The story from the heart: The Debt

The clouds gathered there was thunder & lighting and the sky was overcast. It looked as if the sky was getting ready to repay the earth. What was it that her aunt had said? Yes, “Akhilesh has hanged himself”. So, that was how it had ended, thought Vidya, a smile on her lips. Infact she wanted to laugh, laugh aloud to her heart’s content. But then suddenly she asked why did he hang himself – “he was suspicious that his wife who was pregnant was not carrying his child”. Now, she could not control herself at all she laughed, laughed as if she would die, tears streaming down and amidst those tears she saw that small girl with two pigtails.
That day after coming back from school she met Akhilesh for the first time her mom had introduced him as her relative from there village. Just like the scores of others in there hometown he had come to this city seeking a job. She wished him & went to her room.
At first everything was all right but then she found her uncle was more interested in her than finding a new job. Each day when she came back from school he would be there waiting with a sly smile. How she hated that smile & used to feel like wiping that face from earth. “Vidu look what I have for you here”, and he would show her what her little eyes could never comprehend at that time. The days of torture followed, her parents quite oblivious to whatever was happening, too wrapped up in there own process of living. Like all parents they were too busy in the process of providing that they overlooked the actual need.She didn’t know whom to tell or what to do. Too scared even to recall the details when she was alone she could never muster the courage to tell this to her parents. One day he just went as he had come. Years passed but her world was never the same; never again did she know innocence that was lost somewhere forever. The dirt she felt everywhere was intolerable. She would wash even the glass again & again before drinking water from it even if someone had just touched it. One could never be sure.
After all these years today she did not stop her tears and let them flow. She had wanted to do this for a long time. A strange peace descended on her, outside it was raining insistently the sky had cleared its debt.

contributed by Simmi Vasu, Head-Content Development,Resdtech