Choice

Author: Dr. Dharaneesh Prasad

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Harsha returned back home from his office at 9.45 pm though usually he would reach home by 8.15 pm. It was because of the excess work that he had to do as the month was just about to end and he had to submit his reports in the office. Tired he was, when he reached home, he felt happy and relieved when his little daughter, Smruthi came running and offered him some water to drink. He in a hustle mishandled the glass and the glass fell off her hands on the ground. He got angry. He could not control his thoughts and emotions.

Harsha had choices to choose from:

1. He could just pause a moment to understand that it wasn’t the child’s mistake but his, and move on.
2. He could shout at the child and his wife to express out his repressed anger and make a mess out of it.

He choose the send one but couldn’t foresee the problems that it would pose in the future. He shouted at he child for not giving the glass properly. He called his wife Amrutha to the living room. Amrutha rushed to the living room to see him raging with anger. He shouted and scolded her also. Without realizing what he was doing, he started to scold her parents too asking whether this was the way, her parents had brought her up.

Warm tears trickled down the cheeks of Amrutha. Few moments back, Shruthi a preschool child had shown Amrutha all her new skills of scribbling alphabets, telling rhymes and doing a “roll around” which she condiered dance. The proud mother, mesmerized by these, had kissed her little daughter. In return the little child kissed her mother’s cheeks.

Amrutha’s cheeks forgot the sweetness of all those warm kisses as tears rolled down. Feeling too embarrassed and unable to manage the situation, Amrutha held her little daughter close to her chest and went to the room, continuing to cry. Amrutha felt too difficult to tolerate the pain her body felt due to her day long chore of work and her excessive bleeding, that had to stop two days back but was still continuing.

Smruthi did not know what was happening around. Her tender age did not let her make sense of those happenings. She did not want to cry but could not stop tears rolling down her cheeks. She wanted to tell father all that had happened in her school and about her preparation for the sports day too. All these were documented in her subconscious mind and nobody knew what consequences they would cause in her future life.

Time passed by. After some time, Harsha paused for a moment to reflect back on his choice. If Harsha had chosen right, that dark night would have not seen two suffering souls amidst the terrible darkness it hid within.