Price of Money

Sushanto Basak My World November 18, 2023

There was a village called Goalpur. There lived a boy name Sabu. His family consisted of his parents, two brothers and a sister. Nimai and Sital were his parents. Lama was his younger brother. Sandhya was his elder sister. Sabu was the elder of the two sons. His father was a farm labourer. As the village was an agricultural one, the people had no shortage of food but they had not enough money for luxury. They lived a simple life but were happy.

Sabu and his brother and sister used to go to the local school.They were good in education. Sandhya gave up education after her schooling like the village children. So did Sabu and Lama. While Sandhya joined household work, Sabu and Lama joined the village workforce. Now their condition improved. One day, there came a marriage proposal for Sandhya from the next village Rakhalpur. The bridegroom was a farm owner's only son. The marriage proposal was approved and the marriage was held with traditional rituals. Sandhya went to her father-in-law's house.

Nimai and Sital thought that they had no problem in life. But the problem woke up at that time. Sandhya 's husband was a drunkard and gambler. He did not go to his farm works. His parents thought after marriage he would change but all hope went in vain. He continued his habits of drinking and gambling. Besides, he used to beat Sandhya everyday. One day, Sandhya got senseless, so beaten she was! Next day she went to her prents'house and told everything. Nimai and Sital became too sad, but Sabu and Lama got furious. They decided to beat their brother-in-law. Nimai calmed them. Instead he advised Sandhya to go back to her husband saying that after marriage "only a girl's caracas is taken out from her husband's house". So throwing he lot to fate, Sandhya returned to her husband. That day she had a sound beating. In course of time Sandhya had two daughters. When the daughters were of two and three years, Sandhya's husband died. This forced Nimai to bring Sandhya and her daughters home. After that all was going smoothly till Sabu was married.

One year later Sabu was married to Reena. her father was a farm owner. After marriage everybody of his family changed. As he used to give his earnings to his father before marriage, Nimai wanted Sabu to do the same after marriage also. He even threatened him to turn out of the house. On the other hand, Reena, Sabu's wife, wanted the money to save for their future.Sabu fell in a dilemma. He saw how the behaviour of his family members changed drastically. They used to taunt him, made his wife work day and night, humiliated always - all these used to pain him a lot. His mental agony sometimes would go unbearable. He always thought of the tormenting behaviour of his family members. He could not forget his sacrifice for this family and that used to torment him more.

"How fool I was", he always thought of himself. But he was an introvert. So, he could not tell anybody anything, even is own wife. One day, while coming from their weekly market he left his company to home. He looked very sad. On the way he stopped by a mango grove and looked this side and that.