short story The Last Salvation

5) The Last Salvation

       This story has been written by R.P.Sisodia who was originally from Rajasthan and joined IAS in 1991 and since 1993 he has been serving in the Andhra Pradesh. The present story has been selected from his collection of short stories titled ‘A world Lost and other stories’, the author has depicted the harsh reality of the modern world where parents are treated badly. Children forget all their sacrifice and love and care. In the present story, author describes how a modern is illtreated b her son and daughter-in-lows.

The story has been described by the narrator who is the son of the motibai. The locale is that of Rewari village in Haryana. The story opens with a scene before 40 years when motibai, her husband and two children lived in a mud-plastered hut. 

     The narrator was a six month baby at that time. It rained drenching the hut. There was no dry place to sleep. The child started crying to inform the mother about the situation who wake-up and searched for a safe place for 9the baby. She found one small dry patch fit for the size of the baby. Motibai suffered from intense fever but she was satisfied that she could protect the baby. Motibai went on working next day even during her illness.

       The scene changes then. After forty years everything has changed. Rewari too has got many facilities. People have progressed too. Narrator was now a husband and the father of the one child. His mother motibai was old coughing all the times as she suffered from T.B.Bharati was the wife of narrator.

     Motibai had to live in the corner of the courtyard in a hut. Bharati sent her out of the house because she could not sleep when motibai was coughing all night. Bharati cursed her mother-in-low all the time. Bharati sent rotis and onion to motibai through her son raghu. She never allowed raghu to sit with his grandmother.

      Once motibai sent a message with raghu that she wanted to bathe at the confluence of holy rivers during the kumbh before dying. The narrator put the proposal fearing that bharati will disagree but to his surprise, the next day she showed her readiness to go with motibai.

     They all went to Allahabad. It was cold January and nobody except highly religious people would think of taking bath in the Ganga. Motibai was very happy. They reached Allahabad and decided to spend night on the riverbank only. At night all slept peacefully except the narrator. Suddenly at midnight bharati awoke him and declared her wish to return home. The narrator was surprised. He could not understand how could they go without bathing? But bharati went on insisting. She knew that motibai would not be able to survive. She wanted her to stay there forever. She left the mat and rug for her mother-in-low showing that she was generous.

     The narrator proved to be an absolute unworthy son as he did not object to the intentions of bharati. He noticed utter relief on the face of his wife. Here, there is a big question of morality and goodness of human being.