CHAPTER TWO

                                                      MY MOTHER'S WOES 

Sarah lost her parents at age two to a fatal car accident, leaving her as the only survivor. Following the tragedy, her maternal grandmother took over the parental responsibilities and brought her up in a pretty humble background. They both made a living by selling home-made packaged food to labourers at various construction sites.

Although her grandmother couldn’t provide her with all the luxury, Sarah believed her parenting style was the best thing that happened to her after her parents’. She provided her with love and care, instilling the moral values that have helped to improve her Christian life. Like some say, ‘Good things don’t last forever, life is all about suffering!’, she died seven years later, after suffering from age-related illnesses.

Like a ball pushed-passed around on a basketball court, Sarah bounced into several hands of her extended family members. Raised by different close relatives, she had a stressful childhood, growing up in many unstable homes. Thumbs up to her grandmother who raised her well; she kept her cool, hoping for freedom one day.

At Eighteen, she knew when anyone made an unholy pass to her. Her aunt’s husband had been acting weird since he took over her custody. When her aunt wasn’t watching, he would inappropriately touch her at areas she didn’t like and give the seductive glances that made her uncomfortable.

One day, she pondered hard about all the happenings around her and concluded to act fast on her decision if she were to avoid being raped by her uncle whenever he had the opportunity.

She packed a few belongings when no one was around to escape from the untold hardship meted upon her by her aunt’s husband for refusing to bare herself to him on demand.

She ran into the bosom of her pastor’s wife, who gave her shelter far away from her aunt’s neighbourhood, and provided her with the capital to begin a hawking business. Daddy (as I would like to call my father) met her while she was hawking on the street when he visited Kurla, Mumbai suburban where she stayed. They fell in love soon after Daddy’s conversion to Christianity, unknown to my paternal grandparents.

The majority of the Indian populace practice Hinduism, but over the years other religions crept their way into the population with Christianity, Sikhism, and Jainism as the significant minority. My parents were part of the Christian minority.

A year later, the two lovebirds planned towards having a family of their own. Their marital plan was soon to hit a rock when my paternal grandparents refused to give their consent. Sadly, they did not also support their union because of the gap in religion and social class. However, the couple were head bent on getting married with or without their blessings. This affected the relationship between Daddy and his family.

When it got to a point that Daddy couldn’t take their resentment anymore, and he moved with Mum from Mumbai to Delhi, the capital city of India. Months later, they had their white wedding without disclosing the venue to avoid being traced to their new home address. This angered Adhira the more that she red-labelled my mother, ‘a devil in human form that ruins her family’s happiness.

After the relocation, my mother enjoyed peace and happiness for the first time in her life. Everything about her changed. Her looks, her social class, everything changed! It was like Dad was a miracle that happened to her. Her life seemed to be perfect. She glowed and her hidden beauty surfaced. She was the envy of all women her age because Daddy was a full package sent from above. His attitude and physical attributes were admirable. His kind was rare to find! Nowadays, the men you could find would either be good inside but ugly-looking, or terrible with behaviour but handsome-looking. It was really difficult to find a handsome man with such a beautiful heart. Daddy’s body-build was breathtaking! He dared not take off his shirt anywhere to avoid ladies literally dying out of breath from beholding his bare chest. Many women around her wished for the man she married. Besides, Daddy knew how to make his wife feel ‘high’. He knew how to make her feel treasured, adored and respected. Mummy shared one of her special moments with him; it was the most embarrassing, yet the most felt loved moment of her life.

Daddy with his wife had offered to drop off aunt Adhira after visiting my grandparents. Along the way, Mummy suddenly had the strange urge to use the lavatory. She notified Daddy about her discomfort, and he tried to search for the nearest convenience for her to ease herself. Aunt Adhira observed the sudden uneasiness between the new couple, then asked if everything was alright because he kept driving unsteadily while looking around as if he was desperately searching for something, to which he responded in the affirmative. It was about sixty seconds later when Mummy told him she couldn’t hold on anymore, but before he could utter a word, an obnoxious smell filled the air. It was very terrible that aunt Adhira almost jumped out of the car in motion.

Daddy had to park the car away from people’s view when he saw how his wife was all messed up. He suspected something she ate must have triggered it, but didn’t expect that it would be that bad as to mess herself up like a child. He hurried to the close-by residence and begged for items to clean her up.

Offering hospitality to guests is not an unusual practice in India, as it is fundamental to the Indian culture. It is the traditional responsibility of any Indian householder to provide help, without discrimination, when requested. Because hospitality is the unique tradition of my people, I expected the warm welcoming my parents received at the stranger’s house.

While Mummy was washing behind the car door, hiding her enough from passersby to notice what was going on, Daddy got busy with cleaning up the mess on the car seat. Aunt Adhira’s mouth never stopped running with insults and scorns of laughter throughout the clean-up. After cleaning to some extent to avoid making a nuisance of the Good Samaritan’s apartment, Daddy led his dear wife into the house to freshen up and have her dress changed.

Daddy’s presence and support helped contain the situation, as she was obviously ashamed and no thanks to her toxic sister-in-law that almost blew it up to attract people’s attention towards her. Since the incident, Mum had a full conviction that his love for her was pure and without bounds.