This is NO LOVE STORY but still A LOVE STORY. It is a story of a brother who misses his sister whose soul departed to meet the almighty when she was just days away from her first birthday.
This story has been sent to us by Anil Kumar (name changed on his request) from Uttar Pradesh, who agreed to share this story only on the condition that his name would not be disclosed.
Anil is now on the course to become a Mechanical Engineer and you can find him sitting on the banks of Yamuna river, which is just about a walking distance. Silent and quite he just watches the river who took away his sister, not dead, but alive as no one from the village came for her rescue. Anil was too small that time, just 12 years, to fight the waves and his father and mother did not do much. He does not want to stay with his parents anymore and is waiting for the day he would complete his education and get a job.
Anil was in 7th class when his sister was born. He later came to know that this was not the second child his mother had conceived. It was rather 3rd-4th-5th, he does not know, but none of them could survive. He was told about the health problem and that is why the child could not survive in the mother’s womb. But the reality he came to know later, villages still thrive and struggle for boy child. Some how his this sister had to be borne or the mother could have been in danger. Anil named her “CHOTI”. She was very fair and eyes were always shinning and twinkling. As soon as she would see Anil, she would start making noise asking him to pick her and take her out of the house in fresh air.
Anil said he was just fond of her and used to play with her a lot. Spending time with her was like his life.
Days passed and she became very talkative, though he could never understood what she said, as she was still to find words. Anil was very excited as just few days later Choti was to celebrate her first birthday. But the destiny had something else in store.
On the fate-full day, they had all gone to celebrate a festival on the banks of river Yamuna and his mother was having dips in the riven. “Choti” was sitting nearby with no one around. Anil was too having dips with his father holding his hands tightly. “Choti” was also keen to join but was being continuously scolded by Anil’s mother. In just that scuffle “Choti” slipped from the stairs and fell in the river. The waves were very strong and she started crying. Anil was small and his father kept holded his hand so that he remains stationed. His mother stood still and his father only shouted for help. Before people could even hear, his father’s only subdued voice, “Choti” had gone far, too far.
Anil says, “I dont believe she would be dead, I only live with this faith that she would be alive somewhere, as river Yamuna would have saved her”. Anil hates his father and mother who did nothing to save “Choti” and that is the reason Anil has decided that he would leave the house once he gets a job.
Besides his studies, Anil spends his time educating girls in the nearby villages, most of them he calls “Choti”, and also takes classes in ‘Adult Education Camps’. Anil says, this is how he feels his “Choti” would be live forever. “India needs to grow and accept that girls have always done their parents proud”, says Anil.
Every day, Anil sits near the same place, sitting silent and only let the tears go, hoping to see some-thing that do not happen in miracles today.
You can only hear few words, “I MISS YOU SO MUCH….. CHOTI”.
