Neighbourly Curiosity (2/25)
Neighbourly Curiosity
Mahadev Babu was a gentleman in the truest sense of the term. So, when he breathed his last at 81 with his younger daughter, Minati, still a spinster, relatives, instead of praying for his soul to rest in peace, preferred gossiping about the reasons why he left his youngest daughter unmarried.
“Had Jaya been alive, Minu’d have been married long ago,” opined a close one.
“Spot on,” quipped another, “remember, how lavishly they had the elder daughter married? I never relished mutton the way I did that night.”
“Uncle Mahadev was too old to do all the running around for a groom any more. As simple as that.” A youth standing nearby, unable to put up with the criticism any more, couldn’t help commenting.
“I knew Mahadev inside out.” Said an elderly man. “His selfish nature left Minati a spinster. Had she been married off, who would have taken care of Mahadev in his old age?”
Minati, her respect for her father as solid as ever, wiped away the tears with the fold of her sari, once the last rites were performed..
The truth would lie hidden amongst the three of them. At 18, Minati was admitted to a nursing home with a baby in her womb!. She had to undergo a major surgery as well. Later, having taken Mahadev and Jaya aside to a corner, the doctor remarked, “You’re a lucky man, Mahadev Babu. That’s why your daughter has been snatched away from the jaws of Death. We had given up on her chances otherwise..”
Wiping his glasses, he went on,”But one’s to pay a price for any unexpected stroke of luck. Your daughter too will be no exception. I’m sorry to tell you that the only way we could have saved your daughter was by removing her ovary.”
“Will this have any repercussions on my daughter, Doctor?” Cried Jaya, who had been standing like a statue beside her husband till then.
Putting his glasses back on, the doctor replied, “There will be some consequences, for sure. Sorry to tell you that your daughter will never be able to give birth…..”
Mahadev Babu, left no stone unturned to get his talented daughter married afterwards. He had the belief that there would be someone begging for the hand of his peerless daughter, whom both Goddesses Laksmi and Saraswati blessed to a great extent. He was ready to hide nothing from the family of his son-in-law-to-be. But there is a saying : ‘Man proposes. God disposes’, right?
Time marched on. Even the man with the never-say-die attitude, became vulnerable with the passage of time. Finally, he departed for his heavenly abode, leaving his dear daughter behind, but even after his death, criticisms and discussions of the relatives did not end!
Please don’t get upset, dear reader, if you hear even today someone remarking that Mahadev did not offer his youngest daughter in marriage for his own interest. You can forgive him considering the remark as an act of neighbourly curiosity.
The end
