A Father's story - 'you reap what you sow !'

Daddy please save me..I don't wanna die...!

                  The screams of my daughter took me eighteen years back. My business had just started growing likewise, yielding a better life for me and my family. We could afford two cars and a chauffeur. Now the story is not about our prosperity or the benefits of abolition of license raj or the open economy policy of the then Congress government. This story is about our driver Ramesh or Rameshji which i respectfully called him as he happened to be some years older to me.

'Saabji! choti baby reminds me of my Gudiya back home. She is also of the same age', he used to reply in his chaste Luckhnowi whenever i warned him against feeding too many chocolates to my five year old daughter. I also have a son who is three years older to my daughter.

It was in the winter of 94 when the bonding of my daughter and my driver grew. He used to pick and drop her daily from school and on evenings he would escort her to the locality park. Soon, they became such good friends that she stopped playing with other kids. He would give her swings, play 'catch me if you can' with her, run around the park and tickle her to make her laugh. He even used to bring 'gajar ka halwa' for her which he himself made from his chawl room in a village in the vicinity of the city.

Their bonding went on for months until my wife started disliking this sheer closeness of our daughter with a driver! The possessive mother's envy would soon hit hard on their relations.

One fine day Rameshji came up to me and asked leave for some days.

'Saabji! Gudiya is very ill'. My wife has sent me this telegram. I need to rush immediately.

Just as i was about to nod my head in approval, my wife came in from nowhere and remarked, ' How can you go now?', 'Have you forgotten that you have to drop me to my parent's place?'
'But! Memsahibji in that case i will miss the train and by bus it will take far too long to reach my village'.
 My wife frowned, 'Rameshji! don't take undue advantage of our treatment of you as our family member!'.       Finish your work and then you can leave!
I looked at Rameshji's face. A gloom had descended on it.

I wish i had reprimanded my wife for such a rude behaviour but i just felt that maybe Rameshji's innocence would melt my wife's negativity towards him. Hence, i chose to remain a mute spectator.

'It was the biggest mistake of my life as a father, as a husband and most importantly as a human!'

 Within days after he left for home, i got the news of his daughter's demise from his colleague of the same village. I went into a state of shock and guilt knowing that she died before he could reach her. My wife gave snobby sympathies as if someone had died of a natural calamity! Somewhere deep inside i knew that we were responsible for it and someday we might have to pay the price for it.

After some weeks Rameshji returned but only to say goodbye to my daughter. She would not let go of him until her mom slapped her and pulled her away from him.The last words I heard from Rameshji were,

'Saabji! i will miss choti baby!'

                    Today my twenty three year old daughter was discharged from the rehabilitation centre after suffering from hallucinations and physical weakness due to drug abuse. Bad company of some of her college-mates led her to this condition. Had my wife concentrated more on our daughter and less on her kitty parties and ladies evenings, all this could have been averted. Now my wife prays daily and we even went to many temples and shrines for the recovery of our daughter but nothing improved. Our daughters condition has worsened with each passing day. It was only when a renowned sage asked my wife to remember a sin she committed in the past which resulted in a girlchild's death, that she realised her mistake and pleaded for repentance. But, was it too late?

'We tried to trace Rameshji in entire Lucknow and almost half of Uttar Pradesh but there was no sign of him or his family anywhere!'

What we sow, we will reap one day and it doesn't matter who or what we are because in the eyes of god every human is equal and that in his court the final judgement is made!

'We took eighteen years to realise, i hope after reading this you will learn sooner!'