A New Path

               It was the time of early morning. Naveen was praying in his room. His pray was being disturbed by the sound of patriotic slogans coming from somewhere far away. His father cried, “They have nothing to do except shouting early morning. They have disturbed my sleep.”

  The sound was gradually increasing. Naveen stopped praying and began preparation of going office.

  Naveen was a head clerk in the office of city collector, living in his home in the street of the city along with his father, mother, younger brother and sister.

 Now the procession was passing through the street. Naveen opened a window curiously and looked out. To his surprise, Tara was leading the procession. She was shouting patriotic slogans.

“Look brother, what Tara is doing! She will have to pay dearly for this,” his sister said to him.

He said nothing to her and closed the window and went out of the room.

 

               He could not concentrate on his work in the office. Thoughts about Tara were wandering in his heart. He and Tara had loved each other from his college life. They wanted to get married and their parents had no objection to this marriage. All was going well in their love life and they were happy and were planning for their happy future. And all of sudden, there came a problem in their love life.

               Those days, India was struggling for freedom from British rule. Thousands of people were fighting and sacrificing their lives to get freedom. National leaders and their thoughts were motivating thousands of youths to join in the movements for freedom. Naveen kept himself from these movements. The British government and its policies were good in the opinion of Naveen and millions of people like him because they were getting benefits from British rule.

On the other hand Tara had a membership of a patriotic group that was fighting for freedom. She was impressed with Mahatma Gandhi.

               And the time came when Gandhiji began civil disobedience movement. Soon the movement spread all over India and reached its peak.

                One day, when they met, Tara said to him, “I am going to take part in the movement. You too should take part in the movement.”

He looked at her with surprise and anger and shouted at her, “not to speak of my taking part in the movement, even you need not to take part in the movement.”

She said, “Why shouldn’t I take part in the movement?”

He said, “Because you will have to pay dearly if you take part in the movement.”

She said with boldness, “I don’t care of results. I will fight for freedom. Freedom is our birthright.”

He stared at her and said, “As you wish.”

Tara’s parents too were against her taking part in the movement.          

 

Over that issue, their differences became so intense that the conversation between them came to an end. But he still loved her and Tara too loved him. He still wanted to marry her. Tara hoped that a day would come when their motherland would get freedom from British rule and then there would be no need for any movement. All of their dreams would come true.

               And then happened what he feared. One day the movement turned violent and police opened the fire on the mob. Many were killed and injured in police firing. Tara was missing after the firing. Her parents were searching for her desperately. Naveen too was searching for her. Weeks had passed but she was still missing. One day the news of her being in jail came. Naveen and her parents rushed to jail to meet her but they were not allowed to meet her. And at last Naveen somehow taking help of one of his friends who was a police inspector in the police department, managed to bail her out of jail. She was tortured badly by police. Seeing her condition, he felt sorry for her. He felt anger against British rule for the first time in his life. The movement was in full swing.

 

                               One day Naveen was going to the office. The road was jammed due to the Prabhat Phery passing through the road. He got off his bicycle and began to walk on the side of the road. Tara was leading the mob. His eyes caught the sight of the Tara but he began to look away to avoid her. The mob was shouting anti-British slogans. All of sudden some people began pelting stones on the police. In retaliation, police began canning and firing on the mob. Although Naveen was not included in the mob, some policemen caught him and began to drag and beat him. He could not bear the pain and got unconscious. But before being unconscious his eyes had looked which was unbearable to him. Tara was being beaten brutishly. When he opened his eyes found himself in the hospital surrounded by his family members. They all were concerned for him. His father told him about the killing of several people in canning and firing. The hospital was filled with painful cries of injured people. He himself received several wounds and a fracture in a hand. Seeing all this, his heart filled with sympathy for victims and anger for oppressors. Tara was brought to the hospital in critical condition with minimum chances to survive. Seeing her condition he could not control himself and began to weep.

                 What happened to him, Tara and other people had made him think something seriously. After some days both he was discharged from the hospital. It takes Tara several weeks to recover. Now Naveen’s heart and mind were filling with the divine thoughts of self-respect and freedom.

               “After thinking a lot, I came to a decision of resigning my job and joining the movement for the freedom of our motherland,” Naveen said to Tara when one day they met in a social gathering. She looked at him with surprise and said, “Now we both together will fight for the freedom of our nation.” And they set out to the path of serving the nation holding each other’s hands.