Once Upon A Time….. [1]
‘It is story time. Daddy, I am ready. Are you
ready?’ Daniel asked his father in as
polite a tone as he could muster, though he was restless within himself as his
father was delaying him from going to bed.
‘John, what are you doing, dear? Understand,
Danny has got to go to his school tomorrow. Please attend to him,’ Isabelle
called her husband in a hurried tone as she was winding up her kitchen work
after the cook left for her home for the night.
‘Going dear,’ John, quickly closed his laptop
and moved towards his son.
Daniel, our little hero was just nine years and always fond of listening to
bed-time stories from his dad. Moving into his son’s room, John addressed him
that he was going to narrate to him the story of a boy and a starfish. In his
usual style, he started with the conventional idiomatic phrase, “Once
upon a time, a man and his son were walking along a beach…..”
Daniel smiled and looked at his dad. He used to
wonder as to how and who would have started this phrase for telling a story.
Though he was familiar to hearing this phrase being used by his teachers also,
he always felt curious as though he was hearing it for the first time.
John continued with his narration of the story.
“let us call him… Daniel, and John looked at his son who was slowly
slipping into his sleep. On hearing his name being given to the boy in the
story, Daniel slightly opened his eyes
and smiled at him.
John continued with his narration…. Ya, the father
noticed his young son kept picking up one starfish at a time from thousands of
starfish that had been washed up on the beach and, he was throwing each one of them
back into the water. The man ridiculed his son saying that he was wasting his prime
time in engaging in a futile exercise of saving a few starfish while there were
thousands of them on that beach washed ashore. The son replied that he was throwing those
washed up starfish back into the ocean, or else they would die on the sand. The
father was not satisfied with the
response of his son that he can’t possibly make a difference by saving a few of
the starfish. The son looked at his
father and smiled but continued to pick
up another starfish, and threw it back into the sea, and replied that he made a
huge difference to that one starfish saved now. The father of the boy was
speechless and he joined his son in
saving as many starfish as he could do by throwing them back into the sea.”
By then, Daniel, our hero had slept off and moved
into his world of dreams.
****
In this way, our little hero grew up as a young lad of about twenty years,
listening to the stories after stories on variety of themes from his dad.
Later, he started using iPad and the
kindle packed with stories from time to time and reading books of genres
on goodreads, of course more of e-books.
*****
‘Mummy, I see so often much hush-hush talk
going on between you and daddy. You also
seem to be worried about events going on in his business. I heard that daddy
has purchased new properties in the neighbourhood. The other day, I saw a bank
manager talking to him discreetly and
thanking him for helping the bank with huge deposits. I am not pretty
comfortable with the goings on in our house and dad’s business,’ Daniel shared
his deep concern about his father.
‘That is not for me to say, Danny. But, you
are also not to bother about the way dad is doing his business. Everything is
honky-dory in his business. You just concentrate on your work and try to move
to the next level of your life,’ Isabelle tried to reason out his son from his
disdainful thoughts of his father.
‘Oh, I am tired of hearing about dad’s
business,’ said Daniel, interrupting her. ‘That is all I ever hear about him,
if you ask me. If his business means something shrouded in mystery, then I have
to make up my mind about my future too,’ Daniel seemed distressed by the events
taking place there.
Just at that moment there was a creak outside
in the hallway and Daniel looked up to see the door of dad’s room opening
slightly.
He froze, and was unable to move for a moment.
It meant that dad was in there and he might have heard everything that Daniel
had just shared with his mother. He surveyed the door, wondering whether his dad
might come through it and engage him for a serious talking. He felt as if he
was about to accost him but stopped himself, not wanting to look like an
impetuous boy in front of his parents.
He walked slowly away from there and moved
towards his room hoping that his dad will not call him back immediately. It was
just a small room and there were only a
few metres he could walk before he
arrived at the window. He tried to see what was out there, and his eyes opened
wide because something made him feel very cold. It was his mother Isabelle pressing
her arms over his shoulders and he moved into her arms that were tender and
warm.’
He raised his head gently and looked at his
mother and smiled. He felt bereft of any love and hope. Still he wanted
to speak to her as though there was no other moment available for him. He shared with her the conversation he had
with his friend Raghav, the previous day. Raghav’s father was a heavy alcoholic
undergoing treatment in the deaddiction center. Raghav was putting up bravely
and not affected by the influence of his father’s alcoholism. He said that he
too was in a similar situation in his own home. She did not respond and quietly caressed his uncombed hair. She looked happier that his son will be far
better human being than his dad.
*****
The day was yet to dawn and the bell from the
nearby church had rung. For Isabelle,
the day had already begun. The cook also had come. Both of them were busy
preparing varieties of tasty food items for the day. It was John’s fiftieth
birthday. The previous day, Daniel had
purchased a gift and kept it for his dad.
The pleasant aroma rose from the kitchen that almost pulled Daniel out
of his bed who was still feeling groggy.
Just then, there was a call on
the intercom from the security guard from the main gate. As no one was around to attend it, he pulled
himself out of the bed and picked up the phone.
‘Good morning, Sir; there are some officers
waiting outside the gate and insisting on meeting the bada sahib,’ the security
guard seemed nervous while talking.
Daniel looked at the direction of the bedroom
where his dad was sleeping. When he was about to respond to the message of the
security guard, he heard a voice of a stranger at the other end of the intercom. He identified himself as an officer from the
Income Tax Department who has come with his team of officials as part of the
raid operations they have commenced on the properties and business houses
of his dad. They wanted entry to their
house immediately. He felt cold and numb. By then, John had come nearer to him
and looked at him. It was late and the team of officials from the Income Tax
department had already moved in to the house and started explaining their
objectives of the raids planned. They directed
John and his family to extend cooperation for smooth operation of their
work. In the next eight to nine hours, the officials rummaged the whole house
which of course was a pretty big one for three of them to live there. They could lay hands on a number of
documents, a huge cache of jewels and hard currency notes, laptops and hard
discs. They estimated the value of the seized wealth at over twenty crore of
rupees. The chief among the officials made John and Isabelle sign a number of
documents claiming to be part of inventory of items seized from their house.
They also informed that simultaneous raids in his office and business premises
were going on.
Daniel felt a sense of unease and discomfort
in the stomach and he simply watched the proceedings unfolding in front of his
eyes.
For a moment, he wanted to go back to his
childhood days. ‘I wish I could turn the clock and
bring the wheels of time to a stop. I wish I could become the same old child without any
opportunities to know the darker side of this life. But, it is not going to be
any more. The sweet memories of his listening to
the bed time stories, walking on the beach with his dad and other such moments
seemed to be fading away leaving a sense of void in him.’
‘Has my birth come with a baggage? Apart from the
inheritance of positives, have I inherited a huge baggage of negatives? Was it
my fault? Why should it happen to me?’
Why should I suffer such misfortune? I thought
that I was born in the right family, a family nurtured with a value system that
would fetch ten out of ten if a quiz on ethics and moral values are conducted.’
Daniel became grief-stricken.
He pondered the events of those few months so
often and so deeply of his father not conducting his business affairs in ethical
ways and particularly the raid of their home and business premises conducted by the Tax Authorities, that day.
Daniel was unable to reconcile to the very
thought that his father was an opportunist mis-utilising power, leveraging and
incorrectly using the value system. This wealth regardless of how it was accumulated
will be passed on to him and will be inherited by him.
‘Oh, God! Should I consider myself fortunate
to have inherited such huge wealth or unfortunate to have been born to such a
father who has broken all tenets of the value system we uphold of, which he
preached through hundreds of his stories over the years.’
*****
It was around eight in the night. The
cook had arranged the food on the dining table for the supper
and waited for the them to come there. The delicious food prepared by Isabelle
with all joy and expectation of a celebration for the morning had all gone
cold. An eerie silence ensued. There was a sense of uneasiness within each
one of them as they occupied their seats and commenced their supper.
Daniel broke the silence.
‘Daddy,
you have brought me up with hundreds of bedtime stories. Today, I am
going to share with you a story which you may not have found in any books. It is my own creation, dad. Please lend me
your ears and your heart for a while,’ so saying, he commenced his narration.
“Once upon a time, there was a greedy young man who wanted to
become rich through all means. The youth prayed to God to make him wealthier
than ever before. God appeared before him and offered him a boon but with a
condition that his most valuable wealth will be gone on his fiftieth birthday. The young man blinded by his greed in
accumulating wealth, agreed to that condition and saw his wealth growing
multifold in front of his eyes in a few moments. Soon he was happily married
and blessed with a boy. Years rolled and
the man had forgotten all about the condition put forth by God. On his fiftieth
birthday, God came back and took away his young son who had just grown as a handsome
and a virtuous man. This came as a big blow to the man and thus he was humbled
by God that made him realise the most
valuable wealth in his life.”
‘Dad, I consider myself fortunate in not
missing out on the nurturing care of my parents. Of course, you know that I have only a few friends like Raghav with
whom I keep company with apart from the company of my books. The good things I have picked up from you, are
the morals from the stories you have narrated to me over the years and I have
internalised most of them. I am more determined and clear in my thoughts now than
any time before. It is my rational
unbiased decision driven not by any emotion but your legacy of wrongful means
of creating wealth and driven by my own free thought. So, this will be my last
supper in this home, no..no.. it is no more a home for me, and it is just a house with walls shedding its tears
all the time.’
‘I have found my own new world and I am going
there. I need nothing from you including your wealth.’
‘Happy Birthday, Dad.’
Without waiting for his response, Daniel left
the home and once outside, he was on his own.
***********
