The Bias

Chapter 26

He had won an interschool basketball tournament and was on top.of the world, this was his last year at school.Sidharth had absolutely loved his dad.He adored him and admired him.When his gad didn't answer, Siddharth took it as yet another busy day at work.He quickly git up and walked upstairs to tell her the same.He was closer to his mother, nut he knew she' d bee more happy if had done such a thing in academics.

Like a usual day, he wakled upto the door and opened it without knocking. The opened slowly, with a strange sound.What he saw was a scene forever fresh in his head.

His mother lay on the bed, with eyes closed, body turned paler and colder with blood having oozed out of her hand.There was no fresh blood flowing from her hand ,but the stain around the bed and the womans clothing was enough a proof

"Mom!", he yelled, screaming loudly, waking up any neighbors they might have had

"Mom!" He woke up with a jerk only to find his head in the woman's lap.He had been carelessly drunk so much that now his head hurt.

"Good morning!" ,she spoke calling one of the staff members

"Get him a lemonade!", she spoke to a staff member.

"Itna bhi kya ho gya, that you drunk so much!", Rita spoke looking at her son, as his fingers pressed over his eyes

"I am sorry!", he said turning his face to the itherside while is head still.placed in her lap.

"Kis liye?.",

"Pata nahi mom! Aisa lag raha hai, that I am going to hurt everyone."

"Kisne bola?" ,she hit his head playfully."huh?"

"Aise hi feel aata hai!"

"Baat kar fir hurt nahi karega! Agr tu usko bolega nahi toh woh samjhe gi nahi. Aur agr tu usko samjhe ga nahi toh accept kaise karega?" Rita spoke in a reference to what he had not spoken a word about.

"She's stubborn mom! Ajeeb si ziddi.But uski zidd kisi aur se nahi h, that's to herself. I find her so full of love and spontaneity, fir bhi kabhi the way she behaves to herself scares me. Mom, can a person who is not kind to herself be kind to others, a person who is not forgiving to himself be forgiving to others?",he spoke pulling his mothers hands into his hair, pressing her fingers along his scalp.The fingers of a mother in a scalp could soothe a hundred year old, Siddharth was still very young.His brain knew the deal they had with each other.None of them would walk into each others territories. WE would forever belong to the world of dreams. He remembered her words and his promise to her.Still his heart could not accept, it didn't want anything from.her,but it pained when ge saw her in misery.His heart understood that it couldn't ease her, if it didn't know her story.He tried all, all correct things and yet he failed.She couldn't trust him

"Nahi! A person who cannot love himself can cannot love others.But more essential is that a person who doesn't trust himself cannot trust others.But that doesn't happen easily, it happens when all that you have trusted all along fails you."

"Pta nahi mom.I want to be there for her,but woh rehne nahi deti. I tried to be there with her,but its not easy.Woh hone hi nahi deti, its not easy being with her."

Rita's guess about her don was right. She knew her son, Sidharth wasn't the most patient man to be around.He had been raised with love and protection, all his demands and conditions having being met.He wasn't used to taking tantrums.Shehnaaz could easily wear someone out.And it wouldn't take Sidharth long to get tired of her.