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Reading is important

Reading is important because you may not know when one idea will change

your entire life and put you in the cross roads where from every thing will turn

good and you become a better one. I was about to enter into guest house when

this man came running and knocked my door.

'Sir your Innova bears a Maharashtra registration number, are you from

Mumbai ?' , he was panting for breath.

Yes , of course why ?

'Sir, I am Sibal from Pune , KSS Pumps, working in new project. I'm first time

in this plant', Sibal extended his hand.

I introduced myself and ushered him into the drawing room. Sibal seem to

struck to my surname.

'Are you not Marathi ?', He was actually very skeptic now.

Of course I'm from Maharashtra only by birth I'm Bengali . Then I told him

how I've been in Mumbai for 8 years.

He seem to be little relaxed now and then asked about the road and rail route

for reaching Mumbai from Vindhyanagar. I called coffee for both of us.

Seeing my collection books he was overjoyed. He too was a good reader.

Slowly he opened up himself and then told me so many things about himself ,

his cute little daughter Tania and his loving wife and how a few lines from a

book changed his life.

----- ----- ------ ----- ------ ------

Sibal was from a well-to-do family in Pune. His father was a very reputed

headmaster in a small mofusswal town of Pune. Sibal was the eldest son of

three. He got good education and then landed in a good job with a very reputed

firm at Pune.

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Like many other Marathi he was very homesick and avoided going out of Pune

for job therefore , he was not growing much in his position until one day his

company forced him to come to this place with promotion. His wife is a

working woman with the sate government therefore, she had to be at Pune with

their one and half year old daughter .

Now coming to this remote place of Vindhyanagar every moment Sibal misses

his cute little daughter Tania and his loving wife. The daughter has now learnt

to utter a few words too.

His actual story is centered around this little Tania.

Sibal was a very timid and introvert personality. His parent wanted to marryhim to a good family. So they started searching for suitable alliance. One girl

they liked in the neighborhood and they zeroed on that family.

Since the alliance was accepted in both the families and the marriage date was

set up after six months so they gave the couple liberty to move around and do

little courtship here and there.

Sibal madly fall in love with her. The girl was not so verbal but she acceptedthe courtship. As the date was approaching the arrangement for marriage took

off. In a typical Marathi family a conventional marriage means a huge number

of activities. The grand moms and the grand pas too had many important

functions to perform.

Two days before the final day Sibals family booked a marriage hall at the city

center . Sibal was in cloud nine. He was yet to fully possess her lady love. It

seems the marriage will remove all the restrictions.

But the day before, the hell broke loose. The lady ran away with a local guy

from the neighborhood. That was the boy who used to meet her on the way to

movie theater but Sibal never had any doubt. The lady even claimed that she

was bearing the child from that guy.

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He could not believe what was happening. The advance bookings , the

purchases , the invitations all were coming to naught. The huge social

ostracism for the family was quite unbearable for the reputation of his father.

The neighbors, the relatives and the invitees quickly understood the situation

and soon they fled the spot leaving the family high and dry.

It took the family a full week to unwind the preparations. Most of the advance

monies were lost . The family suffered a great social & financial losses besides

Sibal went into depression.

Every now and then he asked god why he was chosen for this punishment.

A full month he did not go anywhere. Many times he decided to end his life.

After a month he joined his duty and his boss took him Mumbai to a new

project to give him new responsibility and divert his attentions.

Somebody now forwarded him the story (email) of black American tennis

legend Arthur Ash who from a poor family rose to the glory of US open

champion & Wimbledon champion. He was considered to be the internationalbrand ambassador of tennis but while undergoing a surgery he was infected

with the HIV blood. Surprisingly later he never drowned into the 'why me'

syndrome or depression.

On a question answer session ,Arthur Ash once told the reporters that when he

lifted the Wimbledon trophy he never asked god why he was selected for that

honor then why should he ask god now why has he been chosen for that

terrible disease. The posture resulted Ash in more popularity than ever before.

Instead of Ash meaning for Tennis , Tennis became symbolized with Arthur

Ash.

The story did a great impact on Sibal. He slowly came out of depression. Eight

months later his family again fixed his marriage and he became married to this

new woman.

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But Sibal did not care much for his newly wed wife neither did he come home

on every week end. He behaved more like a stranger then a husband. The

conjugal life of the couple was in complete mess. Upset his wife took up jobs

in the local government office. After one and half year his wife became

pregnant and sweet Tania was born.

Somebody gave Tania in his lap to hold and the moment Sibal was holding

little Tania in his hand he suddenly remembered what Arthur ash once told

why should I ask god now for ....

In a blink of a second he understood how loving & caring his wife is and how

cute little Tania is. From the core of his heart he understood how a grudge on

one unfaithful woman he leashed on his innocent wife for no fault of her for allthese days.

Since that moment he changed into the most loving husband and father. His

blood pressure and sugar infested health changed track and started

improvement. He started coming home more often. The wife and daughter

became happier than ever in his presence.

The days moved on, then one day he was nominated for Vindhyanagar project.

While telling me his life story he told me those few lines of Arthur Ash was

responsible for the entire evolution of his personality. Every time he

remembers those lines he thanks the unknown sender who once forwarded that

email.

Now whenever he comes to Vindhyanagar he never stays beyond a few weeks

at a stretch. He misses his family every moment.

Last week he left for Pune again. We are now great friends.

S. Bera

Vindhyanagar

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