Poor guy, I really feel for him. He brought up a girl all alone (her mother had died when she was very young) and made her into an engineer. It was no mean achievement considering he had to dig into his savings to do that. The poor man had lost his job due to retrenchment in the company he worked in.
There was of course the ‘golden shake hand’ which more often than not turns out to be a wooden hand shake in the end.
Well he had some little money all right but not enough to throw it away. He was only a blue collar guy. He had pined over what he could not become and had decided to give his darling girl the opportunities he could not get in his life.
The girl was not bad at studies and got her grades easily. Now she is an engineer.
He had not married when his wife died thinking about the little imp he had to support. Gross error, one should never make sacrifices where one would come the worst off.
When I think of the long chilly nights he had to spend all alone and the house hold chores he had to perform( the darling girl would only open her mouth to swallow what he makes in the kitchen, would never budge from her desk to assist him in the house) I feel for him the more. He was not that old when his wife died.
He even got her through her puberty unassisted. (You get the meaning of course?)
He may have washed her soiled cloths too. The things that the world makes people do if they are not careful!
Well the guy is a saint. He had to be the mother and father to the girl. Tough work brother, very tough work. I grew up with two sisters. There were enough family members and relatives to take care of everything. We had servants besides.
Even then they say that it is some job to bring up a girl.
He did it all alone. He had married late, and is now old and broken inside for more than one reason.
The wonderful girl he brought up has turned out to be terribly insensitive and selfish to the core. She is the ‘quintessential’ Indian engineer now, totally white collar. Hates everything manual.
Still kindly allows her father to cook and wash for her.
She is back at home after her studies. Retires into her room early and would only issue forth around 11 in the morning. Has no interest in taking up a job. Is not very nice to her father if he does not produce something nice to devour at meal times.
He is no chef, so he rises early and begins the hunt for a tasty meal from the restaurants in the neighbor hood. This has to repeat every day morn, noon and even.
Then he takes the broom and towels to get the house into some shape.
In the meantime she has taken good care of herself too. Has a nice love affair going with one of her classmates. May be the long absences into her room might be to daydream about her near and dear lover.
Her daddy is her worst enemy now. He is uncultured, uneducated and “country”. She would not go out with him and avoids being seen with him as far as possible.
The poor man was an idealist. He had certain principles and stuck to them. The feeble guy thought that everything would turn out well if he did his bit.
He never understood that life is a bitch. Even at sixty he hasn’t learned. I heard him complaining to some one the other day.
He had terrible shoulder pains and could not move. He was ready even then to go out and bring something home for his girl. But he could have done with a refreshing early morning tea.
He called her from her reveries and stated his case. The intelligent girl looked at him blankly and remained silent. It was as if she did not recognize the existence of a kitchen in the house.
He could not shout at her, being a motherless child, and he can’t cry, being a man. In the end he broke down and cried.
She did not move a muscle on her face. He began to understand then; they were totally on different wavelengths.
There were tears in his voice when he was relating the incident.
I do not know if any one would agree with me on this point. It might appear a little cruel too.
But a guy in his position who had to lose his whole life in the bargain should never have aspired big for the girl.
He should have sent her to ordinary schools and to an arts course in collage and should have planned to marry her off when she came of age. It would have been easy to train her in the house hold cores then.
It is the certainty of stardom which makes some girls crass even though they may be intelligent otherwise.
Girls are adaptive and would fit any roles if the options are limited. If this girl had just an ordinary education she would have dreamed of a nice married life that being the only option out.
Girls are the most practical souls in the world.
And also he should have married. There is nothing like step mother to instill humility in a girl.
Terrible words, what with the Women are Lib and all in the background! But facts are facts.
He had no business to give her ideas about her importance. His stupid decisions ruined his life. He can’t complain at the moment.
Well his darling daughter has become an engineer now.
And he is drinking the very “inchi neer” of life.
( Inchi=ginger, neer= juice, A strong herbal remedy to get the worms out of your tummy( citation needed) and keep the nausea also out, pretty bitter stuff to take they say!)
‘Inchi neer’ is how some call engineers in this part of the world, nothing disparaging about it, I avow!
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