“It’s so messy. At least keep the table clean,” cringed Aman with bag still on his shoulder, while Lily cajoled her prodigal daughter. “Can’t help! They eat up all my time,” Lily winced. “Finish up fast,” she said to Yaman, her son pitching her tone. Aman went inside while Lily prepared snacks. She wanted to be with Aman but had to settle the children too. As she entered the children’s room, she saw Yaman yawning and playing with the lead of his pencil while his book lay open in front of him. She shouted and sat with him to get his work done. It took almost an hour. She went back to her room and saw that the snacks still lay on the table while Aman worked on his laptop. “Please have some fruits, at least” Lily said. Aman frowned, “Oh you, your food and children!” Days passed and the relationship grew bitter. For Aman, Lily was a homemaker and he could not understand, how home and children could mess so bad when Lily has resigned from her well paid corporate job. Off and on Lily kept trying to fuel up the relationship but it had gone off track. On their twelfth anniversary, Aman filed a petition for divorce and it became difficult for Lily to understand. She still hoped that things would improve after all he had loved her so much. Though she was terribly disturbed but didn’t speak. She knew her parents would blame her and ask her to retry. Meanwhile Aman revealed his extra-marital affair and plans to remarry. He asked the children to choose between mom and dad. Her world tousled and for hours she thought of committing suicide. But the thought of children stopped her, “How could she trust another lady, who had already ruined her life?” The next morning when she opened the window, she felt an urge to go out for a walk. She went out and as she walked she realized the loneliness of every creature, yet the Mother Nature nurtured all.  She felt a surge of strength. Suddenly, a thought crept, “I will nurture my babies too.” She called her father, who could understand her gloomy face and said, “You look awful! Come if you want to!” It was indeed a surprise. She never thought that her parents, who had preached to love and adjust had just called her. That day, she dared to move out, from a place where she was only blamed. She reached her parental home and the moment she embraced her father, she met the most unlikely person in him. A father who didn’t ask her daughter to go back and adjust, a father who wanted her princess to be happy, a father who was retired but had courage, a father who wanted to stand strong behind her like a shade. Hardly did she notice that her father had learnt from numerous suicides. “But she had gathered all the strength she needed to breathe fresh.”

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