King Solomon & Me

On a marriage occasion of one of our cousin's in Surat ,there was our family reunion aunts and uncles, their kids, nearly same age cousins whom we hadn’t seen in ages met up there. It was gonna be a fun time.  Before all the marriage ceremonies we had leisure time to chit chat .We, all cousins sat around in a group , sharing our mundanes , doing most enjoyable stuff  “gossips” . Everybody knows its a bad thing to talk behind one's back but  no one in  these world  stayed away from enjoying the comfort of gossips, Gossips about our groom’s in-laws, his  sister in-law and her short dresses .We were talking about failings and disasters and we enjoyed taking pleasure in the misfortune of others.We all know it was wrong to gossip, but no one resisted to seem malicious and we all  indulged  in this guilty pleasure . Our appetite for gossip was insatiable, then after some time  we decided to share some secrets .Some of us were hesitated but some were feeling very inclined to share their own secrets. We were laughing like drain when each of us one after the other shared their secrets . And now  it was my brother’s turn .

" it can be called as a secret , or a true inspirational story", a story of Me,Renu and king Solomon “ he said in a serious note . I frowned ,We all looked at each other and grinned .

Since childhood renu was very fond of reading stories.She used to read all the stories from her English and Hindi text books within couple of hours, and after reading she would love to recite me all these stories with real expressions .She was two classes senior to me ,I always gained the knowledge of those stories before it actually comes into my own text book ,stayed one jump ahead  from rest of my classmates most of the times .I remember one of those stories which helped me in my real life ,Story of great king “Solomon “ it was something like this -

 “Two young women who lived in the same house and who both had an infant son came to Solomon for a judgment. One of the women claimed that the other, after accidentally “smothering her own son while sleeping, had exchanged the two children to make it appear that the living child was hers. The other woman denied this and so both women claimed to be the mother of  the living son and said that the dead boy belonged to the other.

After some deliberation, King Solomon called for a sword to be brought before him. He declared that there was only one fair solution: the live son must be split in two, each woman receiving half of the child. 

Upon hearing this terrible verdict, the boy's true mother cried out, "Oh Lord, give the baby to her, just don't kill him!" The liar, in her bitter jealousy, exclaimed, "It shall be neither mine nor yours—divide it!"

The king declared the first mother as the true mother, as a true, loving mother would rather surrender her baby to another than hurt him, and gave her the baby. King Solomon's judgment became known throughout all of Israel and was considered an example of profound wisdom. “

Few months after listening to this story something strangely similar incident happened to me .One day me and one of my friends started fighting. Our classmates gathered and were enjoying the heat of our quarrel .Our class teacher entered  the classroom as soon as period bell rung. He saw us fighting ,scolded us and told everyone to sit at there places and asked us the reason of fighting .

I told him that we are fighting for this car shaped pencil sharpener ,"sir this sharpener is mine but piyush grabbed it from me and claiming it to be his". Piyush interrupted “ No sir this sharpener belongs to me I bought it yesterday only , Vikas is telling a lie he stole the same from me and claiming to be his . Teacher was carefully listening to our argument, pondering, he didn’t say a word for sometime and then "There is only one solution  i will cut this sharpener into two equal parts and each of you will receive half of it ." He declared.  There was a pin drop silence in the class ,neither me nor piyush said anything . After a short pause I exclaimed "no sir I don’t want it to get cut into pieces it’s a very beautiful sharpener ,I don’t need it , please give this sharpener to piyush", one could have seen a huge triumphant grin,a look of self satisfaction on our teacher's face. He slapped and rebuked piyush for telling lies and gave that sharpener to me “

“Bravo” all of us clapped , "then you should have thanked renu for this "one of our cousins advised

Yes I must thank her ."Thank you Renu" , Just because of you I got something which was actually not mine .

Tell her today

So here we go.....
The doctor told him, and he had to tell his wife. He wasn’t surprised by what the doctor said; he had kind of a vague hope it would be something different. He thanked the sober looking doctor, and put on his shirt and pants, after the doctor’s back disappeared out the door. He walked with the bill to the receptionist’s window and it seemed like he could hardly hear what she was saying. He was thinking about how to tell his wife. He handed his credit card through the window, and took it back when she handed it to him.
Have a nice day, Mr. Shah.
The glass window slid shut, and he smiled at the irony. He walked out of the office into a different world. Colors, sounds, smells are not the same when you’re dying. He started toward where his car was and changed his mind. He stood in the middle of the parking lot befuddled as to what to do. A car from the street pulled in, and the driver gave him an annoyed look when he had to slow down to give him time to get out of the way. Mr. Shah would have apologized, but he didn’t.
Your time will come, he thought, your time will come.

  He walked out onto the street and down to the town common. There were children playing; he sat on a bench, and watched, thinking about his wife. He watched the children, and felt sadness at what they must learn. They don’t know; they give themselves to their play with abandonment; there was no compromise; no hesitation; no misgiving. Their joy would be sullied by sorrow in life – it was inescapable. Maybe that was the design, that the longer you live, the greater your sorrow so death was a release or a salvation of some kind. He didn’t know. He wasn’t scared, but he did feel remorse . He and Mrs. Shah raised an accomplished and caring son and daughter, and he felt good about that. He wasn’t so bad after all. What am I going to say to Anita? he thought. The sun felt warm on his face. A ball rolled to his feet, and he bent over to pick it up. He looked up into the beaming, giggling face of a little girl. She grabbed the ball from him and was gone. She didn’t notice him – the life, the energy in her didn’t notice him. Is she mocking me? he thought, no, no, it’s life  that's all. 

 He thought about the last time he saw his father, and his voice was nothing but a whisper, Take care of your mother, he said. After he was gone, his mother sat in a chair in the living room all day long, and she wouldn’t have eaten unless he went to feed her. She was dead three months later. The memory gave him a chill. He shifted on the bench trying for more heat from the sun. He heard the laughter and screams of the children. After a few moments, he stood and walked toward his car. He drove home and parked in the driveway. He sat in the car for a time before getting out. He walked into the house, and Anita was at the kitchen counter chopping carrots. He went to her and they hugged. He looked at the mail; checked his laptop, and went into the bathroom. He settled himself on a stool at the counter, and talked to his wife while she chopped carrots. They had done this ritual thousand of times., how was the doctor? she abruptly asked. She stopped chopping carrots.

He has to wait for test results, he said.
Anita looked at her husband for a long moment. She began chopping carrots slowly.