THINK AGAIN… Social Short Story
Photo credit: ecerroni from morguefile.com
“It hurts to me when I see that there are burdens of life in the hands in which there should be books. It hurts when I see that our country’s future is finding their future in the sacks of garbage. It hurts to see the future of our country, the children of India is sweeping their own as well as our country’s future in someone’s house just to satisfy the needs of their greedy parents who gives birth to these children so that they themselves can lead a lazy life.” This was the diary entry of Raghav.
Raghav, he is a very successful man. He studied in abroad and settled their. He came back to India after 10 years when his parents who were farmers called him as their life’s last stage has come. His parents are ‘down to earth’ type of people. They believe that every person who takes birth comes with a pre written destiny. But Raghav believes that it is our own hard work which can even change the destiny written by almighty.
When Raghav came back to India, he was badly struck to see the children working in homes, dhabas, begging on streets everywhere, they were everywhere collecting their gold from everywhere. The innocence of the face was got washed away in tears. The thing which was most horrible for Raghav was to see that even in his parent’s house the worker was a girl child. Her age was about 14 or 15 years. It is the age of learning, learning our world, knowing the wonders created by man, knowing the nature’s secret but the thing she was going to know was the life after marriage. Yes, she was getting married in such a low age.
It was horrible to come back in India for Raghav. It was frustrating for him to see the backwardness of his country. But what he can do, nothing, he thought. All he did to remove the clouds of frustration from his mind was writing that diary.
One day Raghav was on foot to see his fields where his father worked. Whole area was surrounded with crops ready to be cut. Crops were dancing as if a child is dancing without any fear. No fear of parents, no fear of study, no fear of anybody. There is nobody just the child and a mild music, enjoy the music and keep on dancing. In the corner of the field there were huts in which the farmers lived. Raghav himself once lived there. He was feeling very great by imagining that a child of a farmer is now a big scientist of USA.
He was moving from the fields when he saw a child of about 9 or 10 year old was working in the field with his father. Raghav lost his temper this time. He went to the child and said:
“Beta, do you go to school?”
“No.” he replied and looked to his father.
Now Raghav broke his anger on the farmer:
“Why don’t you send your child to school? Don’t you know the importance of study? Don’t you…………”
In the middle of his bursting the farmer spoke:
“Sahib, why don’t we go to my hut? Let’s talk there.”
Then they all moved to his hut. In the hut there 4 children and a lady who was making food, maybe she was the farmer’s wife.
“Sahib, you were asking me that why I don’t send him school. Because sir I don’t have money. I cannot afford my children to go to school.” Farmer said.
“But our government teaches poor children in free of cost.” Raghav said.
“Sahib, the government is only for rich people, for poor it is only god. Government gave us the facility of free education for our children but forget to give schools, teachers and many other things.”
“I don’t agree with you. Even I was also a child of a farmer, I worked hard and now I am a rich man. So who helped me? Government helped me. Government……………”
Raghav again interrupted by farmer.
“Today’s government can’t even give the food of two times to every poor man and you are saying they will teach my child.” The pain in his voice showed his every emotion. “I also want my child to study, to learn, to become a rich man like you.”
Then Raghav turned to the child he saw in the field and he asked him:
“Beta, what do you want? Do you want to study or work in fields?”
“I will do whatever my papa says.” The innocence in the voice of child forced Raghav to think again.
He came out of the hut of the farmer and again saw the fields. In the fields he saw children running in joy. He thought of his old days, he himself wanted to be a farmer but his father wanted him to study which resulted in his success. But was he happy? Was he happy to study such a lot and going to abroad? No, he would be happier if he could be able to do what he wanted to do. He went back to home and did gardening. He felt so happy that he even haven’t imagined. He once again took his diary and wrote:
“Our India is a combination of two brothers. One is modern, believes in development and other is backward. The backward brother has got paralyzed; he can’t run with the speed of his modern brother so the modern brother has forgotten him. But when the modern brother fells in trouble, he is helped by his paralyzed brother. This means that both the brothers are important because both of them comprise our great country India.”
It is not necessary that every child become doctor, engineer or scientist because we also need gardeners and other professionals. Study to learn not to achieve.
-THE END-
