Durga - the short story on one life.

This happened in a village. A village in West Bengal.

And I have not acknowledged this for last 35 years.


When I started to look at her she was terribly malnourished and she face was pale with exhaustion. She was thin, weak and malnornished.  Poverty had ravaged her body.

I was quite sure that if I didn't help her then, she would have died. The girl was barely 5-6 years old. But she looked 4.
So I did. 

And as I took her to a local government hospital no one helped me.

But they didnt stop me either. I could see in their eyes that they wanted to stop me. Let her die.

When she was getting medical help, I asked around to know why did the villagers were not helping that girl.

They said she was illegitimate child, she had a father who had disowned her.

Something had changed in me and it was forcing me to act. 

I choose that day to help her.

It was bound to be difficult. I was a bachelor and my family was conservative.
I had to keep all my social contacts intact and yet I had to help her. 



"Life seems one hopeless struggle after the other. But it can be more ... unloved and uncared. Yet life can succeed by living and living well. If life is given a opportunity to do so" Thats what this story is about.

This meant bringing her to my city was not an option.

I decided to raise her by keeping her safe and yet distant from me.

I named her - Durga. With a help of an NGO and a few well wishers I got her admitted to boarding school. All her needs were taken care off. Except one.

She was officially an orphan. Through her educative years she was never told that who was taking her care.

She did ask of course but was never told. She had seen me when I had transported her to the hospital and she when that I was someone who did not know bengali. And in her college days, I came to know for a fact that she was searching for me.


And I lived my life as I wanted, responsible for her and yet detached. I got married, had kids of my own and those kids were now in school.

It was a perfect world for me until the day she found me.

She hoped that I will accept her like my daughter but I was still, after all these years not welcoming.

So she left me alone.

20 years passed. All my communication to find her whereabouts stopped.  She was lost, as in I had now no idea where she was. 

Then one day I happened to see her again. Not personally but on a magazine cover. She was now a Top manager in a big MNC. 

Not only that she was responsible in exposing a big scam and help the country in the process.
I felt proud but instantly I felt ashamed. I had never been there for her even though she would not have lived - with out me. 

Like I said at the start, I have not admitted it for last 35 years. 
Its time now for me to acknowledge her.