Memories

In a mild evening, Hari prasad and his beautiful wife Sushma were standing under the street light, asking for a direction from a person. After getting help, they started moving towards their destination. Hari prasad was a medium height man while his wife was short. Both were in their 60's and suffering from joints pain which is common in this age.

Going towards their destination... Sushma -> Hari ji, lets have some rest in this park. We are continuously moving since afternoon. Hari ji -> Sure. Do you want to eat something? Sushma -> No, not at all. We already ate so much in the way.

That empty stomach has hopes but the empty wallet hasn't.

They went inside the park and sat on the bench. Sushma -> Why are you smiling? Hari ji -> Are you watching those kids? When Ravi was at this age, he usually said "Papa, I want to grow up as soon as possible, so that i can help you in earning." I always laughed and said him to concentrate on his studies. Sushma -> What make you remember those days suddenly? Hari ji -> Do you know Sushma, every parent has a dream to give everything to their children, even those things that are not in their capacity to give to them . They try to give beautiful clothes, good food and best education. I saw you lots of time, when you slept hungry just to make Ravi's stomach full. Sushma -> Hari ji...he is our child, its our duty to feed him even in our worst condition. Its nothing aginst what you did for him. We didn't have so much money to send him to a good school. But you still said, "What if i am an illiterate person, my son will surely go to private school and become a big man". You usually came home late at night and left early in morning, just to earn extra money. You never took leave even when you suffered from high fever. Hari ji ->(angrily) What we got.. "Papa don't come to college, i feel embarrassed in front of my friends", "Don't interfere in my life, you can't understand", "You are a failure, don't make me to become like you". Sushma -> You are correct ji. We never came to know, when he became so big that now he feels like we are hurdle in his happy life. Hari ji -> Ya..now we are burden for him as it is difficult for him to take care of his old parents because we never did anything for him. All parents do the same...so much big he became. Sushma ->(a drop of tear falls on Hari's hand) Hari ji, may be we lacked something, that's why we failed. Hari ji -> It was never a game of success and failure. It is the flow of understanding which was always one sided.

Their chitchat kept going on....but no one was there to understand their words. Words of hope, words of pain and words of tiredness.

Just remember one thing, you are building a house whose foundation is your parents. You can't build an empire without it. Tree is stronger because of its roots. Without them your building and tree will collapse. May be they are not so much advance about the technology as you are but this doesn't mean you make them feel hopeless. Its your time to pay them back. Thank You