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A young wife desperately wishing for a kid after 7 years of marriage but unable to conceive one. She prays, follows all the odd superstition and in the end her sister decides to conceive a child that she can give to her. But unfortunately, it's a red faced, screaming, flailing baby girl. Nobody wants a GIRL child, look at all the future burden that this girl brings. We can't raise a 'bhoj', can't invest in her just to give her away. No thanks!
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Thankfully, wait wasn't that long. To the delight of the family, neighbours and the whole society she finally gives birth to a son. A healthy, green eyed, laughing baby boy. He looks like everything that they wished for. He will be the ideal son, he will take care of us and he will be our final deliverance.
They both grew up together, young children of god unaware of future implications. She was conditioned to behave one way, silent, docile and shy. She was told that even though she was a mistake, her every action held the power to either destroy or build the family's reputation. While the boy, was left to run wild. He was raised on immense love, his every mistakes overlooked and his every whims and fantasises entertained. The first time he came home late at night, it didn't bother anyone to ask inquisitive questions. The first time she broke her curfew by an hour, she was grounded, shamed, humiliated and threatened to not repeat the "mistake" again.
He smoked his first cigarette, he stole money, he drank and created a ruckus. Nobody objected, nobody stopped him, nobody gave moral lecture because apparently it was "normal" for him to do so. While, the girl was forbidden to even think about it, to even talk about it or to even touch it. While son was too precious to ostracize, daughter was raised in the knowledge that she has to be given away.
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When his misdeeds got too much, when he didn't care anymore, when his whole world revolved around himself and when they all could see that he was out of their hands then only the horror of what they have wished for has become settled in.
The mother waits late at night dreading police or ambulance sirens. She waits hopefully and fearfully for a phone call to assuage her heart or completely destroy it.
Her liver is failing, her loneliness and sadness eating away at her heart and her joints protesting her inner regrets. She has no one to care for her, her son comes home only to forcefully extract her pension and leaves without asking about her deteriorating health. She waits all night in sleepless frenzy, fading away and losing her grasp on reality.
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The girl she didn't want in the end was the one who took care for her. She patiently listens to her ramblings, cleaned after her and during her sleepless nights kept a vigil with her. Unaware that she was the "unwanted" child she gave her "unconditional" love. The same society that saw her as a burden, hailed her but dismissed her selfless actions as mere 'duty' while completely overlooking the actions of the absconding son.
Her disappointment with her son ate away at her, her health worsened, age wrinkled her face and her heavy sunken heart reflected in her sunken yellow eyes. While she lied on her death bed and breathed her last word it came out a breathless wish, a wish upon dying stars, "Betiyan Joh saath deti hai, vaisa koi nahi deta, Kaash beti hi hoti"!
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©To Clap2Ram Media (TabloidXO™)
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