GUILT
-: Writer :-
Rahul Thaker
9426227186
rahul_thaker@rediffmail.com
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GUILT
Now Ajay was getting irritated and he slams the horn of his car for tenth time but the noise of the horn made no impact in the traffic of Ahmadabad’s SG highway. His car was tucked in between the one of bigger traffic jams haven been occurred in the recent past. There were the rows and rows of the vehicles were seen on the road and virtually no space between the each vehicle. It was indeed the "Bumper to Bumper "jam.
The proximate reason behind this miserable traffic jam was the rain which was falling continuously and heavily for the last hour. The stream of water was running on the most of the roads and because of that most roads were having the bumper to bumper traffic jam.
The city of Ahmadabad was enjoying the first real rainfall of this monsoon season. It was season’s first genuine rainfall and many people were out of their home on the streets to welcome the rain. They were enjoying this beauty of nature which causes the heavier traffic jams on the most roads.
The people can be seen everywhere. Some were roaming on their two wheelers while many were on their feet were now on the roads to enjoy the beauty of the monsoon season.
Ajay again checked his wrist watch which shows the time 5.30 in the evening. “Damn it! It is really late! Oh God why these all things are only happening to me only? “Ajay shouted and hits the steering of his car with his both hands in the frustration and started to shook his head.
He was also right in his place because his car has not been moved even an inch since the last fifteen minutes which was causing him to frustrate more and more. He was tucked in such place that he can not neither go back nor take a detour to nearby streets. He opened the glass of his window and observed the traffic situation which was the same as it was twenty minutes earlier.
He cursed himself and put his both hands on his temple and closed his eyes and he accepted that traffic condition is beyond his control.
Now there is nothing can be done, Ajay started to think about recent events of his life.
Ajay aged 31 belongs to the middle class family and living with his wife and his old age parents in Ranip, the one of the middle class societies of Ahmadabad city.
Ajay was working as the Sales Manager in one of reputed private sector banks and earning just adequate and enough income to support his home with other house hold expenses and random medical treatments of his parents.
His parents were aged and living with them, they were remains in the home most of the time due to their old age.
Ajay married to the highly educated woman named Shweta. She was very modern day girl and having the ultra modern thoughts and set of mind. It was the love marriage of them as she was working with Ajay in his bank and they fell in the love and decided to marry.
She belongs to the ultra rich family where her father was a well known business man of the city. Initially her father was against the marriage but later on he half heartily gave the permission of the marriage.
After the marriage, she contineoued her job but after some times she was not able to manage the fine balance between the job and the responsibility at home. So Ajay firmly suggested that she should left her job and take care of home and his aged parents. She was against this suggestion but eventually she obeyed her husband's wish. She left her job and became the fulltime housewife.
Gradually she started to dislike the Ajay’s aged parents who are living with them because she started to believe that because of them her freedom has been taken away. She did not want to tie up with the responsibility of the elder couple. She always wished that they could have their separate home where they both could live alone and have the all freedom she always desired. Her mother and father were also supporting her in this evil thought and also encouraged her to live the alone and away from the elder couple.
Thus she always insisted that Ajay should take the transfer in to the Mumbai branch of his bank so that they could live alone in the different city.
Ajay was totally against her thought because he did not wanted to live in the other city. The main reason behind it was that his parents would never live their home and their hometown and in result they would become alone in this home.
So Ajay had declined her thoughts many times. Because of that Ajay and Shweta are having bad arguments and little crawls over and over on almost every day for this matter. Ajay always tried to convince Shweta that they are their only support and they should never leave them alone but she was not listening him any more.
Ajay knew that he was the only son to support his parents and his home and his other sibling, his sister was happily married to businessman in Surat.
Ajay was also thinking about the sacrifice which his father has taken in the past.
Ajay belongs to the middle class family where his father was retired clerk in postal department and was earning the minimal salary.
When Ajay and his sister were younger and were on their studies, his father has worked very hard to meet the day to day house hold expenses and their education expenses.
So after completing his duty at the postal department, in the evening he had worked in private cotton mill as an accountant to earn the extra income. In this way he had worked very hard.
There was a time when Ajay required large amount of money to pursue his most desired management course, his father had taken a big loan from the owner of the cotton mill to fulfill the desire of higher education of Ajay.
Now the installments of this loan are deduced from his little pension so that he was not getting much money in his hand and virtually he has not much income to his name. The most house hold expenses are bared by the Ajay only and Ajay was the technically the only earning person of the family.
Ajay also knew that if he relocates to another city than his parents could not bare the even day to day expenses and they would fall in to the difficult financial crisis. Apart from the financial condition, there was also the emotional part also as they could not leave without him.
So he tried very hard to convey the same to Shweta but she was not ready to understand any thing and always started to argue and fight with him everyday for no any particular reason.
One motor cycle has hit his car 's rear bumper so Ajay drifts out of his thoughts and started to observe the traffic condition ahead of him.
In the road ahead, there was the construction of new Fly-over bridge was taking place and due to the construction site the traffic has been diverted to one way only and other side was blocked.
This situation was adding the misery to the traffic jam. The construction site and heavy rain were the prime factors for the heavy traffic jam.
Ajay again shook his head and drifted in his ongoing thoughts.
The every day crawling and fighting were affecting to his job as many times he could not concentrate on his work and started to think about his future. The same was happening to his health also as due to the tension he was having the migraines and even sometime pain in his chest also.
This situation was happening on almost each and every day and finally Ajay loose his battle.
To keep the mental peace of mind and health, he has applied for the transfer to Mumbai some two months back.
One week ago from now he received a call from his HR person that his transfer has been approved by the bank and he could join the Mumbai branch. So he has to sign the acceptance of the transfer letter in a week's time to confirm his transfer.
He still has not the broke the news about the approval of his transfer to Mumbai at his home. He has informed neither to Shweta nor to his parents.
In the past week he was in two states of mind whether to accept the transfer or to reject it. He was not able to take the firm decision because when he thinks about accepting it, the faces of his parents comes in to his vision and he shivers with thinking that what would happen to them.
Today was the last day to accept the offer and finally he was going to his office to accept the transfer, but here he was tucked in the traffic jam and the time was running out.
He again checked ahead but the traffic situation was the same.
While nothing can be done, he started to observe his surroundings and he saw happy faces of many people who were enjoying the rain while some were also anxious like him to reach their respective destination on time. He feels the mix feeling of joy and sorrow at the same time.
On the road side he saw few temporary Huts. These huts were prepared to provide the shelters and the temporary home to the labors who were working at the construction site. There were rows of huts on the road side.
The heavy rain has stopped the construction work and in result most of the labors were in their respective temporary huts, trying to protect themselves from the heavy rain.
And in one such hut Ajay witness the most phenomenon incident which change his mind set completely. That particular hut was the worst built hut among the all huts and it was having the very poor roofs and was on the edge of the footpath.
Because of its poor build, that hut had virtually no protection from the heavy rains. The floor and walls of the hut was totally wet. The rain drops were falling from the roof of the Hut.
In that hut, to protect the one year old infant boy from the heavy rains, the labor father has put the infant under the intact side of half broken bed. The bed was broken from the one side while other side was still intact.
But it seemed that , the intact side of the broken bed is not protecting the infant from the heavy showers of the rain , the father slept over the broken side of the bed in such a position that the falls of the cold rains from the roof only hits his bare back and does not reach the infant. The bare back of the father was protecting the infant from the cold showers of the heavy rain. He was in that difficult position right from the beginning of the rain and remained in that position until the rain ends. The infant was totally protected by his father from the rain.
Ajay became totally dumb struck and spell bound after watching that phenomenon scene and he did not aware that traffic ahead to his car has been cleared and the vehicles behind his car are barking horns for the side and indicating him to move.
The rain has been stopped by then but the real rain was droppings from Ajay’s eyes. In the very next moment, he came to the firm decision and right from seating in his car he called the HR and declined his transfer.
The rain has been totally stopped by now and the sky was cleared and so was Ajay’s Guilt.
