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Posted June 20, 2009
on:- In: Anguish | Fiction | Food for thought | Kids
- 25 Comments
Aarohi opened her purse to pay for her shopping and found her purse to be empty of cash. It was good that she was carrying credit card. She made a mental note to talk to Mahir about this. “At least he should have informed me if he took the money” she thought, fuming.
Later that evening after dinner she broached the subject up with Mahir.
“Have you taken money from my purse?”
“Nope. Why do you ask?”
“No? This is the third time in last two months that some money is missing from my purse. I thought you might have taken it for some reason. But when I found that $100 was missing again today, I wanted to confirm.”
“WHAT? Are you serious! But why didn’t you tell me this before?Anyway, how much have you lost till now?”
“About $200…”
There was shock on Mahir’s face. There were only three people in their home. They and their seven year old kid!
Now Aarohi was at lost. Who could be taking the money? She thought of baby sitter or the maid who came once a week for cleaning the apartment, but on thinking harder she concluded that they might not be the culprits.
They forgot about the incidence in a couple of days. “
Why are you crying?” Aarohi asked Bittoo when she went to pick him up from school one day. He didn’t reply. She could make out that he was trying to control but failed to stop tears smearing his cute little face. She didn’t probe more. She hugged him and they came home. But Bittoo sulked the rest of the day and refused to go to school the next day. He went finally to school after a lot of cajoling. But his tantrums increased day by day. Aarohi and Mahir noticed the behavioural changes but they attributed it to the new school, new environment and new friends.
As the days passed Bittoo became introvert and hardly talked to them or anybody. He no longer demanded to listen to a story before going to bed. In fact he no longer demanded for anything. Aarohi and Mahir started contemplating to visit his school and talk to his teachers.
Aarohi went to see Bittoo at night once he was fast asleep. Looking at his cherubic face her eyes welled up.
“What has happened to my little boy?” she started crying softly and bent to kiss her son. As she started going out she saw that Bittoo was holding something in his fist. She was shocked to find $50 note crumpled in his tiny hand. She just collapsed on the bed and sat there holding her head in her hands.
“Where had they gone wrong? Was it due to this foreign land and its culture? Was it something else?” She didn’t know how long she sat there holding her child’s hand.
25 Responses to "…"
maa da laadla bigad gaya … 😛
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Im sure her husband is the culprit. He was the one who kept the 50 bucks in Bittoos hand so that he wouldnt be suspected. Im telling ya, Mahir is a bad bad man !
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Let us face facts.All of us have gone through this silly adventure in our life and most of us must have also regretted.So long as Bitto relises his mistake,is a sign of good up-bringing.
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very nice 🙂
in the middle i felt that the kid was being bullied into stealing.
( i guess everyone is expecting an explanation 🙂 )
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Hmmmm…
You know I was reading an article in India Today. It gave huge statistics but the gist was that youngsters in Punjab are going into drugs majorly. One youngster even sold his house at half the price because he was in severe debt and now her mom is under shock!!!
Seriously u never know what can influence a kid, one has to be so careful no???
Touching story!
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One thing for sure I can mention here is that the stress that I personally feel I have seen people undergo in this dollar land of Uncle Sam, is far more than what one can experience back in our motherland India. The pressure of earning money and living a good life is going to be the same over any soil, but somehow the water of US of A has something to do with the stress levels of individuals, especially those who leave mother India to come to the greener pastures in order to earn those green bills.
Bitto might have just thought it was easier to take money from the purse, rather than ask for it by seeing his parent’s stress levels when they try to earn and lead a good decent life amongst $$$. It’s too much for a 7-year old to imagine but it’s a battle of a child’s desires vs his innocent love for his parents.
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1 | Anu
June 20, 2009 at 8:05 pm
You always leave the readers wondering what happens next don’t u ???
Nice story again..!!!! 🙂
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