June 25, 2011
Sophie was a very simple, quiet and innocent girl who had just finished her Class X and was waiting for her results. She was from a very poor family, her father worked in a carpentry shop earning a pittance and mother was a domestic servant. Her parents struggled to bring up their 7 children.
It was a sunny morning and Sophie was doing her housework as usual, when she heard her mother speak about her marriage proposal. Her eyes filled with tears when she heard that someone named Julian, a fish merchant 10 years elder to her wanted to marry her. She had just finished her X std and had a great desire to study further and become someone in life. She felt as if her dreams would remain dreams and never come true.
Days passed, months passed and her parents somehow took loans from others and got her married. She was married to Julian and her family life started. Julian was a stubborn and hot tempered person who used to smoke and drink every night and quarrel with Sophie at mealtimes. She worked hard all day and at night she had no peace. Not a day would pass without a fight. She would cry but nobody was there to listen to her sobs. Her father-in-law was a cruel person who used to hurt her with sharp words and curse her parents for no reason.
A few months later she realized she was expecting and was filled with joy over her pregnancy. She thought perhaps now her husband would be happy and her life would see a turning point. Months passed and she gave birth to a baby girl. It was the happiest moment of her life and soon she forgot her past days. Her husband came to meet her in the hospital but when he came to know that he had a girl he was not happy. He had expected a boy child. He considered the girl child a burden to the family and too expensive to look after. Sophie, who had waited for this day, was very sad to know that her husband did not want the girl.
In spite of her husband not caring for her or her baby she never let her child feel unloved by the father. She loved the child unconditionally and gave all the love of a mother as well as of a father. She would get up early in the morning and make breakfast for the family and then take care of her child. There was no one to give her postnatal care, or even to enquire over her well-being. Days passed, nights passed and everything was as usual for her. Every day her husband would quarrel and beat and curse her and her child and her parents for getting her married to him. In spite of all these tortures and beatings from her husband and her father-in-law she brought up her child. A year later she was pregnant again, and again gave birth to a girl. This time too Julian had expected a boy from her and the birth of the girl made him lose his mind. He never came to the hospital to see her or the baby.
Sophie cried a lot over her husband's rejection, yet she was happy and hugged her child and gave her lots of love. Now a proud mother of two daughters, she brought them up and gave them whatever their hearts desired. Both started going to school and as usual Sophie ignored whatever insults her husband hurled at her. Years passed and she gave birth to another baby girl and her husband went mad with anger and abused her, beat her and everyday got drunk and fought with her. Sophie would keep quiet and tolerate her husband. Her days passed hearing her husband’s shoutings and finally she was fed up.
One night she left her three daughters and without telling anyone she left the house. She went to a nearby river and stepped into it. She went on and on, deeper and deeper into the water, not in her senses anymore, and all of a sudden she had a vision of her three daughters calling her and beckoning her. She turned around and saw that she had gone deep into the river, but somehow she managed to go back to her house and saw her children sleeping in their room. She hugged them and cried inconsolably, and promised never to leave them alone ever again.
From then on she lived just for them. When she had another daughter her husband completely stopped talking to her and never saw his daughters. Sophie was very sad about it but she loved all her children and this little child was an angel for her. Days and years passed and life was as usual for her. She spent her life for her four daughters and finally she had a baby boy which made her husband a little happy, and somehow she managed with him. All four daughters finished their studies and settled down in life. She had given her children the life they deserved, and that's all that mattered to her.