MY DAUGHTER

-BY

                                                                 S.VAISHNAVI

“Mom! The school bus will be here any momen!! Gaush!! ...MY SOCKS…..I’ve once again got the wrong pair…shit man!!

School Bus horn bleats aloud…

“ Momma!!! My Tiffin!!....

Anuradha rushes to her ‘rare-taste’ eight year old….carrying a lunch bag…..with such speed that the contents threaten to throw up any moment….

Waving Arpita gud bye long after the bus had left….Anuradha stood at her house gates…past grooving into her…

Arpita…her past had all been about Arpita….as long back as she wanted to remember…

It was a weekend… and Anuradha had just then seen off Arpita, though resentfully to a one-week tour of Gangtok, arranged by Arpita’ s school… she had easily convinced Arpita to eat home made food atleast for that day(she was too gud at cooking….even for Arpita’ s rare tastes…)…n that’s what she had been packing…

Rare…hmm…that’s the word…

Blonde…White-pink complexion( too much even for the Dehradun environments…)…twisted nasal accent…..and known to be of Indian origin only….

Anuradha had managed to evade the questions of the neighbors n society for enough time till she could overpower  them with her n Arpita’ s pleasing nature….u see…u don’t get many ‘sweet’ neighbors nowadays….n what a contributor was Anuradha…to whichever society she lived in!!!

All was fine…for Anuradha…a single mother…until last week….when she met her ex…  Vinod….who was still waiting for her….for the last eight years….

Eight years….these heavy eight years…had borne upon Anuradha like a lightning…

How many people wud u try answering… “ ‘MISS’. Anuradha??? ‘ Mother’ of Arpita??” Her first attempt to get Arpita into a gud school had forced her to change her social status form MISS to MRS...using a fake marriage certificate…n the very fact that she had chosen it to be MRS.Vinod…..showed her  heart….

And what had Arpita’ s reaction been to Vinod’ s rendezvous last week…..

“WHO R U???NEVER….NEVER SHALL I BELIEVE THAT MY MOMMA HAD ANYTHING TO DO WITH U COMING HERE…”
”no dear…u mother did nothing….I came of my own accord….pls…try to understand…she’s lonely…”Vinod had pleaded…

“HOW DARE U!!!HOW CUD U EVEN THINK I WUD LET ANY BODY STEP IN BETWEEN ME N MY MOM…..DON EVER TRY COMING BACK TO US AGAIN….”saying so, Arpita started to misbehave, which bought her a tight slap fro her nother…

Broken, Vinod had left their house…and Arpita had raged at her mother silently ….for having betrayed her…..for having let a stranger make them fight…

Finally…the excursion had been a compromise….rather…an undue apology… and a chance to seal the tiny crack that had appeared between them out of nowhere…Anuradha had never parted her daughter…for the last eight years…

Five days passed this way….Anuradha mourning Arpita’s unbearable absence….when she got a phone call…..

She ran frantically to the phone…” hello…Appu??? how r u beta..?? finally momma ka yaad aaya? Kab vaapas aa rahe ho?”…barged off Anuradha without waiting to hear the voice on the other end….when there was continued silence…she asked…”what happened beta? anything wrong?”

The reply came…. “Anu…its me…Vinod..”

 Unable to reply…unable to put down the receiver…she held on to it like dear life…. He continued …in a low voice… “Anu… I’m leaving in four days time…to US…I don’t know if I’ll ever cum back…but, think once again…please?”

 Tears pounding down her cheeks…Anuradha put down the phone without a reply…

In half an hour…she heard the door knock... it was eight in the evening…..fearing to face Vinod…and that too at this hour…she sat rigid in the sofa…

Then came the voice that startled her… “Open the door…Anu…its me….papa…..I know u r in there…open ….PLEA….”he ended the sentence abruptly…as Anuradha had run n opened the door….to look at her father after eight whole years….having heard his voice for the first time in eight years had melt her like wax….

All that she cud say was.. “cum in na papa…”….tho with tearful eyes that she hid from him…

From then till the next half hour…only he spoke…:

“Beta…u know very well why n how I am here…

When ur mother passed away... u were barely four years old….i raised u as both ur mother n father…n was proud to be called the father of a well- raised daughter… I happily sent u abroad to study… with full confidence… in every move u took…. U had imbibed ur mother’s sense of decisions… u were never wrong… u met Vinod there…told me before telling him….i accepted…I knew my daughter couldn’t be wrong…n we were so happy…n then ...u got into a gud job….both Vinod and me agreed  to wait for u to settle down into a satisfactory career before marriage….everything was going on without a hitch!!...

Then u com back one day….holding that 6 month old kid of 2 of ur colleagues…both of whom had died in an accident…entrusting their only property-their daughter…to u..

Even tho I was initially against it…. I regretted yelling at you….but u never came back….. Vinod had been against it all…for too short a time…by when u had deserted us all to care for that little kid…whom u hardly knew… I agree I couldn’t over come the fear of social stigma…I agree that I couldn’t accept a stranger…and moreover… a foreigner…as my kin…I couldn’t see u sacrifice everything of yours for that kid..”

“but atleast now….she’s my daughter…I love her….she’s ur grand daughter…whether u accept it or not….i agree it was coz of the promise I made to her dying parents that made me bring her along….i had never thought of adopting her…until I saw everyone’s reactions…which made me realize how difficult it would be for her to ever get adopted... amongst a society of so many dangers n stigmas…it was the very same fear of society n what it does to an individual, which had made her parents make it their last wish that their daughter shall live in India, with culture that taught you how not to feel insecure…with humanity that bonded unconditionally… I had lived my life to the fullest…n so I decided to live it for her alone from then on… I have no complaints…no regrets…I’m happy with her alone….n I apologize for all the pain I have given u….n …..whatever it was papa, I truly love her now….I truly believe her to be my n only my daughter….”cried Anuradha...

“N Vinod? u truly loved him too...n he has finally traced u….n wants u ….with “his” daughter…yes…”his” daughter…n u send him back… Just because of HER??? THAT LITTLE KID!!  HOW DARE SHE BITCH INTO MY DAUGHTER’ S LIFE??”

“PAPA!...yelled Anuradha…HOW CUD U CALL MY DAU….”her jaws remained open, unable to complete the sentence, as she had seen Arpita at the doorway.

She had apparently returned a day earlier…with sum plan that had been altered by the teachers…

Anuradha ran to her stiff daughter….held her tight n started sobbing n speakin at the same time… “ what all have u ..hearddd?”

“everythin..”

“jus don’t believe it will u …please…this is the only thing I will ever ask of u…please…u know I am ur momma na….only me…please!!! don believe him….U R MY DAUGHTER…n even Vinod will be gone to US in four days time…I SWEAR NO ONE ELSE WILL INTERFERE EVER AGAIN…PLEASE!!!...”

When Arpita spoke next…it seemed like after years…tho hardly few minutes had passed…but it was not addressed to Anuradha…it was addressed to her father… “Grandpa! Come, let’s go n  fetch papa before he leaves for US…how cud he leave

for US without ‘us’?...and then she spoke to her momma… “u see momma….i am UR daughter….i know what love means…that’s the most recent lesson I have completely understood from u…”

“My DAUGHTER!...my…dau..gh..terrr!!!”

That single day had changed MISS.Anuradha... to MRS.Vinod, IN REALITY!!. Who says eight year olds can’t think for themselves!!…