Bed Time Conversations

Raj and Rati lay on the bed, hearing each other’s heart beat in the cold, silent night; relaxing after a tiring and tedious day at work…

Raj suddenly gets up on his side and innocuously asks Rati, “Imagine there are two women, both belonging to a slum. One of them has a kid and the other is childless. The childless woman asks the other female to give her the child, citing reasons that she would love the child more and take better care since she has been childless and rearing to shower her motherly affection on someone. Do you think she can really love the child more than her birth mother? Do you think the mother would part away with the child??”

Rati instantaneously replies, “Never. She would never do so… for nine months she bore that child and do you think she had give him away and that to, to a female who can’t promise to give this child a better life, more amenities or take him away from the bane of poverty. Never. And loving more… well that’s so subjective.. For all you know, the love that she speaks about is nothing but ignoring the flaws and mistakes and just pampering the child to the core. Lack of discipline or scolding wouldn’t amount to more love. The mother would never give the child away” Her reply was firm and conclusionary

Raj brooded over her answer and immediately asked back, “Is it so difficult to let go your child and the memories?”

“Of Course it is!! How can you give away your child and stop thinking, talking or missing him/her”

“But he wouldn’t be around for the memories to grow. And whatever little she has, would soon fade away. You know the out-of-sight, out of mind funda!!” Raj was quick to retort back

“Aah, come on. A mother can never forget the child. She can never let go her children you see. Even when she turns old, her heart would flutter for her children, her family. How can then she give away the child”

“Do you remember your second cousin? The one who married her cousin brother and was banished out of her house? The family has no clue, no inkling of her whereabouts, her existence… its over 10 years now… Sure, she had a mother, a father… but they did forget, they did let her go…Their societal status was more bigger a thing than their own child”

“Hmm…”

“They don’t utter a word about her, erased of memory now… 10 years and they don’t miss her, even in their minds they don’t remember her… She isn’t remembered…. Yet they were her parents, her siblings….”

“But then what she did was socially wrong… guess they felt disgraced coz of what she had done.. It was a punishment, a tough one on them and on her… they pulled back her support system- her family… their way to let her know she is dead for them… Dead… They did let her go away…”

“And then there was this aunt of mine, who is suddenly erased out of all our memories one fine summer morning. I don’t even know where she is and what happened and why”

“But my aunt always laments about the kid that was still-born. 15 years and she still counts him as her child. He is remembered at all occasions, his birthday celebrated, his death mourned… She says she carried him for 9 months in her womb… he was a life she felt (although only for 9 months), he was a part of she and her husband, the first symbol of their love… and he should be remembered” Rati sighed..

“Hmm… I know… maybe it’s too tough and unlucrative for the woman to give away her child now; she can’t be benevolent in this matter; this is a vital truth… But a bigger truth is that the same mother would let go the child and erase memories if the circumstances lead to it… Strange are human emotions and strange are the way we think… Something so unimaginable at one instant would seem as the only solution at other”

“Yes, very true… very, very true”

“Well, this is what life is and this is how it shall remain….. wronging our convictions, making us take unthinkable decisions and putting us in acts that have to be enacted impromptu with no scope of retakes… Still I raise a toast to this journey called life… Goodnight sweetheart”

“Goodnight dear”