S.E.C.R.E.T
They were two young people in love, rebelling against their families. The two families in question thought the other to be inferior. Their hatred grew apparent when they decided to wrench the young couple apart. The stars helped too. They were meant to be star crossed lovers. Alas! Their love bore a symbol. A child was conceived. Something that the couple and their families had not foreseen. What was to be done of the wretched sin? One said kill it. The other said if it is a boy we shall want it to live. If it is a girl we shall kill it. They never asked the man or the woman what they wanted to do with the child. Having thus decided the child’s destiny even before it was bigger than a thumb the families began their 9 month long wait.
The wait ended when they heard the wailing of the child. The heads of both families rushed in to the room. What do you think they saw? A child. A girl child. “Kill it”, said both.
You can’t play with destiny. A young couple had visited the hospital only to be told that the woman could not have any more children. Heart broken she sat on the bench and wept on her husbands shoulder. That’s when the crestfallen woman heard a young nurse tell the sorry story of the child that would soon be seeing death face to face. Her tears of sorrow soon turned to that of joy. She looked skywards and thanked god for answering her prayers. As if lead by a strange force she came to the room where the new mother was whispering words of love and kindness in the child’s ears. Feeling the intrusion before seeing the woman, both mother and child looked at the door. The woman walked in hesitantly and told the mother that she knew that the child was sentenced to death. The mother just looked at the woman. Not sure how she should begin her request, she found herself blurting out, “I could take care of your child as my own if you’d let me.” The mother overwhelmed by the twist of fate in the child’s life mutely handed over the child to the woman.
See that’s the way I’d liked to have told the story. But what I actually said was – I am adopted. That pretty much silenced the 4 girls sitting with me.
Let me begin at the very beginning. In the first semester of college by some strange force of nature I got stuck with four girls. Now they were all enthusiastic about making new friends and getting to “know” each other. So three months into college I found myself being an involuntary contributor to a conversation. What were we talking about? Secrets. I knew they wouldn’t remain my friends forever. But just to humor them or rather humor me. I conceded and told them my SECRET – I am an adopted child,the set of parents that I live with adopted me out of the kindness in their heart.
See they were asking for a secret. I told them my secret. I loved the reaction that followed. Lots of discomfort and curiosity and repulsiveness all at once showed on the faces of three of them. The fourth one was pretty brave and asked me if I ever wanted to track down my birth parents. I said I didn’t.
That evening while going home, two girls very politely declined to come with the fourth girl and me. The four of us traveled by bus and the fifth one lived in the hostel. I knew why they didn’t want to come with us (me). So the fourth girl and I boarded the bus. We looked out and even before we were gone we could hear the two girls exclaim “God! Did you ever imagine such a thing…?”
I sat at the window and I was looking out. Of course I was grinning. My friend looked at me and she said, “You aren’t really adopted are you?”
The wait ended when they heard the wailing of the child. The heads of both families rushed in to the room. What do you think they saw? A child. A girl child. “Kill it”, said both.
You can’t play with destiny. A young couple had visited the hospital only to be told that the woman could not have any more children. Heart broken she sat on the bench and wept on her husbands shoulder. That’s when the crestfallen woman heard a young nurse tell the sorry story of the child that would soon be seeing death face to face. Her tears of sorrow soon turned to that of joy. She looked skywards and thanked god for answering her prayers. As if lead by a strange force she came to the room where the new mother was whispering words of love and kindness in the child’s ears. Feeling the intrusion before seeing the woman, both mother and child looked at the door. The woman walked in hesitantly and told the mother that she knew that the child was sentenced to death. The mother just looked at the woman. Not sure how she should begin her request, she found herself blurting out, “I could take care of your child as my own if you’d let me.” The mother overwhelmed by the twist of fate in the child’s life mutely handed over the child to the woman.
See that’s the way I’d liked to have told the story. But what I actually said was – I am adopted. That pretty much silenced the 4 girls sitting with me.
Let me begin at the very beginning. In the first semester of college by some strange force of nature I got stuck with four girls. Now they were all enthusiastic about making new friends and getting to “know” each other. So three months into college I found myself being an involuntary contributor to a conversation. What were we talking about? Secrets. I knew they wouldn’t remain my friends forever. But just to humor them or rather humor me. I conceded and told them my SECRET – I am an adopted child,the set of parents that I live with adopted me out of the kindness in their heart.
See they were asking for a secret. I told them my secret. I loved the reaction that followed. Lots of discomfort and curiosity and repulsiveness all at once showed on the faces of three of them. The fourth one was pretty brave and asked me if I ever wanted to track down my birth parents. I said I didn’t.
That evening while going home, two girls very politely declined to come with the fourth girl and me. The four of us traveled by bus and the fifth one lived in the hostel. I knew why they didn’t want to come with us (me). So the fourth girl and I boarded the bus. We looked out and even before we were gone we could hear the two girls exclaim “God! Did you ever imagine such a thing…?”
I sat at the window and I was looking out. Of course I was grinning. My friend looked at me and she said, “You aren’t really adopted are you?”
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