Two eyes

“Your son is your eye. Everyone has two eyes. So having one son is not enough. You should have two.”

This is a piece of village wisdom I heard as I sat listening one day to this chatty young man of twenty two years.

He had recently migrated in search of a job from his native village in Baliya, somewhere near the Bihar border in UP. He has not done any other job before other than working in the fields.

He told me he was eating food from a distant relative’s place as he did not know how to cook. I chuckled as I knew that now he was forced to work in a dhaba ( a way side hotel) as he could not find any other work. He gave me a shy smile and said he had not started cooking there yet. He was helping with the delivery.   

He became enthusiastic when I asked him about his wife. She was a year or two younger to him and did all the work in the house.

I knew he had a son and a daughter, so in a chiding tone asked him whether it was not a burden to have two kids so early in life. To my astonishment, he withdrew his eyes to look down and with a bashful smile said, “Theesra parson paida hua ma’am.”

His youngest son was born a day before. Thanks to the cell phone revolution, he was informed of the birth of his son immediately. Seeing my accusing eyes, he shrugged and said that he is helpless as he has to listen to his elders. Being the youngest son, the responsibility of his parents is on him. His elder brother stays in far away Delhi. He was asked to marry at the age of 15 as there was no girl in the house to help his mother. He got a son and daughter but his father wanted him to have another son; the reason being the one stated in the beginning. On needs to have two eyes!! 

It’s like keeping one in reserve! Wishful thinking or foolish hope?

Coming to my eyes...

I asked my elder son Udai once, “Will you take Amma and Achan with you wherever you go?”

“Why?” he asked, “You have Varun!”

I turned to Varun and asked the same.

He was quicker. “I will send you money every month. Just tell me how much you want!”