The Ultimatum
by Arjoyita Roy
(Durgapur, West Bengal, India)
"Where is he?" inquired the frantic father to his wife who stood numb for all efforts ended in smoke because nothing could stop Varun from pursuing the divine will to liberate himself from the clutches of an overshadowed life which otherwise was lived by him but was governed by the will of his parents. The dark tremors of the past succeeded in its meek attempt to shake the very foundation of the family for Varun, had liberated himself of his life of celibacy for good. He planned never to look back again and bid adieu to the world of his dictators “Don’t fall prey to pseudo glitz and glamour of Literature. Pursue Science like a Man.” Her words reckoned back as she suffered from an unnatural culpability. Varun longed for his mother’s nod of approval to sanction her will in his favor.
Nevertheless, the odds went against him to turn him a victim caught in the web of his miserable fate. His heroic demeanor reflected endurance; he succeeded to string along devil’s own luck for it paved the way to emancipation. Saturdays had always felt like hell broke loose, when the rest of the gang could sit back and recline, Varun had to assure his presence in the coaching class for he had to camp on the doorstep of the best Engineering college in town.
Time hoodwinked suspicion and tore the unbridled fabric of paradise. His mother refused to look at him for the last time owing to the kind of guilt that penetrated her mind and hit hard her conscience deep down, for she knew his well-knit past; when he gasped to breathe in Liberty and all that she did was confine him to the periphery of the stereotype.
Heirs and assigns started pouring in the hospital to catch a last glimpse of the boy with a promising future, but Alas! Time duped them, severed the filial souls prior premonitory. “If only I had lend a ear to his wishes I could have mended our fortune in the nick of time, he would have returned home today safe and sound, he would not seek refuge to the sleeping pills” uttered the remorseful father because now he sleeps the sleep that knows no bounds. Nothing could breathe back life into the lifeless corpse. It was the hour when Virtue and vice laughed hard at their fate and manifested the bottom line that Regret supersedes Gratitude.
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