For Her, Not Me

"I have to speak up, I can’t keep quiet." Neetu went to her husband and said firmly, "I want my daughter to pursue her ambition of writing. She had always won accolades in school in all her writing competitions. Now when she wants to pursue her career in this field, why aren’t we allowing her? I will take a break for a few hours daily and would help her with all the editing. I am going ahead with the publishing of her book." She came out without listening to him.

Neetu, Suresh and their teenage daughter Sia were a happy family. With their full nine hours job six days a week, both had left no stone unturned to give her a luxurious living. Suresh always wanted Sia to have an interest in the technical field, but she was inclined towards literature since her childhood. Neetu had sensed this in the very beginning of her schooling when Sia won an essay writing competition in her fourth standard. She saw her own image in Sia that day, but she kept quiet owing to the concerns about her future.

Neetu was a software designer always longing to have a book authored in her name. Somehow, she couldn’t express her wish to her parents. She successfully completed her graduation in software engineering and got married to a loving husband. She got blessed with Sia and resumed her job after six months. In the entire hustle-bustle, she never got the time and had slowly forgotten her wish overlooking it as her childhood fairy dream.

Today, while she was cleaning Sia's room, she accidentally saw her secret diary of words. Sia had penned all her poems in a wonderful diary with dates and special mention just like she used to do it long back. She could not stop tears flowing her eyes. She recalled how two years ago after Sia's class tenth board exams, she expressed her wish to go into the literary field, but it could not get much attention. She had decided, "This is the right time. What she could not accomplish, her daughter would surely do. She won’t let her daughter face the same block and curb her dreams as she did to herself."

Two months later, Neetu proudly heads to Sia's room to present her the gift of her secret diary. It was in the form of a published book as her eighteenth birthday present. She also had an invitation to attend her youngest solo author award by the Literary Society of India. She imagines herself walking along the aisle with a round full of applause. Her happiness seemed no bounds when she saw Suresh at her back with a box. She peeped and saw a beautiful birthday cake with Sia’s first book cover printed on the cake.