It was still early morning. Sun rise yet to happen but faint light is visible in the sky. I along with my wife and father in law were staring silently at Savitri. Savitri the girl attracting attention from all village heads, her sister with brother-in-law and my family; was not looking at any of us even though she knows we were all waiting for her words.
I adopted Savitri. Perhaps tried to adopt but for my adamant wife who has different view. Savitri lost her parents at young age. She had only Sister Suramma who is married to another worker Chalamayya. Their earnings are just good to manage their own life and cant bear any 3rd person. My Father-in-law a highly respectful gentleman in the village suggested us to adopt her if possible. I and my wife both promptly agreed even though for different reasons. We carried Savitri from the dead body of her mother to my home.
Savitri came to the city along with us. She brought a small bag of torn clothes and nothing else. I have my little daughter as well. We didn't have a second child and I made up my mind that Savitri is my child and will grow along with my daughter. She will be educated to lead a good and respectable life.
First thing we did was to burn her clothes and bought good and decent clothes. It needed some time for me to teach her the good habits of being clean, oiling and combing hair regularly, improve her local slang to speak in more refined language. We tried to teach her alphabets as well.She was in the mean time smoothly dragged to responsibilities of taking care of my little daughter. For me, it was lovely feeling watching the elder sister taking care of little one.
She sits with us watching movies on TV, having lunch together. We went to many temples like Shirdi, Tirupathi which she never had a chance to visit. She also watched lot of movies along with us in multiplex theatres and enjoyed the rich experience of watching in a nice environment. Every festival we buy crackers, clothes, gifts like we did to second daughter. In fact Savitri enjoyed more as my second daughter is yet to understand these celebrations and struggling to learn walking.
We even tried to open a Bank account for Savitri for regular savings to make a future for her. Thats where the Manager asked who is she.
I said 'She is my first daughter'.
Simultaneously my wife said 'she is our maid'.
The manager for obvious reasons started looking at my wife and heard her with no attention to me in the further conversation. He said there has to be a notarised document and many other irritants to open a Bank account in the name of Savitri. We had a reason to avoid this and decided to open another account in the name of second daughter but wanted to run it as the account for Savitri.
My house is fully air conditioned hence Savitri sleeps comfortably in the caretaker room we had in the house. Days were passing quickly and we completed close to an year.
One day Savitri said, she wanted to meet her Sister. I understood the sentiment and we were also thinking of having a vacation next month. I told her we can go next month as we are also travelling. Like any other time, Savitri nodded her head in agreement and left silently.
This is how we landed in the village. When We reached the inlaws house, Savitri jumped out of my Audi car and ran towards her sister's house without even looking at rest of us. We laughed at her for the kind of eagerness she showed to meet her only relative her sister. However Savitri didnt come back even after several days. I was wondering after 2 days about why she was not coming back. Finally my father in law sent his servants to escort her back. The servant returned alone with a message that Savitri doesnt want to come back. It was a big surprise. What went wrong?
We called her sister and Brother-in-law to discuss. They came and stood in front of us with maximum humbleness possible and said 'Savitri is home sick sir. She wants to stay here at home. '
I smiled and said 'now her home is in Hyderabad. Is she still thinking her home is here in this village?'
They didnt respond. Suramma however hesitantly asked 'Sir, I understand there is some money deposited on her name ......'
I was shocked and said angrily. "That money belonged to her. What made you discuss about it? Is this the reason for all this drama?"
She told at low tone 'I agree you are taking care sir. But we want to know the amount deposited so far ....'
I got up furiously and said 'I am giving the cheque for 1 Lakh (100,000) Rupees. Will it solve the problem for ever? Will you forget your sister?' I handed over the check to her.
She took the cheque but still didnt reply immediately. 'Thank you sir. But Savitri doesnt want to go with you'
I was shocked. "Please call her. I want to hear from her. She is living like angel in my house. I wont believe she wants to stay here. You guys want money. You know? She is my elder daughter"
Suramma hesitated a lot but finally we were able to bring Savitri. Now entire village got to know about this and they all gathered to watch the show.
Irrespective of repeated requests Savitri didnt answer to any of us. My earlier confidence was getting lost. Is Savitri really upset for anything? What wrong did I do?
Suramma asked Savitri "What is this Savitri? Why are you not answering? They are taking care of you like their daughter. You only told. You watch 5 movies every month. You always go in a big car. You went to several temples with them in all comforts. You fire crackers on Deepavali (A festival in India), you get good clothes, toys, good food. You live in a comfortable house with AC and other comforts. You can watch Big screen TV. None of these comforts are here. Why dont you go and live with them?"
First time Savitri lifted her head and looked at all of us.
"Yes Sister. I went to several temples but when they wanted to go. I watched the movies when they wanted and to their selections. I have a TV but watch when they switch it on. I go anywhere in nice car but to the places where they go. Even when I wanted to come here, I needed to wait for a month because thats when travel was planned"
She broke down and said.
"I want to live my life. whatever it is Sister. Please tell me if I am a burden to you but dont ask me to go there"
There was dead silence for a couple of minutes.
I stood up with no words. I gave another cheque of 2 Lakh (200,000) Rupees and left the place silently.
I know what is wrong. And understood I am wrong. First time in my life one drop of tears came out of my eyes with guilt. I never cried and I was never sorry to anyone so far but this time ....
More than anything people want to live Free. There is a truth which is beyond imagination.
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Disclaimer: I have been writing the blogs in the style of story telling based on real incidents but with some fiction added to emphasise the message. Hence I request not to make any conclusions to derive facts based on the posts in these articles
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