Resurrected

by Natasha Nozer Mehenty

  Shiza interrupted him and said, “Zaib, I never had the courage to even dream of taking up singing as my career. Though I was not really afraid of failure, I never had the courage to live my dreams by going against my father’s decision. My sole inspiration and guide was Betan. He helped me to dream of being a singer. He never asked me to give up on studies but he encouraged me to sing more. He helped me a lot and that was the main reason why I felt that having him as my life partner would be the right decision.”

  Betan said, “There were many other situations during which she would freely share with me her problems and I would guide her. Many a times when we would chat, she asked me why I did not get married. I laughed out loudly, but then one day she proposed to me. I was shocked because she was not only much younger to me but her father was my archrival. She kept on insisting and I finally agreed.”

  “But what about Shiza’s father? Did he agree to this match?” Zaib got confused.

  Shiza smiled back and said “No, my father got very annoyed with me. He introduced me to many boys around my own age, to marry but none of them had the same maturity, understanding, love, respect, and care that Betan had for me. So I made a firm decision to marry only Betan. My father eventually understood that I have made my mind and accepted my decision.”

  Zaib looked at Betan and asked, “Why were her father and you enemies when you have such a kind nature?”

  Betan was quite pleased with Zaib’s praise for him. He smiled and said, “Shiza’s father, Mr. Ashton was the head of the branch in which I was appointed as auditor. I also had good rapport with him.

  One day due to my audit work I had to visit the factory of the firm. While I was moving around I saw one six year old boy sitting in one corner and crying. I felt he might be the son of some worker of the factory. I went towards him and sat beside him because even I was tired.

  I asked him why he was crying. He looked at me with his tired angry face and painful eyes. I had for the first time seen a small boy in such a condition. He spoke in his tearful broken voice that he was harshly beaten by some manager for not working properly.

  He was asked to bring chemicals for making fire crackers. While returning from the market he got hit by a stone and some chemical fell on the road.

  He was beaten and abused for it as well as half of his wage was deducted. I felt shocked and sorry for the poor child.

  I asked the child, “Why are you working and not going to school?”

  The innocent child replied, “I have six brothers and two sisters to look after by my father who is a labourer and my mother is a maid. I have no other option but to work like my other brothers.”

  I felt pity on the child because I was imagining millions of other children playing and enjoying their lives at such a tender age. I took the child to the manager and asked him the reason for behaving rudely towards the small child. The manager said, “If we are not strict then these children will never obey our commands.”

  I got angry and asked, “Why do you employ children in your factory. How can you expect perfection from these children?”

  The manager gave a wicked smile and replied, “We can get more work from these children at half the wages we pay to other staff members. They just have minimum requirement of money and they can be squeezed as much you want in their limited needs.”

  “But this is wrong,” I protested.

  He looked at me with his angry eyes and asked, “What will you do if we still do the same thing? It is better if you do not interfere in our work. Please don’t poke your nose in other people’s matters.”

  I lost my temper on hearing this and replied, “It is not a matter of poking nose but it is a matter of fighting for these children’s rights. If these poor children were your relatives or your children then you would have never tolerated this injustice done to them. I will make a union to voice against such conditions of children, who are very innocent and do not understand your cruel intentions,” saying this I went away.

  The manager informed about this to Mr. Ashton.

  I went to Mr. Ashton and told him the entire incident that took place. I requested him to stop employing small children for such hazardous jobs.

  Mr. Ashton told, “Betan, why are you so bothered about these poor children? Why are you wasting your time on them? Their condition shall never change. Their innocence and their poverty will always trap them for struggle in their lives. They will never rise above. We as firms gain more profits by employing them. So it will not change.”

  I got annoyed after hearing this. I said firmly, “I will protest against your factory by forming a union.”

  Mr. Ashton did not take me seriously. I formed a union and protested against the factory. Many employees of the factory as well as other factory people also supported us.

  The matter was taken up by the media and the public started protesting to remove the child laborers.

  Finally, the Board of Directors declared that no child below 14 years shall be appointed for work. In this way, I did win my battle but I lost my relationship with Mr. Ashton. He started hating me for going against him,” Betan replied looking sad.

  CHAPTER 21

  PARENTS ARE ABOVE EVERYONE ELSE

  “Can I also share my life experience with you guys?” a young man sitting on the same table asked, keeping his glass of wine on the table.

  He was smiling but something was disturbing him from within. He looked at the glass kept on the table and said “Guys, though I have corrected my mistake I still regret my past decision.”

  “Don’t worry, young man. This is the right place to share your regrets and regain your inner peace,” Zaib said reassuringly. Hearing these kind words, the young man smiled back.

  “My name is Vaibhav Rao,” said the young man, looking at everyone.

  Then looking at Afrin sitting on his right side, he said, “I was married to probably the prettiest lady ever.”

  Vaibhav had everyone’s attention by now, when suddenly a waiter came to him and handed him a chit of paper. After reading the chit, Vaibhav looked at the waiter and said, “Tell them I will reach within ten minutes.”

  “Sorry for the interruption” he said turning to the others. “I will tell you something about my dear parents. Of course, parents should be dear to every child. I am the son of a special father. My father was blind since his birth,” saying this he paused and looked at everyone.

  Vaibhav continued, “I have two brothers. We have been brought up by a blind father who used to sell chocolates, sweets, biscuits, and cakes in the train and my mother was a homemaker. In spite of such a sad fate, my father was successful in educating all his children. We all are earning big fat incomes. I am a business man, my elder brother is an engineer and my younger brother is an advocate.”

  “Wow, that’s amazing! Salute to your entire family!” Afrin said, astonished and impressed.

  “And, especially to your father. Salute to his courage of leading a beautiful life and brightening the lives of his children despite being blind himself,” saying this, Zaib patted Vaibhav’s back.

  Vaibhav smiled back at Zaib and Afrin. He continued, “My father used to work every day for twelve hours. He used to wear simple clothes and chappals. He had four pairs of pants and shirts on which he relied for years. He never used to spend any of his earnings on himself. But, he didn’t do the same with us. We used to buy clothes and shoes at least twice a year.

  My father never celebrated his own birthday but we always had small celebrations on ours. Despite being blind, he never expected any help from others. There were many people who would give him money in the train because of his blindness but my father used to politely refuse it. He said that he would only accept the income earned through hard work.

  He loved us dearly. He didn’t want our lives to be messed up by poverty therefore he tried his best to educate us.

  There we
re many days when fate was against him but in spite of breaking down he kept on moving ahead in his life. If you meet him today you will never realize that he is blind. He can do any task with ease just like a normal person.

  My eldest brother, Nasir got married after getting a good job. He would give tuitions after returning home from his office. His wife is also an engineer. They bought a new house for themselves with their savings. They wanted to live separately from our parents.

  Nasir also used to feel inferior because he had a blind father who used to sell eatables in the train. That was the main reason which he gave to my mom for leaving the house.

  My younger brother, Rum followed the footsteps of my elder brother. When he got a job in a sophisticated firm of advocates, he bought a separate home for himself. He too developed the guilt of staying with a blind father who was working on railways.

  Now let me tell you the story about myself. I too was similar to my brothers. I am a businessman and my story is somewhat different.

  After completing my MBA, I had worked in a highly renowned firm with a fat salary. After a few years, I decided to quit my job and I invested all my savings in my business.

  Fortunately, my business was doing well. My hard work, talent and knowledge got me a lot of goodwill in the market. Many clients would come to visit my house. I used to mingle with high class people. I used to receive expensive gifts from clients. Everything was working well as if the Angel of Prosperity and Happiness had blessed me.

  At that point of my life, I fell in love with one of my rich clients. Her name was Katy. She accepted my proposal but she had a condition for marriage.

  She said, “I will live separately with you after the marriage. Don’t expect me to stay with your parents.”

  Staying at some other place was not possible because I had converted one room of my residence into office for my business. Clients used to come only to my residence for the business dealings. It was not easy to shift everything. I was confused and stressed out.

  On one hand, I had the fear of losing my love and on the other I was stressed out to shift to new house.

  One day, I was strolling on the balcony of my house with a tensed face. At that time, my father had returned from work. He sat on the sofa. I ran towards him and spoke about the tension running in my mind. I asked him to help me out.

  He thought for some time and then said, “What if your mother and I go stay in an old age home?”

  “Great idea!” I screamed in excitement. I could never think any better way to remove them out of the house.

  “But dad, do you think mother will agree?” I asked, faking concern.

  “Don’t worry about your mother, I will handle her,” he said.

  I was extremely excited and called up my lady love Katy to give her the good news.

  On one hand my marriage preparations were going on and on the other my parents were preparing to leave their own house and shift to an old age home.

  One day before our marriage, Katy called up and gave strict instructions to me, “Vaibhav, please do not call your blind father to our wedding. I can’t tell my guests that I have a blind father-in-law working in trains.”

  “Honey,” I said in a broken voice, “I too do not want him to meet my wealthy high class clients. I don’t want my guests to know that I am a blind man’s son but I don’t have any option. I can’t tell my parents not to attend their son’s wedding.”

  “Hmmm,” Katy started thinking of some solution. She said, “Just tell your father that I won’t marry you if he is present at our wedding. It will surely work.”

  “Okay honey,” I said.

  I rushed towards my father’s room. He was removing clothes from the cupboard and placing them in a bag.

  “Father, I won’t be able to get married tomorrow,” I said in a tearful voice.

  “Why?” he asked in state of shock.

  “Katy said that she doesn’t want you to attend our marriage. She said she would feel inferior to introduce you as her father-in-law.”

  My mother who had just entered the room had heard my words. She shouted, “Tell her to go to hell. How dare she not allow a father to attend his son’s marriage? First she wanted us to leave the house and now she wants to create a difference in your mind for your father.”

  My father interrupted her conversation and said, “Vaibhav, I am already a blind man. I will not be able to see your marriage anyway. There is no point in me attending your wedding. Tell Katy that I will not attend the event.”

  My mother was extremely sad to hear this from her husband. She too decided not to attend the wedding. I was overjoyed to not have my poor parents present at my grand wedding.

  On the wedding day, my brother Nasir came to me and said, “You are the luckiest of all to not have parents at all for your marriage.”

  I too was very happy to get rid of my poor blind father from my house and from my life. They had shifted to an old age home. Years passed by and I never once went to meet them. I wanted to forget my past and the truths of my birth from my mind.

  One day, I lost Katy in a mishap. My business wasn’t doing well any more. I had many debts. I also had a small son to look after. My high class friends, clients and friends, all deserted me.

  I went into depression. Nobody was there to take care of me. My brothers were busy with their lives. Within a few days, my house would be sealed by the court for non-payment of dues. I was doing every petty job for my livelihood by travelling in public vehicles.”

  One day, I was travelling in train, lost in my thoughts; I heard a familiar voice in the train saying, “Chocolates, biscuits, sweets……”

  I looked up it was my blind father selling eatables.

  I shouted, “Dad…” but then couldn’t speak any further. I remember how much I had hated my poor father in order to please my high class fake friends. He had sacrificed everything of his life to see us happy but we threw him out of his own house. Even after earning huge salaries, we still made him work and never bothered to make him rest at his house. I had cruelly removed him from his own house.”

  The running train dissolved my shouting for dad. He didn’t hear me but fortunately came near my seat offering the eatables like he did to the other travellers.

  I kept looking at him. I realized how many difficulties my dad had to undergo to earn for the family; the same family which had later ditched him. I didn’t have any money to buy anything from him but I still asked, “How much for this cake?”

  “Vaibhav!” he screamed by recognizing my voice.

  “Dad,” I said and started crying.

  He came towards me and hugged me tightly. He could understand my sadness from my voice. I hugged him more tightly and kept crying. We kept crying for some time at our reunion. I told him about my life and my poor mental health.

  He took me to the old age home where he and mother used to stay after leaving their own house. My mother was extremely annoyed at me for not visiting them even once all these years. I kept my head on her lap and started crying. She too gave up on her anger and hugged me.

  My father said, “Vaibhav, I have saved some money and invested it. You can take my investments and use them to get back on your own feet. I don’t want you to live miserable life. Till I am alive, I will work and earn money. So take my investments.”

  Saying this he took out his investment papers and handed them to me. I kept those papers aside and said, “No father, I have already given you many hardships in life. I can no more increase the burden of my guilt.”

  “No my son, don’t feel guilty of anything. We have received whatever was in our fate. You begin your new life and forget your past. Our blessings are always with you. We will be more happy to see you stable in your life rather than accumulating money for future.”

  His investments were enough to pay off my debts and save our house from being seal
ed by the court’s order.

  I took my parents back to the house and started working very hard. After three years of working for a company, I once again started my business.

  My business got blessed with prosperity and I have made my parents rest at my bungalow.

  Life has taught me the value of my family. I had always hated the fact of my father being blind and poor but it was only because of his mercy that I have begun to live again. Today I love him and respect him the most.

  Both my brothers have also sold off their homes. We are staying together. Fate has brought the family together.”

  Vaibhav ended his speech and everybody started clapping. Afrin looked at him and asked, “Vaibhav, what do you do now?”

  Vaibhav looked at her and said, “I am the owner of this club. I have ten hotels, thanks to my father.”

  He looked at the others and said, “Everyone please join us for my parents’ wedding golden jubilee celebration. It is in this club on the second floor.”

  “Oh wow! It would be a pleasure to meet your parents,” everybody screamed with joy.

  CHAPTER 22

  EVERY SUCCESSFUL PERSON WAS ONCE A STRUGGLER

  Zaib looked at a dark, well built, tall young man sitting beside him. His seemed to be a business man.

  Zaib looked at him and asked, “Young man, what kind of business are you involved with?”

  The man seemed to be in his early 30s. He said, “I work in my wife’s firm.”

  He pointed his finger towards his wife Merlin, who was opening a can of cold drink.

  Merlin looked at Zaib and smiled back.

  Betan was hearing their conversation. He interrupted saying, “This young man’s name is Iveil. He has also struggled a lot when he was younger. Merlin came in his life as his lucky charm. She drove Iveil’s career from being a taxi driver to being a managing director.”

  “Yes, I was a taxi driver before getting married to Merlin,” Iveil replied with his an expression.