Leaving Footprints Behind ....

And I thought there was genuinely a dearth of good people in this world!”

I learnt about this incident when Rita, the youngest daughter-in-law of my late sister came to our apartment at Dum Dum with her eldest sister.

Rita’s eldest sister, Gita Di, was talking to me about her siblings. During the conversation, she mentioned their youngest sister, Mita.

“Isn’t she the one who lost her ....?” Going to enquire whether Mita was the sister who lost her husband, I stopped in the middle, having realised that I was crossing boundaries of propriety.

A very simple and easy-going woman, Gita Di told me,” Yea, you heard it right. Her husband died some six years ago.”

“Your sister must have been quite young then?” I couldn’t help asking.

“Correct. She was stepping into her thirties at that time.” She replied.

“Didn’t you try to get her married again?”

“We did. We pestered her like anything. But she didn’t get married, preferring to stay with her in-laws. She got her husband’s job though. Besides, she’s a son, aged five or six. He has started going to school recently.”

Talking about Mita, I was reminded of another day when on the way back to our house from Linton Street, I made a similar kind of request to the widow of my nephew.

“Swati, it’s time you remarried. You still have a long way to go.”

The wife of my late nephew was dearer to me than even my late nephew himself.

“It is not possible any more, Bappa Mamu. Baban ( her child) is not a kid any more.”

Though I felt upset by her stubbornness, I realised what she meant while Gita Di kept talking about her youngest.

Swati never remarried!

Saddened by stories of the plights of such young widows, when I was thinking of God’s sense of justice, Gita Di piped out, “Mita’s father-in-law has recently gifted his palatial house to her. My brother paid for the registration though. In cash.Nearly one lakh rupees!”

Having heard her through, I was thinking of Gita Di’s simplicity and her brother’s generosity. Our world is all the more beautiful, wonderful because of such brothers and sisters.

The story could have ended here but with a penchant for chatting, Gita Di kept on, “A few months back the father-in-law of Mita paid a visit to the house of the in-laws of his only daughter. Before bequeathing the house to Mita, he wanted to inform the father-in-law about his decision. Mita’s in-laws are quite rich with three houses in Durgapur alone.

After hearing everything, the father-in-law told Mita’s father-in-law, “ You bequeath everything to your daughter-in-law without any hesitation. Don’t worry about the future of your daughter. Amal, you know it very well, is my only son. Our son and his wife will inherit all my three houses once we are gone. I can’t cheat my daughter-in-law her share of the family inheritance, can I?”

Mita’s father-in-law bequeathed the house to Mita on his return to Asansol the very next day.” Having elaborated this all, Gita Di finally concluded her narration.

Always concerned with the future of mankind, I was reassessing the validity of my opinion that there was a dearth of good people in this world! 

The end

by Battachargee Sagata