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She works as a housemaid to earn a
living, to give her dadi and herself two square meals a day. She
has seen rich ladies loving their children and meeting their
extravagant demands and the children uttering the word
"mummy" which sounds so sweet to her, raising in her
mind many questions: "Whose heart bled when she was hungry:
Father’s? ‘Where was he? Living or dead? Mother’s? Where
was she? Will she ever come? Will she ever love her, fondle
her?" These are the questions she asks herself.
Poor little
Ratia tries to see her mother in her mistress’s face and a
younger brother or sister in every house she works. She finds
nothing but disappointment. The mistress treated her more like a
servant than a child who could do all impossible tasks which she
could not do. While playing with rich sons and daughters was
only to to make them happy. Her desire remains unfulfilled. She
moves from one house to another taking every house for a home, a
home wherein lives a mother, a father and a brother or a sister,
a home where she could live always. But in vain.
Her search
continues, hope survives. Everything was going on smoothly. Her
wage was sufficient to meet her expenses. Her occasional visit
to her grandmother’s house gives her lot of happiness and
satisfaction. Suddenly, one day she hears of her grandmother’s
illness. All is over. Her dadi has died. The girl does not know
what she hss to do? Where to go? The only relation known to her
is no more. Her only link to the world is lost, with no hope of
revival. She wants to cling to something, to hide herself from
everything. But there is no one to whom she can cling.
A week later
she hears of her father’s arrival. She is thrilled to hear the
news. Suddenly the hatred she had for him fades away and she
decides to go with him. She forgets everything. The very thought
of going with him comforts her no end. Where? She has the
answer: "In her mother’s lap under the canopy of her
father." So safe and happy she felt in his presence. Well,
that is not the end of her sorrows. The home she has gone to is
not the home of her dreams. It is not that the stepmother does
not treat her well. She loves her and Ratia too starts calling
her "mummy". The household expenses have risen. It has
become difficult for them to have enough food to eat. Every
evening her father comes home drunk and beats his wife. The rosy
days are gone. The image she had of an ideal father, a father
who cared for the family and fulfilled all the demands, is
shattered. Soon the father realises the need to get her married,
a simple way of relieving himself of a burden. Young men clad in
best of their dresses come to see her. Their eyes riveted at her
beautiful figure and attractive looks. She does not like them.
The only man
she likes is Shivaram, a watchman in Ludhiana. At last she is
married to him. She does not understand anything. She is not yet
ready for the new life. "Where are you sending me,
papa?" She asked innocently. "To your new home in
Ludhiana. I have found the best man for you," he says. The
idea of a new home revives her hope. May be this is the home for
which she has yearned. And rightly she guessed this time. Her
search ended.
The home she lived in is not so
big as are the houses where she had worked. The man she is
married to is not so rich but gave her enough food to eat, good
clothes to wear and a protective shield around her. She feels
safe and secure in his presence. Unbelievable it is for her. A
small trickle of happiness in her life is not less than a
torrent of happiness. What else has she expected from life? The
new millennium had dawned, a new life is born.
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Not only
this, home is the place where it learns the basic lessons of
living and develops the faculty to judge the right or wrong.
In other words the child becomes a social and cultural being.
But what happens when a child lives away from parents? Does
the new home mean the same? Does the child grow normally. No,
certainly not.
