Life, as I know it.. A Contemplation..

Ronnie was still in his bed when the clock rang 7 a.m. He shouted out loud when I tried to wake him up,

“Grandpa, please let me sleep today. It is a Friday and I really don’t want to go to school.”

He knew these things never worked with me. I eventually woke him up and prepared him a hot water bath. Within minutes, we were at the dining table where Nathulal had kept some great omelettes and some hot milk and toast for our breakfast. Soon, his school bus arrived and he was gone. Moments later, I realised the same old heaviness of a long lonely day grasping my heart.

I went back to my room and started looking at some old files. Suddenly, an old picture of me, my wife and my son fell from it. I was overjoyed initially on finding such an old picture. But soon, that joy turned into a want for being with the ones I truly loved, and it made me sad.

My life started to unfold before me.

It was the 16th of December 1994. I was returning from Varanasi from a business trip. The train was delayed and was scheduled to reach Allahabad at 2 a.m. My son, who was a divorcee and had only Ronnie as his offspring, and my wife were at home waiting for my return. Ronnie was just born then and was with his mother as he needed the special care and attention.

I called up my wife,

“Hello Preet ji, my train has been delayed and I would be reaching at 2 a.m. But as there is no conveyance from the station at this hour, I would probably spend the night in the platform and come tomorrow morning.”

She was used to this being the wife of a small garment supplier. I used to have many of these trips where I used to supply garments on a test basis to many of small scale retailers. If they had good sales, they used to place more orders. Life had given us enough to keep our head high, but it came with a cost of being away from the ones I loved most of the time.

Soon, my train reached Allahabad station. I took my briefcase and found myself a seat and started to read some stale newspapers that where lying there since past few days. Some articles were very interesting, while some were just a waste of the power of the media. To read a few there were news about a holy cow giving birth to the eleventh avatar of Lord Krishna in some village of India, Lord Ganesha drinking milk from his trunk using a teaspoon, a child with godly powers being born at some temple, a sage acquiring powers to provide moksha and many more. Other section of the newspaper contained articles such as a tailor beating up his wife to death for dowry, a teacher raping a 10 year old student, a gang robbing a jewellery shop, murder of a school kid for his parents failing to pay ransom and many more. For the media, anything appeared as news and what mattered was selling most number of copies. There were times when media communicated the problems of the poor to those having the authority and governance to control the Country. But now, it just seemed a pawn in the hands of few people who are so hungry for money and power. Worst part is that the people relied on the media for making decisions that impacted them.

A fellow passenger woke me up, “Sir, would you mind moving? I need to sit as well.”

I realised I had slept on the entire bench for at least a couple of hours. It was already 5:30 a.m. and the first bus to my town would leave soon. I headed towards the bus stop and soon, I was comfortably sitting inside a bus which was full of people from all nearby places heading towards the city for making a living. For them, living only meant earning a day’s pay so that they can have food on their table. And from that too, the government takes away 30% as taxes. The people who wanted to be rich by stealing from others were increasing.

I thought of calling my wife but the cell phone battery was dead. I thought I might just want to meet her when she is freshly out of her bath. We were getting old, but the romance was the same as in newly weds.

The bus dropped me at the nearest stop to my home. I had hardly walked about half a mile when I noticed all my neighbours surrounding the entrance to my home. My subconscious knew that there was something wrong. As soon as I entered, they gave me way and revealed the body of my wife and my son. The rest was just a story of thieves entering my home last night and talking away all the jewellery we had. Looking at the broken house, the police confirmed that there were signs that my wife and son had put up a fight with them before eventually succumbing to the multiple stabbing of knives.

I barely remember what they said that time as I was in a shock, but this is what I recollected from the police files when the case was closed with no success. Whoever killed my wife and son, I would never know them. But had it not been for Ronnie, I would have maybe died too. Now I need to live this life, until one day, when maybe I am asleep in my bed, even I am killed. But, for everyone reading this who has lost a dear one to these criminals, I pray that some miracle happens and such people are punished. Otherwise, there will always be someone losing his loved ones to such monsters. For me, Ronnie was now my life and I will hold him dear till my last breath.