Sunday, 28 October 2012

Evil and Virtue (Short Story)



                                          Evil and Virtue
I
 shivered while reading the newspaper; the news was no different than any other day, this time a local bank was looted by some bandits and the culprits who were behind it were impossible to be traced, the police had been tracking them for a long time but unable to find any clue or trace which could lead to them. Those were not some bandits, one of them was my husband: my husband who was the best husband and not to mention, the best father in the world. My husband had no choice, he had to do something to earn for his family. Our family had faced many problems, people are changed due to the circumstances and surroundings, time brings more difficulty, moment after moment, doesn’t matter if it is a good time or a bad time, it always changes. It can shift one’s emotions; it can strip smiles of human beings and replace them with tears in their eyes. I was happy, my family was happy but one day our lives were completely changed abruptly, I never imagined this could happened but one can never be so sure that what is going to happen, because life is so unpredictable. One has to be on his toes every moment. My husband worked in a pipe factory, he did not received a very handsome income but all of us managed to live happily with it, I, my husband Tahir, our little son: who could barely speak and my mother and father in laws. We were living in a small house which consisted of only 2 rooms, it was a small house in the bastee. We were living on rent, the owner of this house was a very mean man, he was not so wealthy but he used to earn satisfactory money by collecting the rent, his late father owned this bastee at some point of time; he was a very nice man but his son was a totally opposite to him; mean and arrogant. He wore a typical punjabi dress which was the shalwar qamiz. Every month he came to the baste and asked for rent. My husband had brought a lot of toys one day, that was the very day when my little Imtiaz was born to me, I was very happy, all my happiness came to a sudden end after some time later when that mean person appeared to collect his rent, unfortunatly we did not had the money to pay our rent because my husband had already spent his money on the new born baby’s toys. The mean man came and started to knock the door really hard and shouted,
“ Come out you rats, pay me my rent “
My husband said that he would go and tell him that we were short of money and we will pay as soon as we get the money. But the mean man was way to much hasty and he demanded the money at the spot, my husband tried his best to convince finally he gave us 3 more days, we had to pay the rent in 3 days which was near to impossible, apart from the household bills, we had to cook meal for everybody, we had to run our house. After those 3 days my husband and I along with our child went out to seek some job to earn money, but we failed eventually. When we returned home we saw that the main door of the house was unusually open, the house was totally messed up. A large shriek blew my mouth open when I entered my mother and father in laws room; it was blood everywhere, the room was terribly disordered and stains of blood had covered everything, the corpses of my mother and father in laws were lying there. I started to shout and cry, my husband stood there for a long time, then he fell on his knees and started to weep on the death of his parents. A piece of paper was forcefully stuck in the mouth of his father, he took it out and it was written on it that, “ If you do not pay the rent soon, same will happen to your wife and son “. My husband was enraged, he took out his axe from beneath the bed which he used to take to the factory, he went to the house of that mean man and killed him, he chopped pieces of him and putted it into a sack and burnt it. Some group of people had noticed his actions, those were not some group of people, now those people had become the companions of her husband in looting and killing people for money. They forcefully made my husband to adopt this path of evil and sin, my husband had no choice he had to do something, at that point of time we seriously needed financial support only after then we could mentally strengthen. I tried to warn my husband not to walk on this evil path, but he refused to listen to me. Even my morality corrupted when I used to get whatever I wanted with so much money. but I had a strong will, I did not wanted my child to bare the evil deeds just like his father was doing, times forces us to do many things, but it is based on our will power that which way we choose, the right way or the wrong way. I loved my son even more than my husband, I wanted to educate my son, I wanted my son to be pious and to always walk on the paths virtue. I always prayed that God may protect my child and to keep him safe from even the shadows of evil.
            Somebody knocked at the door rashly, it was my husband. I opened the door; he came in and gave me a big huge and said,
“ Sweetheart do you know what have I brought for you ? “
“ I do not want anything, I already have everything, you and Imtiaz, I want nothing more, I just want you to leave everything what you are doing “, I replied with an outbreak of emotions
“ Oh please not your moral speeches again, the world is bad and cruel, nice people have no place here, I got my parents killed of beings nice, If you want to fight the devil, you have to become a devil yourself , besides we would not have been able to build this beautiful big house in such a neat location if we had sticked to our moralities “ , He replied angrily
“ Tahir we do not need all this, we are just happy with each other, we do not need anything else, what if you get killed in a police encounter, what would become of me, what would become of your son; who has not even uttered, PAPA yet. All your black money will be nothing more than a pile of dust.
“ Here, I have brought you a new dress, the one you always asked me to buy for you “
I took the dress silently, at that time Imtiaz came crawling to his father, his father picked him up and kissed him on his forehead and started to adore him. I shed to tears the moment I witnessed a miracle, Imtiaz spoke for the first time:
“ Pahh-ppaaa , papaaah dnn behh bad “
I was amazed how a little boy could speak such a phrase for the first time, Tahir and I shed to tears but these tears were of happiness and bliss. Eventually my husband considered that the words which Imtiaz spoke were a message of the Divine. My husband abandoned his path of sin and reformed himself by coming closer to the religion. Now my husband owns a general store and financially; we said good-bye to all our problems. Now I am sure that my son will become a good human being, despite all the sins and evils in the world, he will find ways to glorify the power of virtue and goodness.

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