Women like Minu...

I had not seen Minu for many days. She used to come for a chat sometimes, but she had not been seen for quite some days. Her friend who lived on the opposite side of the lane saw me one day and on inquiring she told that Minu was not staying in the colony anymore, she had moved out with her daughter though she came two days in a week to give tuition to some children. I requested her to inform her that I wanted to meet her. And she did come. ‘Where did you go and why? Why didn’t you tell anything about it before leaving?’ I bombarded her with questions. Without least effort she told, ‘My husband came back from Dubai after twelve years! That’s why I moved to a bigger flat.’ I didn’t ask her anything about. Just expressed my sincere happiness. I understood what would have happened. Earlier, whenever I looked at her face, I used to be intrigued. She wore nothing. No ornaments, no bindi, and no vermillion in the parting… but she had a daughter, a big girl who was studying in college. I often felt like asking whether she was a unwed mother or separated from her husband. Whether she was divorced or was a widow? But I couldn’t muster courage to ask. I was afraid that she might feel hurt. That day, on knowing that she had a husband who had comeback to her, I felt truly happy, because as she was happy. I asked her if she felt no bitterness, no resentment towards her husband who ditched her twelve years ago leaving behind a ten year old daughter. She told she didn’t. She told that she had gone beyond any expectation and she was just happy that her daughter had got back her father. A young girl needs a father’s presence and that’s what was important. She told that she didn’t feel any resentment and in fact she had forgiven him completely. I looked at her very thin, pale but beautiful face. It was the face of a saint. I knew she had risen above the ordinary. At this level, nothing could have disturbed her peace. She went on to tell me how she lost her sanity after her husband had abandoned her with the daughter and had gone away. She had wanted to run away from everything, from known places, from family, friends and relatives, from everything familiar. She went to Delhi, requested a complete stranger for accommodation and had got shelter in their family. She did a job there too, for sometime. Later she migrated to Bangalore and worked in a school. With time, when sanity returned little by little and reality settled in, she came back to Bhubaneswar and settled down with her daughter. She started working in a school and made her students and her daughter her life. She channelized her loneliness and the energy of her youth in another direction.She started living for all the people who she came in contact with and developed a fellow feeling with the whole human kind. Thus she became love. Love that flows and only gives. Love that patiently understands and never thinks of being hurt and takes revenge or thinks negatively of anything or anyone. 

Minu’s is a sad story. There are sadder stories upon this earth. But people like Minu know how to love completely. True love forgives and accepts. It never thinks of causing harm, retaliating or taking revenge. It understands, forgives and forgets. True loves purifies our soul. It goes through pain and tears, but it elevates our conscious to a new height and ultimately liberates us. If only people could understand this, life on earth would be heaven.