Chapter 2
Sad Demise of Parents
I was born with silver spoon in a royal family renowned as Royal Rathore family in Madhya Pradesh. We are descendants of suryavanshi kings. When I was a kid my mother Kaushalya Devi loved me like mother Kaushlya had loved Lord Rama and I was apple in eyes of Girirajsinh, my father who was gentleman and very affable in nature. My grandfather died before I was born. I heard that he was died of cancer. My grandmother was very humble. There is proverb that “Man or woman loves Interest more than capital”. It simply means that a man or a woman likes his or her grandson or granddaughter more than his son or daughter.
My family had a hotel business which we were doing since 1980s and we were successful. We had been taking part in elections as a part of social service. In fact, that was our real duty before it comes to business because to serve to the people was in our blood and we have always loved to do that. My father was elected several times from our constituency and he had become MLA several times. People loved him a lot. All in all , we were living ideal life as a Royal family. We were rich but my grandmother believed that we should live simple life as it teaches us omniscience and by living that we can become down to earth and that would be helpful for us to understand life of common people. As a kid I was unable to understand this as I was not old enough to understand her thoughts.
We were living the life in a great way but reality is that in life nothing is permanent. The same thing happened to me and my family.
It is the incident whose reminiscence petrifies me. I remember that it was holiday as it was Sunday. It was a gloomy morning and since morning I had felt something uneasy. I checked outside but I found everything normal. I couldn’t understand the words that darkness wanted to tell me. I remember that I was 10 years old kid and I was so innocent that I felt I had only right to say Yes and No. I believed that I was not old enough to speak amongst elders and even if I spoke, it would leave no impact over them. I woke up and came outside my room. I went in bathroom, took toothbrush and started brushing my teeth. Then I walked downstairs and reached to drawing room. My grandmother was curious to see me. It was our daily routine in the morning to spend time together.
“Suraj beta. Come here. Sit here. Have you taken your milk?” she asked
“No. I didn’t. I will take it now.” I replied as an obedient grandson.
“Okay. Take it and get ready fast if you want to go with mummy and papa.”
“Where? Where are they going?”I asked eagerly.
“They are going to attend a program and a road show after that. Would you like to join them and would you like to give them company?”
“No. I don’t want to go outside today, see, how dark it is today. I think mommy and papa should also not go outside.” I gave answer.
She laughed at me and said “They cannot cancel program because of bad weather and if you don’t want to go you can stay with me.”
My mother and father came outside after getting ready. My mummy was looking like Queen as she was and papa came outside along with a file and a diary, he was looking like a king analyzing problems of people. My mother gave me a smile and kissed me on my forehead and said, “I know you don’t want to come outside with us as usual. So stay here and take care of Dadi (grandmother).” After hearing this I felt I was grown up and I was an adult instead of 10 year old kid.
Papa came with grin and osculated on chick and spoke
“Do as your mumma said. Okay? Take care of your Grandmother.” and uttered after pause “Bye” I had some weird feeling at that time. My complete focus came on to the word uttered by him at last and that was “Bye”. I was in its thoughts and that’s why I could just say “Bye” and waived my hands. They left the main room and went outside where car was waiting for them.
Then after I drank milk which was laid on table by our honest butler Ramukaka who was our important family member. Then I lazily went to bathroom to get ready. After getting ready I came back to my Grandmother. I sat with her and spent my whole day with her.
On that day, in evening, suddenly weather became stormy and it started raining heavily with storm. I was dreaded because of sudden change. On that evening while I was sitting in my room, because of storm suddenly a blow of wind came and the flowerpot lying on table was fallen and broken. So I was frightened. I went downstairs to talk to my grandmother who was already talking with one of our entourages. She was listening what he was saying. I was little away from them and started listening clandestinely.
He said with grief “It was an accident and it was impossible to avert it in this weather. Our driver would have tried but he couldn’t save their lives and they all along with a car fallen in deep trench. The demise is sad. Sorry. Namste.”
My grandmother was in a huge shock. She missed a beat of heart and oh my god suddenly in front of my eyes she collapsed on the floor. I felt like I was going to become destitute. I quickly ran to my grandmother and gave her a glass of water. She hardly drank two to three draughts.
I shouted “Ramukaka. Where are you all? Please come for help. Grandmother is not well.”
Everybody came and helped me to lift my grandmother to make her sleep properly on nearby sofa. Then Ramukaka called Doctor and explained him about emergency.
Doctor came and expressed doubt that there would be a minor heart attack. Therefore, she should be admitted to hospital for proper care. Then she was admitted to hospital under good care of a team of doctors.
I was with my Grandmother at each and every stage. It was deep pang that was sawing me from inside. I cried when I was alone but I never cried in front of others as now I was no more kid and I had to become a man at early age that I learnt at that time. My Grandmother’s health was recuperating and it was informed me that she would be as normal as she was before. I thanked to god that she was alright. My Grandmother was relieved from hospital and we went back to home.
Funeral of my mother and father was postponed because of my Grandmother’s illness. Their immaculate dead bodies were kept in cold storage which were brought to crematorium. On the same day, my Grandmother was relieved. As a successor I was the person who lit the pyre while it was burning I felt like it was burning my soul as I had lost two most important persons of my life. My eyes were full of tears. I could not stop crying. My grandmother came closer to me and clung me to give me sympathy.
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