My Promise to My Family
That day, I decided to return home from work early. I had
promised to play a game of shuttle badminton with my daughter – something I’d
been promising and postponing for months. Every day before I left for work my
little one would ask, “Daddy, when are you going to play with me?” and I would promptly
reply, “Today for sure, dear. I’ll come home early and we’ll play to your
heart’s content.” Her eyes would light up at this. But each day, I reached home
late, long after my daughter had gone to sleep exhausted from waiting for me.
This was a sore point with my wife. Most of our quarrels
were over my broken promises. I had not
taken my family out for a dinner or a movie for months, although I’d never
forget to promise to do so every day.
But today was going to be different, I thought, as I rushed
home from office. In my mind’s eye I could see my wife and daughter smiling as
they saw me back home so early. I was tempted to call them and tell them I
would be coming home early, but discarded the idea in favor of surprising them.
As I reached home I saw a huge crowd in front of my house.
All my friends were present, and although I tried catching their attention, no
one even bothered to look at me. The atmosphere was funereal. I pushed through the crowd and ran towards my
home. My heart sank as I saw my wife wailing beside a dead body. My daughter
sat close by, a shuttle racket in her hand, shaking the body on the floor,
“Daddy, wake up. Let’s play.”
I was shocked and began to scream at the top of my voice, “I
am alive, I am alive. Look at me,” but nobody heard me and none turned to look
in my direction. I edged closer and saw for myself that it was indeed me lying
dead.
A month after my death all my relatives left and my wife and
child were left on their own.
For the first time I watched my daughter go to school. When
I was alive I had never dropped her to the bus stop, as I was either sleeping
or too busy at some meeting or the other. Now, however, I wished I could carry
her heavy school bag. I wished I could gently hold her hand and drop her at the
bus stop.
I hear her ask my wife, “Mummy, Daddy is never going to come
back, is he”? I see tears roll down by wife’s cheeks. She has no answer and I have
no way to console her.
One day there is a knock on the door. It is an official from
the bank. He’s come to issue a notice for non-payment of my home loan. This is
soon followed by people from the credit card company, who tell my wife that she
needs to pay up all the dues or face the consequences. That expensive watch,
the laptop sitting on my table - were all bought through my credit card. To
compound matters, that evening my daughter comes home from school, crying. “Mummy,
teacher sent me out of the class today for not paying the school fees. I won’t
be allowed to attend classes tomorrow if I don’t pay the fees.”
My wife has always been a strong lady. But today, I see her
dissolve at the enormity of her tragedy. She is broken and no longer has any
confidence left. She takes out all the gold ornaments she owns. A quick
calculation shows her they are not enough to pay off all our loans.
Another day. Another knock on the door. This time my wife is
too scared to open the door, but open it she must. It’s a person from an Insurance
Company and he’s come to hand her the claim cheque of the policy I had taken. I
see tears in my wife’s eyes. But I know this time they are tears of happiness,
as she comes to my photograph on the wall and says, “I have quarreled with you
for not keeping any of your promises – for not finding the time to play with
the child, for not taking us out for dinners. But you have fulfilled a bigger
promise of keeping us happy even in your absence.”
I realized then that I had indeed done something worthwhile
for my family. I could now rest in peace.
