successful short stories
Short Story—the Right Direction
The right direction?
Dalip Singh Wasan, Advocate.
I was not happy with the life-style which my friend Prabha had adopted. She was married to a person who was holding a very important position in a government office. But I noted that they could not construct a small house for them and for their children. I noted that they were sending their children to a aided school and I also noted they themselves had been helping their children, because they were not in a position to bear the burden of engaging a tutor at their home. I noticed that my friend Prabha had been wearing the same one Saree on all the occasions when we invited them to our house on some important occasions. I had been persuading her and had been telling her the methods of collecting more and more money, but Prabha had the same answer, “My husband Bimal wants to lead a honest life and he wants that we are public servants and we should live a life of public servants and since the people of this country are the real masters of this country, we should serve them and should not ask them to pay us more because he says that whatever payments are made to us, those moneys come from the pickets of the people of this country and therefore, the people who pay are the masters and people who work are public servants and since most of the people in this country are poor, we have got no right to grow rich and leave the masters poor.” At least I was not in a position to understand all what Prabha had been telling me and on most of the occasions, I was just ignoring her and was concealing the fact that Prabha was my friend and we had been together in schools, in colleges and even we were together in the University too.
Time had been passing on. I purchased a big house in Model Town having all the facilities available in that house. There was accommodation for servants also and there was a big lawn attached to the house. We allotted separate rooms to each of our children which were having attached toilets and bathrooms. We engaged teachers for each of our children and they wee going on well. But still we were surprised to note that Prabha had been informing and given me very good news about the result of her children. His elder son had got First Class First in the District and her only daughter had been getting the first position in the school. My children were getting first divisions, but still they were not achieving the same heights which the children of Prabha had been showing and therefore, I had started avoiding listening to the phone calls from the side of Prabha near declaration of results. I had been congratulating her on the success of her children, but at the same time, I was not happy from my heart side, because we had been spending money on our children, but still they were just getting first division and they could never get a mention in the news papers and on the other hand Prabha was always informing me that her children had been topping in examinations.
I have been informed that Prabha’s daughter got admission in M.B.B.S. and her son got admission in Engineering institute and that too of her own town. On the other hand my husband was in trouble because police was after him and they were demanding accounts from husband asking him to explain the value of all his assets, source from where money had come and they had given two months time to my husband. He had been busy but could not satisfy the police and ultimately they registered a criminal case against him. We had been in Courts for three years and ultimately the Court pronounced sentence of three years and a fine of rupees fifty thousands against my husband. In spite of all our appeals upto Supreme Court of India he could not get acquittal and all was in knowledge of my friend Prabha. Her husband had been helping us throughout, but he could not get acquittal for my husband because there were very strong evidence against my husband. I should accept the truth that my husband had been taking bribe and that had been the reason we could have a big house and we had some cash with us. We had been with the police and with the Courts and a big amount had been spent on all these follow-ups, but still we were not short of money.
I had been visiting my husband in jail and on the last such visit, he had said, “ I am in trouble. There is only one fan in the room and there are about twenty people in the room and we all are sleeping on cement beds. It has become very difficult for me to develop habit to sleep in those conditions. Had you kept the expenditure within limits, I would not have developed habit of taking bribe. Before my marriage, I had been known as most honest person in the office and when expenses of the family were increased, I had to take bribe and once I entered this field, there had been no end to it”. I had been recalling all the words of my husband and I wanted to share these words with Prabha my friend. I wanted to know what had been her role in keeping the expenses in control and how she could stop her husband from taking bribe. And the words came from the side of Prabha were very strange. She had said, “ Once a man suggested to my husband that he had come from the side of minister of his department. Your minister has settled a deal with such and such person. He shall hand over a sum of rupees fifty thousands which shall be kept as security. If his work is done by the minister, then you would keep ten thousand with you and the remaining sum of rupees forty thousands shall be given to the minister. My husband agreed to this deal. But when shared this news with me, I objected and suggested that we should not start this new system because once we start with this field, there shall be no end to it. The minister shall get his share and if the things are out, you would be in trouble. My husband agreed and he rejected the proposal. The minister was annoyed and he transferred my husband to a far of station. We suffered, but we did not agree to the proposal of the minister”. Prabha gave account of this incidence to me and I had to recall all such occasions, when my husband had been consulting me before he took big amounts. But I immediately took over the money from him and directed him to do the work. Now I am repenting but nothing could be done now. My husband had been in jail and my children had to face humiliation from all quarters and they had shifted to my parents because they were not in a position to face remarks coming from the side of their friends. Now I had decided that I shall not allow my husband to take bribe and actually I declared so before him when I met him in the jail. He laughed and said, “ They have already dismissed with my services and they have already conveyed the order of dismissal to me. Now there is no opportunity to take bribe from the people. There shall be no pension and we shall have to start a new life. All my service of twenty five years is gone and it shall not bring pension to me and after my death, you would not get family pension.” This had been the end of my story.
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About the Author
[Short story] A happy family?
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