of tea in hand. “Nothing! He is not in the mood, early morning blues” I said.
“You only spoil his mood every morning. Ok let’s forget about the computer. Computer is too costly as compared to a saree which I have been demanding since last 3 months. Still, you haven’t bought the same for me. I don’t understand, Aru, what is going on in your mind. It’s not like that you are earning too less or we are spending too much!” “What a day” I thought, now dear wife started complaining. Now, it was her turn after my only child, Shail. Though my actual name is Arohan Sharma, but she liked to call me Aru instead. But, all this complaining was was not new to me; am actually used to this. Every morning of mine starts with these kinds of demands and complains only. I usually try to genuinely listen to all of them and make new commitments daily.
Well, Nayyani was not finished complaining though. She continued, “My cousin’s wedding is there next month and I don’t have a good saree to put on that day. Now, it’s high time. We are going for shopping tomorrow, and that’s final”. She left the room, before I could say anything. Only words that came out of my mouth were “Listen Niya” and before I could say more, there was no one to listen to me, so as usual I switched off my speaking mechanism. I used to call her Niya instead of Nayyani.
It was time to rush to office, so I packed my bag and left my house to reach for the ground floor parking where my 10 years old scooter was waiting for me, ready to catch the road towards office. I called Niya to bring the tiffin box, while kicking my scooter. Kick after kick, scooter was not starting. I kept on trying , with no result. Niya reached to me having tiffin box in her hand, and started looking at my poor situation, I was sweating like a pig and laughed at my situation. I was already getting late, and this scooter was just not ready to start. I at last got tired, so I stopped kicking the scooter and started taking deep breaths. “hmm.. you will not able to buy me a good saree, for sure. Because, the scooter which is your power, you use it everyday, and you are not able to get it repaired also. And saree is for occasions only. You are serious about nothing. So, I think, I should forget about that saree.” She handed over the tiffin box and rushed back to home. I didn’t say single word, instead looked at the wrist watch. It was 9:35 already. Even if, scooter starts, the run is of around half an hour to reach office. Thus, it would be difficult to reach office in time. I was tensed...“What should I do now?” I thought.
First of all, I called in the office to inform about being late. Then, I pulled the scooter towards the garage near our tenement. I could easily make out that mechanic was talking about a big cost of repairing indirectly, but I had no option except to get all the repairing works done. Reached bus-stop, and there was an uncountable time waiting. I started staring at people surrounding me. I was among the clutter of people with whom I usually do not interact in my everyday life. Because most of them remain dependent on bus, while I don’t.
A bus stopped by us. People rushed into the bus like anything. Somehow I also managed to rush into the bus. It is usually difficult to find a space to sit in the public transport in peak hours. When I entered the bus, the bus was fully loaded with the sitters. But, after 2-3 bus-stops, a gentleman called me to sit beside him, immediately as soon as that sit became vacant. I did not know him but I also wondered why that man was calling me only, not others. I said him “Thank You”. He said, “Generally children do not thank their guardians”. I was shocked by his statement. I looked at him gently. He was Mr. Marco Fernandes, neighbour of my old house. I got so much exited seeing him beside me. It was around 10 years back, when I saw him last. Giving a big smile, we shared a gentle hug. After starting a little initial conversation like “how are you?”, I asked him about his being there in the bus.
“I am going to bank. My father used to own a land in our village near Goa. He thought to build a house there, but he was not able to fulfil his wish till he died. He purchased the land with the help of a loan. I shifted to Delhi, because of my Job posting rotation. Due to my limited salary, it became difficult for me to pay instalments of the loan. After sometime I could not pay the instalments, so the bank confiscated the land. But, it was God’s blessing that as soon as the land was confiscated, my life insurance policy got matured and I got a big amount cheque, which I used to repay the full amount of the loan. And now am going to complete the procedure to get my land back.” He said happily.
“That’s really great news uncle.” I said. “Yes. I am so happy today. Now, I am planning to leave this fast-running city and settle in the village permanently. I will make a small house on that land and will live there only. Also, I have completed all my social responsibilities. My daughter, Michelle, got married two years back and she is very happy in her in-law’s place. I don’t have any other child. What else a father wishes, if his daughter is happy?”. “Very true” I said.
“Oh, that is my bus stop. I need to get down now. Nice to meet you, my child. Come at my place for a cup of coffee. I am still living in the same place where you grew up” he said before standing up to leave. “Sure. I will come with my wife Niya and Shail, my son”.
“Oh. So, you are also father now. Great news. I would love to see your son. Do come for sure, your aunty will be happy to see you all. Bye son” saying this he got down from the bus.
I started to think after uncle left. That’s the reason why I used to hate debts. In the morning, Nayyani questioned about what is going on in my mind. I was now thinking about what was going on my mind, “I want to provide a good education to my child, may be an IIT and IIM will be good. I am just B.Com. graduate. That’s why I know what problems I faced to reach the position where I am currently. A luxurious flat in Rohini area of Delhi, Shail’s schooling from International school, high standard of living for Nayyani etc. may not have been possible if I did not struggle each day to reach here. Now, for sustaining what I have, I am still struggling. I never took a loan before nor do I plan to indulge myself into this debt-interest process. That’s why I want to save more so that I can fulfil all my and my family’s wishes.” Suddenly bus stopped at my bus stop; I stopped thinking, left the bus and reached to office.
“Boss was asking about some file from your desk, so I just handed over the file to him.” My best friend-cum-colleague, Chinmay Malhotra, told me as soon as I entered office.
“I know which file he might have asked about.” I said.
“Well, boss is calling for you since morning” he said.
“Shit, let me have a cup of coffee first, before I face boss” I told him.
“Sure” Saying this, he left me for reception desk to collect two tokens of coffee.
We poured coffee from the coffee machine into our mugs and started sipping the coffee. My desk phone rang; Chinmay attended it and completed the call as soon as he can. “I think, you should see boss immediately, he was shouting on phone. All the best yaar” He said to me after completing the call.
Leaving the coffee mug on my desk, I entered boss’s cabin. Boss started shouting at me and handed over the pile of files, which were to be finished today itself. So, apart from my routine work, I also had bunch of files to finish. I got irritated, but had no choice. On the way out of boss’s cabin to my desk, I requested Chinmay to drop me till bus-stop in the evening, he agreed. I got relaxed, but for that, I needed to complete all my work by 7 in the evening, so I cut my lunch time. Instead of, having my usual puffs of cigarette and a round of walk (my routine after lunch), I completed lunch in 10 minutes and got back to work. In the evening, I was just half an hour late from my routine leaving time i.e. 7.30 PM and yes, I finished the files as well. After handing over all the files, I left office with Chinmay.
Before leaving for home, I preferred to have a smoke. Chinmay was not in the mood to smoke, so we purchased only one cigarette and he shared few puffs from my cigarette. I sat on the back-seat of Chinmay’s bike and headed towards nearest bus-stop. On the way towards bus-stop, we faced traffic-jam. “Oh Shit” we both uttered the exact same words. Within few minutes, we managed to move ahead slowly in the traffic. We were unable to see why there was traffic jam, but we were stuck up very badly. Then we reached the point where a horrible accident had happened, this was the reason for the traffic jam. A rickshaw was badly hit by a truck. Rickshaw driver and an old man were lying on the road full of blood on their body. When I carefully looked at that old man, I was shocked. He was Uncle Marco. I asked Chinmay to stop the bike and park aside somewhere, which was too difficult at that time. But, at the same time, an ambulance came. So, I asked Chinmay to follow the ambulance.
We followed and reached a government hospital where rickshaw driver and Marco were both taken directly into the OT. I told Chinmay to leave for home by saying “I will manage to reach home myself. I met this fellow in the morning itself and right now, he is in hospital. I can’t leave him here alone, you can leave.” I entered hospital. I saw aunty Liana, Marco’s 58 years old wife, and Michelle there. Michelle recognized me at first sight itself, but Liana aunty was not able to. Michelle introduced me to Liana aunty. Aunty finally recognized me, gave me a big hug and started crying. I tried to give sympathy to both. After around half an hour, Dr. Mehra declared Marco uncle dead. (Rickshaw driver somehow survived). Hearing this, aunty fell on ground and started crying like anything. I was not able to understand, how to react or what to do. I was to meet Marco Uncle with my family and share a coffee. Michelle was crying, but she was also managing to hold aunty with her hands. Within few minutes, a peon came and handed over a bunch of papers to me. I opened up the papers. Papers were legal documents of land. Uncle Marco successfully got back his land from the bank, which was mentioned in the papers signed by Bank Authorities. There was also signature of Marco in the papers, but there were some blood spots as well. Seeing this, my eyes also got wet. Marco got his land back, but he left this world before fulfilling all his dreams attached with this land. He struggled for his portion of land from this World. But, out of this world, what portion of land will be useful to him now, probably only that much which will be used to build his grave.
I left hospital at around 10 PM. I caught a bus and reached home. I passed by the garage on my way home, I saw my scooter well parked outside the garage. It seemed, scooter was fully repaired, so I was relaxed but on the other hand, I was worried about the amount which mechanic will bill me in the morning. I reached my house and opened the gate with my spare keys. I saw Nayyani and Shail sleeping. I preferred not to disturb them. I took out some food from refrigerator and had dinner. What had happened during the day, made it difficult for me to get any sleep. Lying on the bed, I went into deep thinking.
“What if one day I die like Marco? What if I will not be able to use the money which I am saving? God’s sake, if something will happen and my family will also not be able to use my money, then?” etc. questions started arising in my mind. “I am earning and saving, only for better future of mine and my family. And if I or my family has no future, then what is the use of all this?” After that, I switched to other side of thought. “What if nothing will happen to me, and I will survive for life-long? Then I will require money.” Apart from these, so many things started going on in my mind. I started getting confused. Ultimately, I came to conclusion that, “Both sides of my current thoughts are like two sides of coin. So, I should manage myself accordingly. This is the dilemma with which each common man lives and struggles. I am also one of these common men. But, today was an uncommon day of a common man like me, which made me realize about this biggest dilemma of life. Till today, I was walking on a single track only, i.e. to earn money and to save more for better future. I was literally unaware about the other side of coin, i.e. what if I will have no future. Badly focused on my long-term needs and wishes, I started avoiding all my short-term requirements. What is the use of savings for which I was most concerned, if I cannot purchase another vehicle for better transport, if I cannot purchase a good computer for my child to help him in his education and especially, if I cannot buy my wife a new saree, to make her smile?”
Slowly I finally managed to sleep. Next day, I got my repaired scooter back. I bought my wife two new sarees. I also purchased a new computer with all latest features for Shail. In the evening, we had a wonderful dinner at a Mexican restaurant. I was very happy that day to see smiles on the faces of the people I loved so much, my wife and son.
