Deepika’s Love… the fear of her Mom
Her name is Sureli. She has just reached 40 years. But her face tells us that she is older than her age. Her face has many invisible scars which were given by the society as a gift on her plunge in love…
These dark circles around my eyes,
Have come in wrong time;
People use to say.
But there is no fault of time
Or circles around my eyes.
Its bcoz my eyes
Keeps you as screen saver,
Always looking for you;
Everywhere- every time.
But you still keep ignoring me,
As funny rag thing.
To keep her home alive with sounds, she has 17 years old daughter, Deepika, who recently got admission in a government college where she used to study twenty years ago.
As the mom and daughter are the only living beings living in that house, their relationship is very complex. First relation of course is of mother and daughter; then of father and daughter; sister and sister and last is of two friends.
Today when Deepika came from college, she gave her news that has taken Sureli 20 years back in her college.
“Mom I am in love with a guy. His name is Vinay. He is very cute and caring. He used to study in my college and was also my classmate in school.”
Whenever she hears of this word (love); she is hypnotized and loses contact with the world around her. Her memory made her sit in the class from where her first collision with this word occurred.
She was attending a class when a boy, Broops, passed a comment on her. She got angry with him and when the teacher left she told him all the bad names she knew at that time.
After a week Broops’ dad died in an accident. Whole class including her went to Broop’s house to console him. Watching him helpless and drenched in tears, her so called anger transformed into a feeling of sympathy that got promoted to love after a month or so.
Broops was not very good in studies and was jovial by nature. Even the death of his father couldn’t change him. When other guys and gals were annoyed by his mischievous and funny behavior, Sureli got more and more attracted towards him.
Then these love birds reached the college. In reality they were being promoted from higher secondary to a college and symbolically their love has increased and reached a higher level. It was clear from two things. One thing was that in spite of his careless attitude, he would take full care of her like buying a handbag for her, recharging her mobile phone and her protection from the crushes other boys had on her. One time he didn’t fear even once to ask a professor when he behaved rudely to her angel. The second thing is a fact by psychologists. Psychologists say that when girls are completely devoted to a guy, they turn possessive about him. Sureli was also possessive towards him. She would turn to ashes whenever Broops talked to a girl in a humorous manner. And after he was gone she would take class of that girl.
Broops would keep on roaming here and there in the college. He used to attend only one class and whenever his mood was off he would attend all the classes. Being jolly by nature he seldom felt down. Her subjects were different from Broops. But she used to make practical files of all the subjects adding his and her. Her friends used to make fun of her—“You will get knowledge of both subjects. You will get double position in the University exams.”
The juniors who reached that college from their (Sureli’s and Broops) school, used to raise unnecessary propaganda.
“What type of choice this girl has made?”
“He is completely a duffer and she is super intelligent, they absolutely don’t have any match. Couldn’t she find a better guy?”
The popular tale of their love in college also reached the ears of Professors. The Professor, Dr. Khajuria, who used to live near her home, passed this news to her Mom and Dad. They didn’t talk to her for a whole month. Yet she was not perturbed a bit because her Broops was with her. During that period she didn’t even get a single penny from her dad or even mom. She even got worse with his brother, Ammu, who used to be very kind to her elder sister before getting this news. He would not let her use his laptop or guitar.
After graduation she got a good job in a bank while Broops was still managing a stationary shop. Her parents showed hundreds of matches for her but she didn’t thought about even a single among those.
Finally, she got married to Broops against the wishes of her parents and relatives. No doubt Broops turned into a responsible man after his marriage. Their relationship went fine for 7 years except the bad time when Broop’s mother died. During this period they also had a beautiful baby, Deepika. But a big psychological damage was done to Broops by his bunch of friends he used to have during college years.
“She has got good reputed job in a bank and you are still running your shop”
They created an inferiority complex in his mind. Now he would remain sad and silent. Sureli thought that she might be failing in her attempts to keep her husband happy. She tried a lot but in vain. One day he came from his shop with changed expressions and temperament.
“I have joined Merchant Navy. I have to go for my training after a week”, he said.
“But what is the need for that. You are getting good sum from your shop besides I also have a good job”, she said, placing her hands over his shoulders to make him relax. But it couldn’t do its magic.
“That’s your job, not mine”, he yelled.
“Tell me, since when ‘yours and mine’ started entering our relationship. Look Deepika is also growing up now. After a month she will enter her eighth standard (pointing towards Deepika who was busy in completing her homework)”, she said while her heart was aching.
He didn’t hear her in spite of all her efforts. Finally he went to Mumbai for pursuing his training. The training was for 12 months. But he didn’t come back. Even a month passed after completion of his training. Deepika used to ask about her dad.
“Your dad has gone at work. He will come back (these lines were for assurance of her own brain only than her daughter’s)”, Sureli would reply her.
After getting same answer in same words for more than hundred times, she stopped asking her mom about her dad.
At his work place it was even more difficult for her to convince her colleagues, for whom this type of stuff is more important than a ‘Breaking News’. They would always screw her up with a one liner—
“Has he come back?”
One day she got call from him—
“Sorry my darling, I made you suffer a lot. I got an offer from a company for 4 years tour around the world. They will pay me beyond my expectations. It is a Limited Company. All the contracts have been signed. You should buy a laptop. I will make a video call to you.”
Even those four years also passed. During the start of those four years, she would get a call from him after a gap of day. With the passage of time this gap also went on increasing; from day to week, then week to month and after the end of third year she didn’t receive any call.
She went to her parents for help. But her parents wouldn’t listen.
“See it’s your choice, we can’t do anything. Whom can we ask about him?” they said.
After two or three visits to her maternal house, she stopped showing up there. Ammu came twice to meet her. He came with gifts for Deepika but she declined that. He also stopped coming at her home. She doesn’t know whether he is alive or dead. It might be possible that his ship has wrecked. There is another possibility that he might settled with a foreigner. But her heart says that he will come back.
“If my love can change a guy, can’t this love make him come back” she thinks.
Today she is very confused. The mother in Sureli tells her that she should slap Deepika right at her face so that she would never think of this word (Love) in her future. If she ever thinks, she will never reveal that to her mother. The father of their relationship tells that she should let this situation to be handled by her mother. Whatever she decides, would be better for her (Deepika).
But the sister of their relationship is eager to see her Jeeju. And the final relation of friends is very reluctant.
“Her choice will be far better.”
Her daughter had slept two hours ago. She thinks she should also go to her bed. She will decide in the morning as to how to deal with this stuff.
The dogs in the street outside her home are still barking while her subconscious mind is busy in finding the best possible way out of this situation.
Sureli got up early in the morning. She wore her track suit and went for a long walk. When she came back after an hour, Deepika had woken up. She went to her.
“I would like to meet Vinay”, Sureli said, “Invite him for having tea in the evening at our home.”
After hearing these words from her mother, she went happily to her college. She told her Romeo to come at her home for having tea.
In the evening, Vinay came on his bike, well dressed and trimmed. Sureli liked his way of talking and his manners. She also inquired him about his studies, career and ambition. Vinay passed the test of Deepika’s mom.
She invited him three times more at her home. After that Vinay’s presence in their house became frequent. Once Sureli got sick and was hospitalized. Vinay stood on their side during this hard time.
After graduation, Vinay cleared the state administration test and joined as an Officer. Deepika did her Masters degree in Sociology and afterwards she joined a private institute.
Vinay’s parent came to Sureli’s home for asking her daughter’s hands for their only son.
Five years have been passed since the marriage of Deepika. Both of them are having a healthy relationship. They have a son also, Shivankshu.
The choice of her daughter and Sureli’s decision, both have proved to be quite good.
But, Sureli is still waiting for his Broops, the guy for whom she didn’t care for the whole world. Now she doubts whether her decision for her own life was good or bad.
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