A conversation I heard at my friend’s house was penetrating and painful

Angela: Why doesn’t he buy us that expensive fruit over there? My friends say it’s very tasty mother.

Mother: He is a stingy man. He hardly spends on us you know. He didn’t even celebrate when you were born. He didn’t invite any of my relatives. How rude can a man be? He took you to the nearest temple and prayed for you, pretending like he loves you the most.

Angela: All my friends spend lavishly and I haven’t tasted that Kiwi fruit yet.

Mother: I know, this is how he is. He brought me a Suit and didn’t get me another one for 2 months.

Angela: Mother, I wish I earn myself and get rid of my father. He is so mean.

Mother: You know, my father didn’t have much but still he celebrated my first birthday. Look at him, he never did that for you. He says he will send you to a wonderful college one day. Who has seen the future, he must maintain his social image and let us enjoy. But I can’t change him.

The father enters

Father: Angela, see I have got oranges and apples for you. You will be a strong girl if you eat 1 every day.

Angela: Please Dad, I hate apples and oranges. Enjoy them yourself. I will leave.

Father, with a smile on his face, moves to his bedroom, to open his wallet and find the slips of all the monthly installments he was supposed to pay. He had rented a big house for his family to stay. He wanted to be in a good locality even if he had to pay 10 grands instead of 8. He had got a power back up so that no one sleeps without a fan. He had changed his job, which involved a huge expenditure to settle at a new place, with a view to give more time to his family.

Rama (Angela’s mother): Shall I serve you something to eat?

Akash (Angela’s father): No, I had something in the office today. How are things with you? Do you like this new place?

Rama: Please! stop flaunting what you have done for us. My friends go for lavish vacations which we haven’t planned for, even once, in all these years of marriage.

This wasn’t the first time he was listening to all this. He had got used to it and ended up feeling sorry for the little that he had. He wanted, his family to be medically secured, his daughter to go to a good college and have grand parties once she is grown up to enjoy them. He wanted to go to Goa with them but the month’s salary would just fade away in rent, installments, paying his C.A. to uphold a company he was trying to establish, and in paying the credit card bills he had gathered while shifting to this new job.

Rama: I wish you had let me work. I would have saved more than you did. You work hard and end up having nothing for us.

Akash: We have it all. Look around and see, you have a roof, a good bed to sleep on, there is never a power cut and small trips that we make on our car. Ohh! you reminded me well, I have to pay the EMI of our car as well.

Rama: You were never able to satisfy my needs. I feel ashamed of you when I see women enjoying so much and spending so much. You couldn’t afford to bring me along when you joined this new office.

He wasn’t smiling anymore. He felt his efforts were always in vain as he was accused and abused for what he couldn’t do. He was a self-made man and had worked hard to detach himself from his father and be independent. What he had at the age of 35, is what many people achieve till the time they are 45.

Akash: Don’t feel ashamed of me (sobbing inside). I am doing my best to get you everything. I couldn’t bring you along because there were other things I was settling at the new place for both of you. I still managed to get you here by the time I got my second salary. Look around and what is it that you don’t have?

Rama: I feel so helpless with a man like you Akash. You never understand me. I want to enjoy. I haven’t bought a Saree for more than 2 months. Diwali is approaching and I will wear the same old clothes.

He felt frustrated to the bottom of his heart. He had been living in depression for quite a long time. He felt heavy but he tried his best to get everything for them.

A man who works hard for your growth should be understood. He isn’t a miser. He wants it all planned for you. He couldn’t do much for you all this time but if you love and support him, you would relish your life with a man who is willing to work hard.

Don’t blame your father or your parents to bring you lesser than what other parents get. Don’t blame the husband who is putting in his best. Many people today are committing suicide because of depression. You might end up losing even the little that you have from him. Wives nagging their husbands is considered a healthy practice nowadays but see that you are not raising a daughter like that. The parents must teach their daughters to be calm in all the situations they come across and be a support to their family.

Demands and lust for material resources never end and the society we want to prove it to won’t really be standing by us when we need that support.