Father | Son

"You are wrong!"- He smiled with a confidant loud voice.

 His friend had mused that he was happier of the two. Both these men had one thing in common other than being widowers in their fifties - time had distanced them from their son to a point of no return.

The hero of this story, lets call him the father, is just staying under the same roof as his son, but he never heard a pleasant words from his for ages, though he still remembers the good old times, as fresh as yesterday. Still every morning, he wishes his son, calls him to have dinner with him which he rarely accepts, and, looks into every opportunity to make his life better, with occasional success.

This Friend, on the other hand, had severed the relation with his son, who has shifted to a rented room in the same block. He and his son stand strangers to each other, and, glance a formal smile in community gatherings. Each his own life - each in his own capsules of happiness. Somewhere, time had healed the bitterness and memories hardly flash - time has drawn many a silky curtains between them.

 The Father, however, suffers from fresh agony, now and then, the wound resurfaces every times, his son returns scornful angry words, if any, when he approaches him for showing some care.

Father keeps quite - to his son; and anybody in this world - this is his private affair. He often ponders about what created the distance. It’s not that there were no reasons - for him they were trivial. He believes, every individual has the right to his own judgments and things trivial to him may have hurt him bad. He had tried to patch things up but it never worked.

Sitting on a park bench, he today, spend the sunset, looking at the horizon and telling his agony & helplessness to his friend. The friend listened with and impatient ear and said "It’s your choice to be unhappy, we both share the same circumstances, you chose not to let go and you need to suffer all your coming days. I went through what you are going everyday and then I chose to be happy". The father listened, though for a while and smiled - a smile that can make many jealous.

"You are wrong; I still have a son – someone to remember every moment, to show my care and love. I am a bad trader, if I can’t get anything in return but if you just cannot give, you remain a beggar for life"