Timely tales

There was this Facebook post, that I read a while back, almost a month has passed. But still it has been ringing on my mind. It was a short story about a family, where the elder son who is married and has 2 kids, not just takes care of his ailing mom, but also takes care of his younger sister who is widowed (or divorcee not sure). There is this elder sister of him, who eloped to get married to someone from other caste. That leads to lot of issues in his second sister getting married and problems for him also to get a wife. Despite all this, he manages the entire household on his single income. He takes loan to do all “seer” properly for his sister and is always on debt. Typical middle class family and typical problems faced by middle class. One fine day the elder sister comes to his house to see the mom. She wants to invite them for her daughter’s wedding. All things she did in the past are forgotten the very instant by the mom, who not only embraces her back, but also gives the granddaughter, her jewelry as wedding gift. The story goes like a conversation between the man of the household and his friend, who is asking why he is looking sad. The man tells the whole story and says, all these years, it was his wife and his own daughters who took care of mom. His wife wouldn’t have objected if mom had told her that she is going to gift the jewels and in fact she herself would’ve told her to share it with her daughter. But the way mom acted was for some reason, saddening for him, for he couldn’t understand the reason why. He was not unhappy to see his sister back and nor did he wanted her to be punished for putting her life over the rest. Neither was she responsible for the sufferings or how others treated him and his sister for the action of their elder sister. Yet, when his mom, took her back, without a word of admonishment, something felt empty within him. He didn’t want his elder sister to be embarrassed and a scene to have been created for what she did, yet he couldn’t convince himself that she could’ve been taken back so easily into the fold. His friend responds that, at times that is how mind works. Despite the people next to us being so comforting and loving, it always yearns for those who are not around and such actions of elders in the family are so common. We cannot make any sense out of it neither can they and this is one of the primary reason for many a joint family to disintegrate. Despite all the misgivings, even parents have favorites and at times emotions trump practicality. When such things happen, it really bugs the people around.
There was no solution or moral of the story, but felt this post to resonate so well and could relate to it a lot more closer than I would’ve wanted to admit. May be..just may be…
But things are what they are and not for what they are meant to be always!!