Step Mother

In those days, when I was in school, the parents did not pamper their children like the parents of these days. They also love their children but public display of love and affection was not considered good.

Those who publicly express love for their own children were considered shameless or highly modern.

 These things existed before the arrival of black and white TV.

Then the TV came and covered the whole world. In our locality also, every house got a TV set.

The most popular of the programs shown on TV were the sops and movies. Various stories and scenes are shown in the films.

A boy named Guddu lived in my neighborhood, He was ten years old . In Guddu's house, he had a two years older brother Tukku and a three years younger sister Tina. A family came to live in the adjacent house as tenants. These neighbors were Saxenaji, his wife Neelu and their six year old daughter Mini .

One day, Neelu Aunt threw the garbage down from the roof of her house  and some garbage flew with the wind and fell in front of Guddu's house. As it’s consequence there was some argument between Guddu’s mother and Neelu .

In those days there were two prevalent formulas in formulas of commercial films, one the separation of brothers in the Kumbh Mela and second formula was of the step-mother who loved her children and had the disdain for a step child .

One day a similar step mother's picture was shown on TV. Guddu had also seen this picture.

On the next day when Guddu was sitting alone in front of his house. Neelu called him  to her house with a gesture. It was only to go to the adjacent house. Guddu reached the door of Nilu Aunt. Neelu opened the door and said to Guddu , " Come in , son come in."

Guddu was a little shy, hesitatingly he went in.

Neelu touched Guddu's head with affection and asked, "Your name is Guddu, is not it?"

Guddu replied, "Yes. "

Neelu pointed to a chair and said, "Sit here , I'll be coming right now.”

Neelu went inside and in a while returned with a glass of apple juice and a plate of roasted cashew nuts. She placed these items on the table in front of Guddu, She sat on the chair opposite to Guddu

"Eat and drink, do not be shy , " Neelu insisted. Guddu slowly began to drink the juice and eat cashew nuts. Neelu asked, "Which class do you study? "

Guddu said, "I read in the fourth class."

Neelu said , "Today is a school holiday, so my children have gone to meet their grandfather with their father. Come and meet them sometime. "

Then Neelu asked, "Is your mom not at home? "

Guddu said, "Auntie. Mommy is at home. "

Neelu aunt said, "Then why did you sit alone out side ? My daughter  does not leave me even for a minute on the day of the holiday.  Does not your mother love you?"

Guddu did not get any answers. He remained quiet. Then Neelu aunt said, “Gudddu now you go home. Your mother will be worried. "

Guddu came to his house. In the mind of Guddu this sentence got stuck, ' Does your mother not love you? ' He did not have any direct evidence of his mother’s love. Neither his mother embraced him nor showed any other jesture of affection like a flutter on the head or kiss on the forehead as shown in a picture. He remembered the touch of the hand of Neelu Aunt on his head. He started to feel that the mother did not love her.

Then he thought, "But what could be the reason for not loving me?.” He felt a shock. The idea came to his mind, "my mother may be my step mother."

He then argued with himself, "She does not even love Tukku and Tina. Are they also step children ? "

He thought more deeply about the behavior of the mother. He remembered , ' Tina sometimes clings to the mother, then the mother laughs and separates her politely. '

And he remembered, ' Mother never scolds Tukku for studies , she often scolds him. '

He ignored the fact at this point  that Tukku himself studied well while he played.

Guddu concluded that he was the step son and the mother was a step mother. Then he got disturbed by the thought that who was his real mother and where she was.

Thinking all these things he got totally confused. He went straight into the house and stood in front of his mother. His face was getting red with anger and sadness at that time. The eyes were full of tears and the body was trembling.

When the mother saw him, she asked , "What happened to you Guddu ?  Are you not feeling well? "

Guddu asked a straight question, "Where is my mother? "

Mom was shocked and said, "What is this question? Who am I? "

Guddu replied, "You are my stepmother."

Mother said, "O Lord." And sat on the ground feeling perplexed.

The problem that arose took a week get solved. Guddu became fine in a week after counseling. Mother needed a little counseling too.

God only knows if this was the revenge of the Nilu aunt or something else ...

-Ravi Ranjan Goswami