Back Biter

Nowadays most people prefer to live in housing societies or prefer community living. The main reason is such Societies have all the required facilities in addition to the company of many other families which may be a plus in some cases while it can be a minus in other cases. This story tries to cover the positive and negative aspects and the impact they might have on our lives Shikhar and Namrata were very happy the reason being Shikhar had got a promotion recently and he would get a pay hike as well. All good. But, there was a small glitch which came in the form of a transfer order to a big city in Gujarat. They would have to look for a house, School for their kids and every nitty gritty that comes along with this change Anyways they were ready to go and settle down in the new place. After the packing was finished and the rest of the formalities completed they started to Baroda the new place they would stay from then on. On reaching Baroda they checked into the accommodation provided by the New firm and were relaxing. After a couple of days, Shikhar started checking the city and found that many housing societies were in and around his new Office. The Societies were well planned and inhabited thereby giving a good feeling to Shikhar and his family.

They selected an apartment on the 2 floors of a. Big Housing society and shifted into it on an auspicious day. They completed all the required formalities and were comfortable with the new abode      Daily routine started with Shikhar attending his new Office, children Ved and Tanisha were busy with their new School and studies. Namrata was busy setting up her new home and its attachments. She even friended a few of her new neighbours who seemed to be cordial and friendly.     With life running at a high pace Namrata had to attend to her Children's studies and homework. Apart from that she always took care that her children would even have some extracurricular activities that would make them much better physically and mentally. Ved and Tanisha were already into music classes and karate. But, now they wanted to learn painting too. After a bit of enquiring, Namrata came to know that a resident of the same Society who stayed a floor above Namrata was into teaching how to paint. Many kids had already enrolled on it. This was the positive aspect. On the other hand, there was a neighbour who was very cunning and a back-biter. She was always bothered about what others were doing whether it was the food they are, the clothes they wore, who they mingled with etc. She even had this bad habit of spreading rumours about as many as she could in the Housing society. Most of them avoided her as she never repented for her actions whatsoever. She comfortably lied about others' lives and used to enjoy if they were troubled.       . . .                  

On getting to know Namrata she cautioned her not to say her daughter and son to the painting class citing the reason that the son of the painting teacher was mad and he may be a threat to her kids. Which mother would not be terrified of hearing this? But Namrata wanted to check the reality before jumping to any conclusions...She went upstairs to the flat where her children had gone to learn painting. On ringing the bell the lady of the house Mrs Mukherjee opened the door and welcomed her inside. She was made comfortable and was asked to sit. On observing the room Namrata found many kids along with her children were painting on plain sheets of paper. She somehow felt Mrs Mukherjee had an idea as to why Namrata had come there. She quietly went into the kitchen on the pretext of getting some tea for Namrata. While waiting a beautiful girl came out of the bedroom and sat next to Namrata while at the same time a young boy may be in his late teens came and sat opposite Namrata. Both of them were smiling pleasantly. Mrs Mukherjee walked in with a cup of tea and introduced her children to Namrata. They say for some time and went to their respective rooms saying they had some work to be completed.          

Then Mrs Mukherjee said " They are my son and daughter both studying engineering. Last year my mother-in-law passed away due to Covid. My son was very much attached to his grandmother and he could not get over this loss. We took him to a counsellor who did a good job and my son is slowly getting to normal as you saw him. Mrs Suma our good neighbour (pun intended) is spreading the news that my son is mentally unsound. Be assured there is no such issue. Your children are safe here so no need to worry. Let them learn to paint well.     

While getting down the steps Namrata came across Mrs Suma the back-biter who was on a mission to damage someone else's peace of mind. Namrata countered her for what she did to others at their back. Mrs Suma was shocked at this face-off and Namrata just left at that. Mrs Suman slowly collected herself and almost ran to her place.   For a few days, everything was okay. Almost quiet we can say. The back-biter seemed to be cautious with Namrata's advice rather than a warning. But, a week into these Neighbours of. Mrs Suma came to know that she was affected by the pandemic cOrona and she was in the bed. Her grandson who was a young kid was terrified seeing his grand ma on the bed and in her own words she expressed how scared and terrified he was so was behaving a bit insane. Mrs Suma apologised to Mrs Mukherjee for the backbiting she had done about her son behaving insanely when his grandmother passed away. She realised what passes through one's mind in such a situation. It was a big eye-opener for her. Anyways she learnt a lesson at least in a hard way not to tarnish anyone's image or backbite someone.