A Dream Realised Author: Dr. K.S. Kang

 

A Dream Realised

Author: Dr. K. S. Kang

Kamal and Raju had come home for a short vacation after a long time. Their parents-Santana and Rama were overjoyed when they got the news that about their arrival. Both parents reached railway station in the early hours of the morning though it was not convenient for them at this age to get up early in the morning at 4.30 a.m and reach the station in time so as to receive their bleary eyed children who descended form air conditioned coaches of a superfast express. In fact in the anxiety of getting up early in the morning both- Sanatana and Rama- could not get proper sleep during the entire night. After reaching home and exchange of pleasantries and a cup of tea with snacks, children wanted to take rest for a couple of hours and they went to their respective rooms to grab a nap for couple of hours before getting up for breakfast.

Now elderly couple was left alone. As they were not in habit of sleeping again once they left their beds, so both of them started making preparations for breakfast. While returning from the morning walk they bought milk, break, curd and cheese for the breakfast. Lady of the house Rama got busy in kitchen making preparations for breakfast while the so called master of the house Sanatana while reading newspaper and listening to news on national and international channels on television started wondering whether their children had brought anything for them or some common object for the household. He felt that the youngsters of today have become too much professional and their employers extracted so much work from them that they were left with little time to think about others or even about themselves. Whenever they return home for a vacation, most of the time they are stuck to bed as if they have come only to sleep in the house. They seemed to be so much sleep starved that it appeared that their employers took work from them round the clock.

Sanatana and Rama were leading a solitary life as their children due to their specialised education and higher qualification could get job only in metros and it was nearly impossible for Sanatana to shift to metro town and adjust to its lightning speed and ways at this stage of life. Both of them found convenient to lead their life in their ancestral home of a small town. They found it quite manageable to live in this town so decided to stay here till they get too weak and feeble in their old age that they get totally dependent on their children. Thought process of Sanatana was disrupted by Rama, who asked him to peel potatoes so that she can proceed with making preparations for breakfast. Meanwhile Kamal and Raju also got up and came from their rooms and were preparing themselves, or rather getting qualified for breakfast by brushing their teeth and answering the nature’s call.

After the delicious fat breakfast of Aloo Paranthas with curd and butter, his two sons also started watching television while discussing things and current news events at leisure. After some time they again back to their rooms for wash and change and to digest their heavy breakfast by resting their bodies for some time on their beds. Sanatana again started wandering and wondering in his thoughts whether the new generation has any time to discuss and resolve the issues of old people like them or they were so much engrossed in their affairs, in the name of so called professionalism, that they have no time for others. Perhaps they thought that they have fulfilled their filial duties towards their parents just by visiting them for a couple of days, after couple of months. Sometimes he was also irritated by the behaviour of Rama during his son’s visits as she nearly forgot him and got totally absorbed in making her children’s stay as much pleasant and as much comfortable as she can. Sometimes in the process she used to get so much tired that she had to lay in bed for days to regain her energy after the visit of her children was over. And it did not seem that children appreciated her efforts or they had just taken it for granted as their parent’s duty towards them whenever they come home.

This time his thought process was disturbed by the ringing of the doorbell, Sanatana saw a man from Amazon with a blue bag hanging on his shoulder with a parcel in his hand uttering the name of Raju. It appeared strange to him that the man at the gate was uttering his son’s name while the location and address and location on the parcel indicated his house. Raju went at once to the gate to grab the parcel after giving his digital signature on his mobile phone and giving OTP from his mobile to the delivery boy. Sanatana could not restrain asking himself from asking Raju about the content of the parcel and Raju answered with a curt reply, ‘ it is lap top stickers’ and was rushing back into his room when Santana again could not stop himself as he uttered spontaneously to Raju, ‘stick a sticker on my lap too’. As Raju again vanished again into his room with the parcel so Sanatana was not sure whether Raju had heard him or paid attention to what he had uttered but he secretly wished to get a sticker on his lap top, though it later on occurred to him that he, as a father, should not have asked anything from the thing which he owned and for which he had paid from his pocket. But still Santana had a fragile and vague hope that Raju would comply with his wish and paste a sticker on his laptop.

Sanatana could not sleep entire night as he was debating in his mind whole night whether his wish would be fulfilled or not or he would just ignore it in his busy routine. As a result of this restless Sanatana could get some sleep in the early hours of morning only. So he got up little later than usual by the forceful shake of Rama, who was complaining as usual that I tend to get up late whenever there was any guest in the house and whenever she needed his help and wanted him to get up early in the morning. Sanatana did not consider it prudent to reveal his dilemma to his wife that delayed the beginning of his day. The whole day passed in the regular conversation chiefly between mother and children till it was time for lunch. After taking lunch before going to bed for afternoon siesta he took a look at his lap top but still he could not find any sticker on it hence, his hope of getting a sticker on his lap top was getting fainter and weaker as both had to leave for their work places by the evening train. Sanatana got up lazily from his bed for evening tea completely hopeless and dejected as he had no hope of getting sticker on his lap top. Actually it was not sticker that he wanted but a feeling of contentment that his sons still followed him and gave importance to his words. As he changed the side to grab a cup of tea for himself he saw his lap top on the side table with a new brand sticker announcing “Be Kind” that had spoken volumes about his younger son whose single action had filled him with so much energy and enthusiasm that it appeared to him as it the stream of life that had been blocked for some time had started flowing again.