Read Online A Bend in the River of Life by Budh Aditya Roy - Free Book Online

decision before coming that he would not say or do anything impolite that might hurt his mother’s feelings.
    Rana brought some homework for his school that he was required to submit on Monday. While he was busy completing them in the evening, Monika came with some gifts that she had handcrafted herself for Rana. They were a set of tablecloth for Rana’s study table embroidered beautifully in the middle and at the corners and half-a-dozen handkerchiefs with nice designs on the three corners and the initials of his name on the other. Rana thanked her as he would do to Rajani. She asked him questions about his school and the Garden Lakes house. He responded them respectfully. She then talked about her brothers, nephews and nieces. Rana never knew them. Nonetheless, he listened to her patiently without any comments. Among few other things Monika also mentioned that Sheila, Kamala and Devika came to see her there. Dinner was served shortly. After dinner the women got busy with some more family talks. But it wasa long day for Rana. He was drained out mostly because of the stress related to his efforts to accommodate Monika in his mental frame.
    Next morning, Rajani and her sisters planned to go for shopping at a near by market. Rajani asked Rana if he would like to go with them or stay with his mother. He felt no compulsion to stay with his mother. So he went with them. On returning home from shopping everyone else got busy performing their daily chores. Rana decided to spend that valuable time in the reassuring presence of his octogenarian great-grandma Nandini. Sensing her days were numbered, he wanted to reap rich harvest of the bounty of her precious mind.
    In the late afternoon, the departure time approached invariably. Rana took leave of Nandini, Sarojini and Padmini. Monika began sobbing. She kissed Rana’s forehead and bit his right little finger to shoo away the evil from touching her son! However, there was no respite for her from the punishment handed down to her by the Architect of the River of Life for her excessive ego and dereliction of duties. The River of Life is understanding and accommodating on the one hand, but unrelenting stickler of duties on the other. Monika might see her son soon and often, but was destined to serve her punishment to the last minute.
    Rajani and Rana came back to the Garden Lakes house. He felt sorry for his mother as he would for anyone else under similar circumstances. What else could he do? In his life that day will remain as a day to ponder, a day of reflection. All said and done, however, that day he was able to somewhat alleviate the drooping spirit of his mother, who had been non-existent to him almost all his life. At least he could give her a ray of hope that things might change for the better soon, the hope that was eluding her even the day before he went to see her.
    God created His planet earth and the River of Life. He handed down the laws to govern the planet earth to his greatest creation man as the driving force behind the River of Life. When life became complicated, the ruler man began framing laws that often deviatedfrom the laws given by God through His servant Moses in many ways. The reasons for the deviations were two: Firstly, it became difficult for man to understand and anticipate every nuance of life to cover each one of them in his legal framework; and secondly, man’s ego prevented him to acknowledge the laws given by God for he perceived himself as the ruler of the earth governing it all by himself. As a result, many finer points of life fell through the gap of the jurisprudence that the human lawmakers framed. The snapping of relationship between Amit and Monika in the wake of a flippant and meaningless feud was one of them. However, nothing slips through the laws of the River of Life. In it the governing laws are plain and simple and no one can escape its judgment even for a split second. Neither Monika nor Amit had any other alternative but to