DON'T ACT IN A RUSH
Whatever you do in life, will somehow be returned/reciprocated. Good will be returned with good and bad, with bad. And that's not all, your karma will be returned with interest as well.
One Basanti Puja evening, I was sitting alone in my room when I heard a sharp, familiar voice coming from the veranda at the back. Curious, I sneak-peaked and found my widow Sis-in-law standing near the passageway besides my room, panting.
“Baudi come sit in our room,” I cried out.
She didn't seem to hear me and in the meantime, Mithu, my nephew had brought a tool for her to sit on. She sat down without even looking at my direction.
I was upset. After all, as my sis-in-law, she ought to have been closer to me, I mean, she should have come to my room first. But a couple of Pujas later, I realised that for some reason, she avoided my room. Good for me, I thought to myself. You couldn't be everyone's favourite.
So, this Puja time, having had my lunch, as I came down to my room, I was unpleasantly surprised to see Baudi sitting on my bed chatting with another sis-in-law! Now, the problem with me has always been my short temper or lack of any. The moment I found her, the hurt of all these years started weighing heavily on my heart and I couldn't help remarking;
“God! She never comes to my room! Is she sitting there because my wife isn't here today?”
That was foolish of me. Baudi, a veteran of many a battle, smiled and enquired after my family or what I don't remember.
Later, after dinner, Baudi came down and sat back on the bed again. Her elder daughter, came and asked me if I was doing well. I replied for the sake of replying. Her younger, more intelligent, grabbed my hand to blurt out : You look fine. Neither too thin not too fat. I had made up my mind long before to detach myself from her family. None of them bothered to turn up for my ‘grihaprabesh’ ( House Warming ceremony).
Lying close to Baudi, I heard them talking about something that I had shut ears to. Even then bits and pieces of the conversation caught my ear.
“She’s cirrhosis of the liver. Took her to the best Liver Diagnostic Centre a couple weeks ago. Dr. Chakraborty, India's number one …. checked her. But does she ever listen to us? The other day I called her and asked her what she had had for breakfast, she told me she had bread and peanut butter!”
Baudi vehemently opposed her statement saying she didn't have peanut butter…etc.
As Baudi was leaving, she called out to me :
“Swagata, I feel pained whenever I come to Deblane. Lots of memories start haunting me…”
The pain, the sincerity in her voice brought me back to the reality. Besides, she had tears welling up in her eyes by then.She was, after all, my late elder brother's wife! Even then I didn't reach them till their car, waiting outside. My own Sis came back, having seen them off, to tell me that it was bad news. I asked her what the bad news was.
“Baudi having cirrhosis of the liver. There is always excessive water in her bowel…” Sis looked crestfallen while enlightening me about Baudi’s condition.
You are lucky if at the end of the day, there are people being nice to you, treating you kindly, missing your company.
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As I was lying in bed, all alone at night ( my family stayed back in the flat), I sought comfort and companionship from my mobile. There was a post sympathising with the MI Captain, Hardik Pandya. Fed up with the way this extremely gifted cricketer was being treated in some parts of India, I couldn't keep myself from commenting :
Down with all the Hardik-Haters!
I am sicker of people, cricket pundits commenting on how he bowled the last over to be hit for sixers by Dhoni! Can you believe it? In short, people are being misled to hate Hardik! One great player-cum-commentator, an all-rounder himself, was highlighting how Hardik, one of India's great all rounders, left GT for captaincy and how he joined MI for the same reason as well! This is how these great players, patriots of India have been inciting not only the Mumbaikars but the people all over India! This is my motherland! Yesterday, Rohit played a solid, responsible knock. He took 61 deliveries to score his ton. He ended up scoring 101 in 61 balls. Has anyone criticised him for not scoring faster? None. He, after all, is the Captain of Team India, speaking about his desire of winning the World Cup!
Shame on all these cricket pundits! Mumbai is lucky to have Hardik as a Captain. Hate him or love him, despite his mediocre performance so far, Hardik is the best all rounder of India at present, and you cannot take it away from him.
If you want the best for MI, be supportive of him, make him feel at home and see what he can do for MI as a Captain, as an all-rounder. Down with all these Hardik-haters!
Anyway, sleep somehow eluded me. So, I got back to fiddling with the mobile again. As I kept scrolling down, a notification on the screen cropped up.
B.S. Das has mentioned you in a comment :I clicked, hoping to find someone backing my comments up. But what he had instead shook me no ends up :
Rathin Bhattacharjee Abe bc Rohit vs CSK match nehi ho raha tha MI vs CSK ka match ho raha tha. Rohit kya 60 balls pe 200 bana deta ?? Baki sare players kya maa chumda ne geye the ? Surya, Shepherd, Harpik panda, Ishan kishan, tilak ye sab kya kar rahe the ? Rohit's strike rate was better than whole team batters' strike rate in that match. Pehele tere tere baap chapri Harpik panda 🐼 ko bol ki pehle perform kare baad mein attitude dikhaye 😏. Chapri Harpik 🔔 captain hai Rohit uska baap hai. Agar woh Rohit ke tarah MI keliye 8 saal mein 5 trophies jit jae na toh mein nanga hoke road pe bachunga .I bet you.
By being short-tempered, you can get away even after hurting your near and dear ones, especially if you are younger. But the whole world will not treat you the same way. In order to earn respect from others, you have to be respectful, sympathetic first. Otherwise, the consequences will be too degrading/ derogatory for you to digest.
