Jewel-less Crown: Saga of Life - BS Murthy (polar express read aloud txt) 📗

an inclination for social service in us. And we have the backing of wealth to indulge in that pursuit.”

“How do you think we should balance our life and our wealth?”

“Isn’t it said that charity begins at home?” he said. “I see that I can play a positive role in industry by taking back the Ocean Organics. And as opportunity would have it, the lease is to end soon enough. Besides, I would like to expand Sneha Travels. That way, I can to strive to realize my self-worth. You too can work at your kuchipudi for your own fulfillment. In due course, who knows, we may even attract donations to build many Shanti Sadans and Sneha Gruhas.”

“Yet I’m afraid lest wealth should rob me of my innate sensitivity,” she said hugging him. “I have a reason to fear for that as well. I have an aunty like there was none before that is until they turned well-heeled. I had seen the wrinkles of conceit affect the beauty of her soul and in the end she turned blind to the values that made her what she was. Now that she has lost her simplicity of purpose, she no longer values the company of the genuine. Instead, she surrounds herself with the so-called successful for whom once she had nothing but contempt. Oh, how her riches made her poor indeed! And seeing the ugliness of her soul, I used to gloat that my fate didn’t condemn me to riches. But now, my life threatens to bring about the worst of fates on that score for me.”

“I’ll tell you how your fears could be but liars,” he said cajoling her. “I too have a cousin from a humble background who made it really big in life. And the money drove away whatever insecurities he might have nursed for his lack of means till then. Now, sitting on the mountain of a moolah, he’s humility personified, and what is more, he sees the true potential of his wealth to bring smiles to his associates and others. I’m sure our wealth would enrich your soul and not the other way round.”

“I see in that the spirituality of materialism,” she said as though she got the revelation.

“Let it rule our hearts,” he said, “and souls as well.”

“Enough with the lessons of life,” she winked at him. “I need some lessons of love as well.”

 

Episode 11

Sense of Reincarnation

 

Letting Vidya have a view of the classrooms of love, Suresh took her round Misty Nest.

“How I wish guruji joins us,” she said as they entered Gautam’s room.

“I did talk to him about it, but he wants to be left alone,” he said, and added mysteriously, “but I see a way to entice him back into our midst.”

“How?” she asked playing the innocent.

“I know you’re no babe,” he said smiling, “at least after that.”

“Why lose time?” she pushed him towards his room.

“Who would like to,” he pulled her ardently, “with a willing mate?”

In their unity of purpose, they were united once again.

“Show me your mother’s room before you take me again,” she said, as she came out of the bath in her lingerie.

“What a way it is to indicate one’s want!” he said smiling .Holding her hand, he led her towards Senha’s quarters.

“Though I have seen that album,” she said, as they were on their way, “never did I imagine a house could be as fabulous!”

“Seeing you in your sari,” he said admiringly, “neither I did imagine you’ve such a curvaceous a figure!”

As they entered Sneha’s room, they kneeled in reverence before her painting.

“Do you know why I am so confident that riches cannot corrupt me?” he said, with a choking voice. “It’s my mother’s last wish that I make a difference to my life and to the others as well. As you know, if not for her sacrifice, I would have been dead and gone long back. So I feel it’s my sacred duty to fulfill her last wish till the very end.”

“I respect your feelings,” she said, moved by their mutual feeling, “and make your cause mine own.”

“I’ll cherish you all the more for that,” he said taking her into his arms.

“I hope I’ll be able to give you a beautiful daughter like her,” she said prognostically, “so that we can name her Sneha.”

“Can there be a better inducement for my father to join us?” he said, hoping for the eventuality.

‘Could there be a better place to conceive?’ she said pushing him on to the bed.

So he pulled her into his embrace as though in agreement. At length, her orgasmic convulsions occasioned his ejaculation amidst their prognostic feeling of conception. Moved by their sentiment, they made it the master bedroom for all time to come.

When her pregnancy was confirmed shortly thereafter, to greet the new arrival, she plunged herself to ground a Sneha Gruha by acquiring a plot for the proposed orphanage near their Mehrauli House.

When Gautam heard about the developments at the home he had abandoned, he couldn’t remain indifferent for long. While he was thrilled about his daughter-in-law’s confinement, he felt grateful to her for her keenness in commemorating Sneha’s memory.

As Vidya’s delivery time neared, Gautam developed a premonition that Sneha would reincarnate herself, and thus awaited the arrival of his granddaughter. And a week ahead of the child’s expected arrival, he felt out of sorts during his discourse that forced him to end it midway. Feeling uneasy all through the evening, he skipped his meal and retired early to bed. Failing to manage a wink past midnight, he impulsively reached for his trunk and picked up the album. Staring at Sneha’s pictures adoringly for long, he was overcome with love and sorrow. At length, feeling at ease, he believed his unease should’ve been induced by the birth pangs of Sneha’s reincarnation as Vidya’s daughter. Closing his eyes with a rare sense of inner peace he had never experienced before, he let sleep overwhelm him in time.

Waking up cheerfully, he awaited the news of the new arrival. But, it was only towards the evening that the confirmation came by telegram—the birth of a girl midnight the previous night. Elated at the development, he was convinced that Sneha had indeed signaled her arrival telepathically to him. In time, he turned sentimental on that count and came to believe that she had forgiven him after all. As that thought gave him an immense relief, he was seized with the desire to espy his wife in her reincarnated shape. However, he tried to control his emotions and sent a message of congratulations to the happy couple suggesting the baby’s barasala be performed at Vanaprastham.

When Gautam's telegram was delivered to them at the Nithya Nursing Home, the happy parents were in seventh heaven.

“How she resembles my mother!” Suresh said for the nth time.

“We can expect guruji to get glued to her,” Vidya repeated parrot-like.

“I hope after her barasala at Annavaram, Delhi would be on his radar,” he wanted to believe what he said.

“Now I can see the change in him,” she said fuelling his hopes further. “How he used to detach himself over the years!”

“Let’s hope it’s that way,” he sighed in hope. “How I wish he lives with us.”

Spending five more days in the nursing home with his wife and the newborn, Suresh drove them home that evening. Seeing the Gautam waiting in the portico for them, the couple couldn’t comprehend their position. But, recovering their wits quickly, they jumped out of the car ecstatically. Even as Suresh bowed at his father’s feet instantly, Vidya put the baby in the right hands, and followed suit.

“I had a premonition about Sneha’s reincarnation,” said Gautam without taking his eyes off the child.

“It could be so for all the resemblances,” said the gratified parents.

“Now I’m sure it’s she,” said Gautam with finality.

“Glad you’ve come to share our joy,” said Vidya.

“Let’s go in,” said Gautam, still looking at the child. “I’ve come to stay for good as it’s my dharma to guide her to moksha.”

The joyous yells of Suresh and Vidya that greeted his statement made Gautam realize he had come back to where he really belonged. And little Sneha opened her misty eyes as though impelled by an urge to see for herself the joyous welcome her reincarnation occasioned at Misty Nest.

 

Epilogue

 

Over time, with the assorted pursuits of the Prabhu clan, as they came to be known in time, Misty Nest became a beehive of activity.

Gautam, in his new avatar in New Delhi, came to be revered as Gautam guru for his erudition and piety. And to attune the old to the new world, he conceived a home for the aged. And to obliterate its past stigma, he chose their Mehrauli House, renamed Gautam Home, for its premises. While conducting dharmic discourse at Misty Nest, he tended the aged at ‘Gautam Home’ with equal felicity. Feeling equally at home in the opulent bungalow and the austere old-age home, he purveyed the activities of various charitable trusts set up by Suresh.

Suresh, in time, developed a passion for the educational reforms—he felt the need to help equip children to chart their future course on an even keel. He came to believe that the basic knowledge of psychology would help avoid human follies. So he began a crusade with the government to include human psychology in the school curriculum. And to demonstrate his commitment and prove his point, he pioneered the cause by starting a couple of schools all by himself. And to get into the position of strength to influence the system, in time, he enlarged his industrial base as well. And not to lose sight of his past, he ordained that their establishments observed his mother’s birthday as the Rededication Day.

Vidya Suresh, who soared to the kuchipudi heights with her graceful steps, in time, came to confine herself to tend fresh crops of talented dancers. With a sense of purpose, she ensures that Misty Nest remained a fulfilled home for her family and the students of her academy alike.

Sneha Prabhu, and Sripada Prabhu, her brother who followed her, got a proper passage into adolescence. After all, their childhood was a mixture of their grandfather’s approbation and the reproaches of their parents. In time, they came to polish themselves as the jewels of the home, resplendent in their appeal and aptitude.

Gautam never ceased to believe that his granddaughter was the reincarnation of his wife and so did Suresh and Vidya. Just the same, they took care neither to burden the young soul with that revelation nor by being differential to her on that account. But, as she grew up, when Sneha began to exhibit the mannerisms of her grandmother, for Gautam and Suresh it was the vindication of their belief.

When all observed at length that she got morose on Sneha’s birthdays and remained reflective on her death anniversaries, Vidya thought it was foolproof. And as the young child remained tranquil on her own birthdays, they came to believe that Sneha, during her sojourn in heaven, might have realized the futility of vanity in life. After her maturation, when the young Sneha desisted from entering the master bedroom, the elder’s knew the relevance of the same to their reverence of the dead woman.

As if to spare Gautam the dilemma of interacting with a womanly Sneha, fate took him away from his earthly abode on her eighteenth birthday, but not before he contributed the “Addendum to Evolution: Origins of the World’ to the world of thought that Suresh recovered from his personal affects. And it read thus:

 Creation vs. Evolution

One might approach this postulation as an addendum to evolution for it comes in the wake of the great works of the past. It would seem logical that any proposition about evolution cannot bypass the idea of creation, buttressed with a religious belief by those closer to the beginnings of life. Just the same, though all religions propagate the word that God created the world, nevertheless their scriptures differ about