WHY FOREIGN ??

It was a cold January evening when Raji aunty came to our home with a packet of sweets. I asked her, "What are these for, aunty? '' She exclaimed with every word coated with ecstasy that her son, Happy, was going foreign.Till the time i could say something back to her, my mother rushed to her and gave her a big hug. ''Congrats ji, congrats!'' She said with equal amount of happiness. ''Which place, aunty?'' I tried to intervene. ''Hmm..Sitco.'' She said. ''Sitco?? Where is this place? I inquired. It's in Australia. She answered. Oh! You mean Sydney? ''Yes, yes. I mean that only'', she said with a straight face. ''ki fark paenda hai'' she added. Wow ! So, she doesn't even care, where her son is going. She's just happy because he is going foreign, i thought to myself. The women carried on with their conversation and i was conveniently ignored. Though, i listened to their chit-chat carefully. I got to know that uncle had sold all his property in the village and they had spent all their savings, so that their son could be happy. For him, HAPPINESS was equivalent to FOREIGN. He didn't care about being a driver, or even a servant there, he just wanted to run off to foreign. Though, Raji aunty would never mention it, but i knew that, not wanting to live with his parents, was another reason for him wanting to go to a foreign land. If you ask me, Happy was a vagabond. He was not good at studies and never sat at home.He would keep wandering uselessly, with his even more useless friends. Of course I was a kid, back then, barely in my teens, but one could tell.

He moved to Sydney. There was an abominable lull at his house here. He used to send money , back home, every 3 months. After an year, when his condition improved, he started sending money every month. The fool didn't know, his parents needed LOVE , not MONEY.

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I was in the last year of my graduation, when my life changed drastically.Dad went away forever. He DIED. I was shocked beyond words can explain. He was ill, but nothing was serious. He was improving this moment, and he went away, the next. This is what followed............

Shock. Cries. More Cries. Anger. Silence............................................

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Almost six months passed, after my graduation, and i still didn't get a job. We depended on the meager savings that we had. But for how long could we survive on that ? I badly needed a job. I became a wanderer, going to every possible place, in search of a job, but to no avail.Meanwhile, i had to go to government offices, too, to get pa's pension. But hoarse treatment and the order to come on so and so day, was all i got. I came back from the government office for the 'nth' time when mum asked me to sit down with her. She began, ''Prithvi, listen carefully, to what I'm going to say now. You have been looking for a job, since almost an year now, but haven't got one. The money that your dad saved for us is about to finish. We have no option now, beta, you'll have to do this.'' '' Do what mom? '' I asked her, slowly, even though i knew precisely, what she was talking about.'' Beggars can't be choosers, Prithvi. You'll have to do this for me.'' ''What are you talking about, mom?'' I said with a dry throat. '' You'll have to go FOREIGN.'' '' These people don't realize your potential, beta, in foreign, they will.'' She said this with pain in her eyes. I stood up and went away, because i couldn't see that aching face, pleading me to go away from her, just because of the reason that i could feed myself, and i could feed HER. Her face was full of sorrow and anxiety. 

I thought and thought some more. Yes, I wanted to be HAPPY, but i didn't want to be another 'HAPPY'. ''Beggars can't be choosers'' Ma's voice echoed in my ears. I couldn't do this, i said to myself. I hated this.I hated all those people who went to an alien land, for their GREED, for their want of MORE and more. No! I couldn't do this. '' You'll have to do it, my son. You'll have to do it for me. Her voice protested. NO! NO! I said.

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A month later, i was in foreign. ''I'' WAS IN FOREIGN. 

I had gone.

I had betrayed my country, but i couldn't betray my mother.

I had gone. I had gone..I HAD GONE............

: Isha J :)